Everyone does something stupid on their computer now and then. Like trying to open a file when it's already open. Or closing a document, and then choosing "Cancel" when Windows asks whether you want to save or not.
When you do, a yellow flag should shoot out onto the screen from one side, and then a football referee should come on, and in an official sounding voice (together with arm gestures), announce the situation in football-like terminology.
For example:
"Illegal operation by the user..." [hands on hips] "File is already in use..." [one finger pointing to open palm] "Access denied." [arms crossed on chest] -- phundug, Feb 01 2004 Good... [hands on face] +-- nomadic_wonderer, Feb 01 2004 <sinews in neck standing out>"Referreeeeee....are you bleedin' blind or samink?" <sinso>
How do you enter a "who...me?" innocent shrug?-- squeak, Feb 02 2004 Then when Ctrl+Alt+Delete is pressed, the ref would look like he is being held at gun point ...-- Letsbuildafort, Feb 02 2004 If this idea includes penalties in system resources when accessing shared systems, I'm for it.
Fweet! You attempted to install AOL IM client on a corporate laptop. You may not access webpages for 10 minutes. You maintain possession of your computer. Still first down.-- DonBirnam, Feb 02 2004 A bun for you if I can get this in a hockey version.-- GenYus, Feb 02 2004 I love that little paperclip.-- yabba do yabba dabba, Feb 02 2004 Would this concept extend to the referee occasionally missing a critical moment, and allowing you to delete your work or reformat your hard drive at a critical moment ?-- normzone, Feb 02 2004 He's sat back in his chair. He fakes a look at the annos on the right, now he's looking left at the idea, but he's fired off a left click straight down the middle. CROISSAAAAANT!-- DrBob, Feb 03 2004 I'd like this in a UK football version please, then I could vent my frustrations by singing that the referee is a wanker, rather than my usual (curiously unproductive) approach of just swearing at the PC directly.-- hazel, Feb 03 2004 When you start swearing at your PC, it's time for a coffee break. Besides, with a football referee, you could never be sure if, when he whistled, there really had been an error.-- DrBob, Feb 03 2004 When I do something stupid, I want a little beep and nothing else to happen. Or if _really_ necessary, a dialogue box.
I don't want some crazy yank* referee yelling at me and making me wait before I can do whatever it is I was trying to do in the first place.
*A british one wouldn't really improve matters either.
Sorry, not interested.-- RobertKidney, Feb 03 2004 I like the hockey version. The two minute minor for trying to delete a file in use by another application would give me a good excuse for a coffe break.-- the_art, Aug 02 2004 The UK football version would be cute, too. If you do something destructive (like open too many apps at once), the screen will show you a "RED CARD" and the screen locks up for 2 minutes to penalize you. (Also allows the computator time to recover from whatever it is you just did.)-- phundug, Aug 02 2004 Love this
and when the hard drive is about to die, a coach is fired-- dentworth, Aug 02 2004 random, halfbakery