Tried to download a song on Napster in '99 and my dad's computer got a virus

I was 14 and had just figured out how to use Napster. I wanted that new Blink-182 song, 'All the Small Things', so bad. I found a file called 'blink182_all_the_small_things.mp3.exe' and thought, 'Score!' Clicked it, waited like 45 minutes on our 56k modem. Nothing happened. Next day, my dad goes to check his email and the whole screen is covered in pop-up ads for, uh, adult websites. He was so mad. I had to admit what I did. Learned the hard way that .exe at the end of a song file is a huge red flag. He made me read a whole article about computer viruses from a magazine as punishment. Anyone else have their early internet fun ruined by a nasty download?

2 comments

2 Comments

lucas_moore4d ago

Remember downloading a "game demo" that was just a screen full of dancing bananas. My virus was less embarrassing but way louder, it just made the computer scream a dial-up modem sound nonstop until we unplugged it. My family called me the tech exorcist for a week.

anthony_lane554d ago

lucas_moore, that dial-up scream sounds like a horror movie.