"Windows XP End of Support is on April 8th, 2014. Click here to learn more." Dipper read this the way he read a fan fiction that was about him. He read it, over and over, trying to make sense of it. "Mabel, come look at this," he wondered what she would think of it. Without saying anything she got up and floated towards her brother's voice. He sounded confused, perhaps even slightly worried, which made Mabel curious as to what was happening.
As Mabel entered the room Dipper glanced at the computer screen, so Mabel looked at it. She read the message on screen. Mabel was confused, she didn't know much about computers; Dipper was the know- it- all when it came to them. She looked at him, "What is this?" She wondered why he got her instead of Gruncle Stan. "I don't know, maybe we should get Gruncle Stan," Dipper replied, also wondering why he got Mabel.
Dipper went to get Stan, while Mabel just shrugged it off and went back to what she was doing. Stan was counting the day's profits. "Gruncle Stan?" Dipper started. "Yeah?" "There's something on the computer you should see." "I'm counting my money right now! Can't it wait?" Gruncle Stan protested. "I don't think so, you should come look," Dipper persuaded. "Oh fine, i'll be up in a minute," Stan gave in. Dipper understood what he was saying and went back up there. In a short amount of time Stan was up there too.
He read the message on the screen. "Oh yeah, I read about that somewhere, says we need to upgrade to something newer or something. I can't be bothered though." Gruncle Stan then went back down to his money. Dipper shrugged, "I'll look it up," he thought. He closed the window, and got on Internet Explorer.
As Internet Explorer opened the home page, a popup window appeared. "Your flash player is out of date! It is recommended you update it immediately!" Dipper had read about these scam popups, and quickly closed it. Another one popped up, although this one contained pornographic material. He looked back at the door to make sure no one else saw that one, and closed it. These windows just kept popping up, and Dipper realized there was something wrong.
"Could it be that out of date thing?" Dipper wondered. He was too busy closing popups to think clearly. He then remembered a trick his Mom had taught him, CTRL+ALT+DEL. She had told him to do this in the event of a malware attack. He did this, and closed all windows. This didn't work, they only continued.
Dipper tried and tried, but there was nothing he could do. He decided that shutting off the computer was the best course of action. When he tried to do this, though, it wouldn't go off, so he had to do it manually. here was a switch on the back that you could flip that would take care of business. He did that, and it went off immediately.
"It just kept popping up random stuff, I had to turn it off," Dipper explained to his Gruncle Stan later that night. "Really? Eh, i'll look at it in the morning. You kids need to get some sleep," Stan replied. "Ok..."
Dipper went to bed, but couldn't sleep. He was curious about this whole "End of Support" thing, what could it mean? What was happening to their computer? He enjoyed using the old computer better than the newer one at his home in Piedmont. Sure, the newer one was faster, but there was a certain charm about that old computer of his great uncle's that he couldn't get over.
The next morning Dipper and Gruncle Stan went to the computer room. Dipper turned it on, and it came on as it normally would. "What? Nothing happened," Gruncle Stan said, sounding disappointed. "Maybe I have to click this," Dipper clicked Internet Explorer, and the madness ensued. Popup after popup, some about updating your flash browser, some about house insurance, some about finding local women to "fu**," whatever that meant.
Gruncle Stan was confused, he didn't know much about computer, other than they can make you money, so he didn't know what to do. "Uh, maybe we should go to the library and look it up," Stan suggested. "Yeah," Dipper agreed. Besides, he liked going to the library. Stan rounded up Mabel and the trio headed off to the library.
"Why are we going to the library again?" Mabel asked in a silly tone. "To find out what's wrong with the computer," Dipper replied in a serious tone, without looking away from the window. Mabel didn't reply, she just looked downward.
After a short, silent car ride, they arrived at the town library. When they got to the door, there was a piece of paper posted on the door that read: "Library computers are currently not available for use due to the Windows XP End of Support. We apologize for the inconvenience."
"Well this is great, we drive all the way to town and this is what we get!" Gruncle Stan complained. Luckily there was no one around to hear his outburst. "That's the same problem with your Gruncle Stan," Dipper said. Stan ignored him and stomped back to his car. The twins followed suit, and they rode back home in silence.
Later that day Gruncle Stan was watching the national news on TV, when a story about End of Support for Windows XP came on. Dipper heard them announce it, and came in to hear about it.
"Today the last security pack for Windows XP was released, meaning that users of the 12 year old operating system will have to upgrade, or be vulnerable to cyber attacks." Stan heard this. "WHAT? So now 've gotta replace my computer? This day is just great isn't it," he complained. Guess so," Dipper said, though not being heard, as Stan had already gotten up from his chair.
He got on the phone with a computer technician, who told him the same. "We have computers here for 300 dollars!" The sly IT man advertised. Stan only ignored him and asked why they would end support for it. "It worked fine for me," He explained. The two got into a long conversation about computers and why they have to end support for operating systems, all of this probably going out Stan's other ear.
The next day Stan tried turning on the old computer one last time, and the same result, only this time worse. Dipper tried to think of something to do, but nothing came to him. They finally gave up, and the old PC was out the door for good.