Geek Eye for the Average Guy

Yxes writes "Fortune designed an experiment: give three geeks US$15,000 and three days to bring a family of four up to date with technology. The average family doesn't know which DVD player to buy or how to setup a wireless network. What happens when even the geeks can't get it to work?"

Ha!

[Lumpy]

Most Geeks dont know what DVD player to buy.

Pioneer Elete series? Or do we go for the Carver Studio series? or do we go for even better? or are we happy with the sub $400.00 junk at best buy?

Most of the decisions are made based on preference as is you went for the "best" based on research and actual reviews $15,000.00 is not anywhere near enough money.

I can spend $15,000.00 on the PC,home netowrking and home server alone.

for the average Joe, the best DVD player to buy is the $59.00 APEX cheapie.. they will be happy with the picture on their 29 inch tv. and it's the one I reccomend to all my relatives as it's dirt cheap / throw away type appliance if the kids break it. plus it does a better job than the playstation2 or Xbox.

unless you have a HD tv or projector that can handle the progressive output buying a "good" player is a waste of money.. and most "geeks" wont admit that buying the cheapest is the best for the average joe.

Re:Some things for most people:

[ichimunki]

Why would you buy a new keyboard? Just rearrange the keys on a QWERTY [mwbrooks.com] and choose a new keymap file (or change your Control Panel settings). Should handle most of the differences. I haven't tried this myself, but now I'm tempted. :)

Re:No Fair

[drinkypoo]

You just have to have your priorities right. Spend $5k of it on a bitchin' dual opteron and you can have gentoo, kde, and gnome built in three days, easy. Hell, maybe even two days. This is assuming the broadband is installed on day one...

It took them 3 days?

[Trauma_Hound1]

Why didn't they just stick with all Macs? I mean we are talking about non-techies, that are going to be using them, and the Mac is one of the easiest systems to use for a newbie. Not to mention stable. Also why did it take them so long? I've setup simular set-ups (everytime I move) in under a day.

Re:No Fair

[anthonyclark]

Speaking as someone who just installed gentoo on a dual opteron*, I can tell you that it'll take a lot longer than 3 days to make the necessary code changes for kde and gnome to compile.

That said, less than 2 hours to bootstrap and emerge system is most wonderful.

* The dual opteron now has suse back on it, due to the opteron/clisp clusterfuck.

Re:Some things for most people:

[sharkey]

I picked up an IBM Model M off Ebay for ~$12US + S&H. Not only is it THE keyboard, but the keycaps are made to be moved. Easy to rearrainge to match whatever keymap you choose in software.

Re:Some things for most people:

[Sylver Dragon]

Unless you have an optical mouse, flip it over, twist open the ball cover and remove the ball and all the dirt, and other stuff we'll not examine closely, out. Put the ball back, and close the cover. You have now decrufted your mouse. The process is simlar for trackballs, though even optical trackballs collect cruft, though it doesn't affect performace in that case.

Re:Some things for most people:

[Cut]

I used to have those problems too. I learned, though, that I'd been using not particularly good all-in-one remotes. With a good all-in-one remote, you can program it to reduce a ton of those issues.

In my case, I have the Home Theater Master MX-500 [remotecentral.com]. To get around the problem you run into, I have it programmed so that my TV mode is only used for rare functions (sleep, changing to RF-in, etc.). I have a "TV watching" mode that changes channel through my TiVo, turns the TV power on and off, and controls volume through my receiver.

I think the key is thinking of the "modes" as actions (watching TV, listening to music, etc.) instead of objects (TV, receiver, ...).

I call BS

[Obiwan Kenobi]

No, the cheapest is not best for the average joe.

The best for the average joe is the most reliable, and the best bang for the buck.

Did they need progressive scan? Well, if you're going to blow $4k on a TV, get the people the equipment to carry the best signal and hook em up with a nice sound system as well.

When someone who doesn't know anything about DVD asks me what to buy, I tell em Sony. Sony's aren't the cheapest, but they make a nice $100 or so model and those stand up over time.

I had a Toshiba that burnt out in a year. I know three different people who bought those $69 Apex pieces of shit and the best one lasted six months.

You get what you pay for, and suggesting Apex to your friends or family will just make sure they don't ask you for your advice ever again...

The Real Difference between Queer Eye and Geek Eye

[taernim]

Queer Eye doesn't just fix their problems and say "Here is what you need to wear to not look like a slob. By the way, your hair sucks" ... they actually take the guy and say "Hey, this would look good on you, this would look good in your house... and here is how to do it from now on." They give tips, pointers, and no-no's.

Geek Eye just said "Here's a bunch of technology, which you have no idea why you need it and not something else... now use it." There was nothing beyond the How To UseExpensive Technology for Dummies crash course that they were given.

If you want people to actually grow and learn, you need to explain why. Honestly, technology is a more difficult beast to master than fashion... although looking at many /. readers, I'm sure that may be relative. ;-)

*prepares for mod down*

Re:No Fair

[be-fan]

Um, even installing from stage1's, it never took my 2GHz P4 more than a day to compile Gentoo and KDE.

Re:next month, in Fortune

[Lawbeefaroni]

We don't watch any more TV or movies than we ever did. Turns out that the programming is just as lame and pointless with a high def picture and cinematic surround sound. "The Hot Chick" was a retarded movie, even in its full 16:9 progressive scanned format. Who could have imagined such a thing.

The problem is that you're watching "The Hot Chick." First of all, as you said it is a bad movie. Second, DVDs don't do "high def picture." I'm guessing you don't watch Monday Night Football or the Stanley Cup Finals. No Nova on PBS HD either. Etc, etc. And that's just OTA broadcasts.

I don't watch a lot of TV which is maybe why I appreciate it more. I don't just flip something on for background noise. That and maybe the fact that for the last 7 years all I had was a 17 inch trinitron with dipole antennae, VHF and UHF dials and volume knob that doubled as the power when you pulled it. Of course it did get cell frequencies at the high UHF bands...

Re:Some things for most people:

[the_2nd_coming]

how about OS X?

that would work well with the new high end digital camera, highend MiniDV camera, and a huge MP3 colection

then get them the Tivo home entertainmnet package so Tivo can give them access to their MP3s through their home stereo and their pictures through their TV.

make sure you get a high end Home theater and a plazma screen TV, or mabye a digital projector with a movie screen :-)