Viral video circles were buzzing this morning about a YouTube posting by a North Carolina father who shot his 15-year-old daughter’s laptop for mouthing off about her parents on Facebook.
“My daughter thought it would be funny/rebellious/cool to post on her Facebook wall just how upset she was and how unfair her life here is; how we work her too hard with chores, never pay her for chores, and just in general make her life difficult,” the pistol-toting dad, Tommy Jordan, wrote on YouTube, where his “tough love” video has garnered more than 21 million views.
“She chose to share this with the entire world on Facebook and block her parent’s from seeing it,” he continued. “Well, umm… she failed. As of the end of this video, she won’t have to worry anymore about posting inappropriate things on Facebook….”
While Jordan’s unorthodox parenting style may be new to YouTube, shooting computers isn’t. Here’s a sampling of some of the mayhem rained on computers captured by YouTube videographers.
Disaster Demo
Like Jordan, KeepGoing.Biz wanted to illustrate a point with its video. The company offers disaster recovery services. It wanted potential customers to think about what would happen if their computer systems suddenly went offline. What better way to do that than blasting a server rack to smithereens with automatic weapons?
Killing Time (and Computers)
Among the reasons for shooting computers is boredom. “Unholydarkenss” acknowledged that when he performed a series of experiments with a spud gun on an old desktop in his backyard.
I’ll Show You Thin
Apple has always had an obsession with thinness in its products, a fact that “Mykemaloney” parodies when he reengineers a Mac notebook with a firearm. Warning: this is not for Apple lovers with a faint heart.
Hardware Support
If you’re serious about fixing a problem with your computer, you might call an outfit like the Geek Squad. But for a computer that’s given you more grief than you can handle, you might want to call Bob, who likes to troubleshoot computers with a .357 Magnum.
Data Wiped. Seriously.
Finally, if you’re worried about how to handle of an old computer, the folks at RifleSopes.com recommend a .50 Browning Machine Gun, which they say “makes for quick and easy disposal of old computers that might have sensitive information on them.”
“It’s dirty work,” they add, “but someone has to do it!”
Follow freelance technology writer John P. Mello Jr. and Today@PCWorld on Twitter.