Computer Thrills

5:10 p.m. Friday, 4th march 2011

I was taking tea upstairs for my dad (it was sloshing in the cup quite a bit because I was very sleepy and zombie-like), and he started telling me about a medical rep. who comes to the hospital where he works. Mr. Rep's facebook account got hacked. Obviously, I instantly interrupted my dad, he should deactivate his account. But the story aparently wasn't so simple. Mr. Rep's hacker had, craftily, already changed the password to something of his liking so Mr. Rep was locked out of his own profile. So Mr. Rep sat down in front of his (flickering blue?) computer screen and began tapping out a message to the facebook authorities. Could they please put a restraining order on the guy? Or at least deactivate his account for him? The account got suspended and Mr. Rep breathed a sigh of relief. But a couple of days later, browsing for himself on facebook he comes upon his old profile, alive and functioning well enough and he was online! He hurriedly typed out an IM to the other Mr. Rep hoping to find a kindred soul. But he was disappointed. The hacker was thoroughly enjoying the situation and calmly informed him that he intended to use this profile for his own (villanous?) ends and that Mr. Rep should stop chasing after his own identity. Undaunted, Mr. Rep racked his brains and ultimately crept out (in the dead of the night?) to a CD store to find the 'Teach yourself how to become the ultimate hacker' CD. Then, hunched over with craftiness, a blood vessel popping in one sleep-deprived eye he rubbed his hands together gleefully and told my dad he was going to hack the hacker's hacked account in such a hackful way that the hacker would never have the nerve to hack anyone's privacy again. Then, chuckling in a mad, I-will-create-frankenstein sort of way he scurried down the corridor back home looking rather like a squirrel on a secret mission to gather nuts...

Yes, those are the pictures that went through my mind while my father was talking. Make of it what you can.

:)