"max out the gigs"
This post is hilarious.
Glad you liked it :D It felt good to write that rant. He actually did say he wanted to "max out the gigs" on his last machine. The only nice thing about him overbuying on his computers is they usually never feel slow, unlike my in laws machines. They buy whatever no name garbage laptop is on sale from Best Buy then overload it with antivirus software.
LOL @ "max out the gigs" - that's totally leet.
I can relate regarding your dad buying stuff and not knowing how to use any of it, as well as my in-laws buying the first thing they see.
My dad is a gadget guy - he buys all sorts of crap that he barely knows how to use. He recently just got a micro four thirds camera (Olympus EM10 Mark II) merely because I have a similar model (non-Mark II) and my brother has a Sony A6000. Then we see the pictures he takes and it's like "uh, do you even know how to use the camera?" - it's confounding. Then he asks me what telephoto lens I have because now he wants to get one - I just don't say anything, because saying anything will encourage him to buy more and I don't want to partake in him buying something I "recommended" and it ends up sitting around collecting dust or he ends up not happy with it because it's not good enough. He has at least 4-5 different laptops at home as well as several different tablets and probably 2-3 phones (Nexus 5x, Nexus 6p, and he was talking about how he ordered a Pixel a while ago). He also bought my mom an iPhone because for a while he was moaning about how they needed one for Facetime, so he went and bought her a used 5c and she initially complained about the small screen size. The thing about him is that he'll go and buy stuff that isn't even "top of the line", sometimes realizes the "limitations" and then complains and does multiple returns before deciding the most expensive one he would want is too expensive. This was the case when he finally decided to replace his wireless router to get better reception in the house (after harping and complaining to us that it was bad and that he needed us to crawl up in the attic to run an ethernet line). I told him to buy 2 or 3 AC routers and I would help him bridge them. So he goes and buys one of the cheapest routers and asks me to set it up - I tell him the reception still sucks and it's because of the layout of their house. He arbitrarily buys stuff he "thinks" will be good without actually researching anything, and is disappointed when it doesn't meet his expectations. Then he returns the item(s) and repeats the process with something else that still isn't good enough. It's pretty annoying. He did the same thing with 360-degree cameras, asking all of us which one he should get, when none of us are interested in or have 360-degree cameras. So he goes and buys whatever sounds good and then ends up going through 4-5 different returns before finding the one. I guess that makes sense if you're wanting to try stuff out, but he could avoid all that hassle if he would just read/research first. He's retired, so this is his "funny money." Anyway, my oldest brother's old bedroom has turned into my dad's storage room for all his gear and crap. I try to stay out of recommending anything to him anymore - he just keeps buying stupid crap that he doesn't need and barely uses. He's that one tourist you see on vacation who has like like 5 gadgets strapped around his neck/shoulders: his phone, second phone, 360-degree camera, GoPro, SLR, mirrorless, and point and shoot. It's quite embarrassing. LOL at the GoPro too - mine died from immersing it in saltwater without the right backing at the Monterey Bay aquarium. After he found out he was like "do you want to borrow mine?" and busts it out - I'm like "why do you, of all people, even have a GoPro?" Of course, there's never a good or justified answer, other than "oh you know. just in case. i just bought it. leave me alone"
My in-laws are nearly as bad... they would get suckered into buying the first thing they saw (and at premium prices) so once I learned they are susceptible to do that, I felt bad and suggested we could help them out, so we do now and it's not too big of a deal but it can be annoying with the subsequent support we have to provide. They had flip phones for the longest time, then all their friends started getting smartphones, and they caved to peer pressure and constantly begged us to buy smartphones for them. This was *after* moving them to cheaper plans where having a smartphone really doesn't make much sense. But we did it anyway and supposedly they were "so happy" about it because now they can be like their friends and show off pictures... makes sense I guess? But now when we see them they're hooked on their phones all the time. Yet they will only use them to take pictures, look at pictures, and use LINE. Last night my wife spent 20 minutes on the phone trying to teach her mom how to disable the camera flash. We also bought a laptop for my FIL that he didn't take good care of - my in-laws own/run a restaurant and he is one of the cooks, so he would often use the computer without washing his hands. Every time we would visit, the laptop was disgusting and grimy. I literally had to go through tons of wet naps + alcohol/cottonballs to clean the grease off each time. I don't know what he did with it too because at some point, something happened to the motherboard (he probably spilled something on it) and he went and got it repaired but the replacement had a bad USB port. We recently got him a refurb Dell Latitude after 6-7 years having that Inspiron so we'll see how this one holds up... he actually brought it over last week to show my wife an email (rather than forwarding the email to her....LOL!) and the bottom plastic cover was unhinged, as though he dropped it....! He denied this of course, as I proceeded to fix it. That reminds me about the 'indestructible' grade flip phones we bought them: one he managed to ruin by leaving it too close to a heat source (probably while cooking at the restaurant) and the other one he lost while on vacation in Taiwan.
Every time I think of my parents and my in-laws and technology, I just shake my head...