Geeking up the better half

[Godsongz]

When I married my beautiful bride Sandy nearly 16 years ago she was a technophobe to the highest degree. Getting her to do the simplest task on my computer (then an Atari 520ST) involved precise direction and extreme patience.

Tomorrow morning she is giving a presentation to the 500 students at the high school she's now teaching at, and I'm sending her out the door with a Sony Vaio laptop, and InFocus DLP projector, a KeySpan Presenter remote mouse, and complete step-by-step setup directions in ListPro on HER iPaq.

Though it has taken 16 years to get to this point, and she's still mildly technophobic, I have complete confidence that she's going to do just fine.

Any other success stories out there? :mrgreen:

[jgalindo]

I recently purchased an IPAQ 6315 and gave my Siemens SX56 to my wife.

Although she easily started playing solitaire, she has not completely transitioned to the pocket pc. Her Reason: she has not transferred all her contacts.

I plan to transfer all her contacts this weekend and have another geek convert. :twisted:

I will let you know how it goes.

8)

[whydidnt]

You guys are doing much better than me. I've got my wife to use the PC for email and instant messaging, but that's it. She got my Samsung I300 when I picked up the PPCPE device, but she NEVER used anything but the phone portion of the device, despite my attempts to get her to at least use the contacts and agenda. She says since I always have that at the tip of my fingers, she has no need to be bothered with it. :roll:

On the other hand, my geekiness is wearing off a little on my daughter. She just asked for a Sidekick II for Christmas, and I have no doubt she'd use the thing like crazy if I was crazy enough to buy it for her. 8)

[TheOrange]

I gave my wife a Palm M505 for Christmas one year. She dropped it three weeks later. I think she's going to stich with Franklin-Covey for now.

No geek for me. :|

[avidor]

I have used four PalmOS devices before, starting with Palm Pilot Pro, ending with Sony Clie. When it came to buying my latest device, I was wondering if I should switch to PPC. My father-in-law had a Dell Axim x3, so he was big on PPC.

My wife, who is great at word processing and email and not much else on a computer, mentioned that she was having trouble keeping her schedule up-to-date. I'm not sure why, but she decided to try a PDA! (Never thought I'd see that day!) Now, we have matching Dell Axim x30 Mid's. I figured it would be easier to teach her a Windows device than a Palm device, and now I'm glad I have made the switch. :D

Avidor

[ChunkyMonkey]

I tried to get my wife hooked into the PDA habit. In part, to justify my own. ;) I set up a Palm Vx for her to use. I don't think she ever looked at it. She wouldn't even try to get used to using Graphiti. Every since she still uses a small paper-base organizer.

[buckyg]

My wife tends to get my computer hand-me-downs. This includes both my old desktop and the PPCs I've had.

She doesn't use either as fully as I do, but then she's not in IT like me. There's certain things she wants to know how to do, don't try to drag her into new stuff unless and until she's ready. She's slowly getting more into both. She does well, I've dealt with much worse users at work. But sometimes I think working with her to increase her general computer and PPC skills is more to teach me patience.

[famousdavis]

Funny thread! Have you noticed what's common about our better halves?

They're all female.

Wonder if there exists a technophobe husband who is hounded by his geeky, tech-lovin' wife?

[Godsongz]

Funny thread! Have you noticed what's common about our better halves?

They're all female.

Wonder if there exists a technophobe husband who is hounded by his geeky, tech-lovin' wife?

There must be. I do know a couple of women in IT whose husbands are not in technical fields.. gotta wonder if they're always asking their wives newbie questions :)

and btw everyone, my wife's presentation came off without a hitch, and she never even looked at the directions I wrote up for her! I wrote them up as a troubleshooting tool if she ran into problems, nice that she didn't. She was all smiles telling me about it and she's gotten lots of kudos on her presentation from the rest of the faculty. Cool 8)

[Ripper014]

Then you should give her a DATTA GAL... from all of us....

[Kati Compton]

Because we females ARE the better half?





:P

PS - my husband is just as geeky as I am, but he is less PDA focused. Mainly because he works from home and so isn't ever really away from his computer.

[ludzh]

Funny thread! Have you noticed what's common about our better halves?

They're all female.

Wonder if there exists a technophobe husband who is hounded by his geeky, tech-lovin' wife?

Right here! :clap:

My husband owned the first PDA in our family (Palm Vx) - which was rarely- and I do mean *rarely*- ever used. The only thing he uses it for now is for a quick look up of our local Dominos pizza- and that's only because I entered the phone number in the Vx so he wouldn't need to keep asking me for the number! :roll:

I would totally love for him to show as much interest in PDA's and technology as I do - in order to better justify my own obsession...and to justify the purchase of more "essential" stuff - like an iPod. A beautiful, pink iPod. Santa, are you reading this? :-)

-Heather

[dhpss]

My wife refused to use the PDA for a very long time..., until I set her up with :

a sleek iPaq 1945 http://blt.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/p1129460reg.jpg

a red gorgeous Covertec case
http://www.ppda.co.kr/p_images/covertec_h3800_red_s.gif

and a Belkin BT GPS
http://www.pocketpcfreak.com/archive/Belkin_BT_GPS.jpg


Her weakness is finding directions... The GPS capability really gets her interested in other PPC functions as well such calendar, notes, address book, etc...

If you have difficulty convincing your other haft..try this. It works!
:D

--PPCGPS IS WOMAN's BEST FRIEND---

[JvanEkris]

Well,

My wife has been slowly adapting to my techno-addiction. I guess its a love-hate thing. She hates it when i'm playing with it, but when it works, she loves it. She now has her second PocketPC and just discovered RSS-feeds. She is a little bit more practical and a little less enthousiastic, but in the meantime she has convinced a dozen collegues at work for PocketPC.....

Jaap

[maximus]

When I met my wife for the first time, she was a social girl. Lots of friends, popular, and no interest whatsoever with computers.

Then I introduced her to an ipaq 2210. This tiny thing is a great help, she said. I can store my contacts, appointments and important notes, she said. I installed a GPRS CF card, and we start pocketICQing each other. Woohoo! a good progress, I think. (We were in long distance relationship at that time, so all communication methods are most welcomed).

Installed warring nations, winampaq, oggs on 512megs SD card, several e-books on her 2210. This tiny thing is definitely a great companion, she said. I started to get jealous....

Then I replaced her older mobilephone with an mpx220. Typing sms are very easy on this mobilephone, she said. More smses for me. From 15/day going up to 20/day.

Then I got a free XDA2 from my company. This is a good replacement for her 2210+GPRS CF, she said. Ok dear, I said. Now sms is up to 30/day.

Bought her an ultracompact DELL notebook to replace her office-issued 3 kilos IBM laptop. Oh this notebook is so light, she said. I proceed with the installation of Spellforce and Farcry. Nice games, can we played together, she asked. I was on top of the world.

[disconnected]

I had the first PPC in the family. My husband and I both have the antisocial habit of reading at dinner, even if we're in a restaurant. I started to notice that if the restaurant wasn't too well lit, I could still read my iPAQ, but he'd be looking pretty unhappy with his paper book or magazine. I felt a little guilty, and also it was a good excuse for me to upgrade and give him my old PPC. Now, two PPCs later, he's also somewhat addicted, although the only apps he really cares about are ereader and solitaire.

[divajess]

Funny thread! Have you noticed what's common about our better halves?

They're all female.

Wonder if there exists a technophobe husband who is hounded by his geeky, tech-lovin' wife?

Right here, right here!

My better half calls me his Tech Geek Goddess when describing me to other people. He is not totally tech-dumb, but being with me has raised his geekiness to much, much higher levels! He's building a new PC (and asking me for advice one every part), wants an iPod and absolutely lusts after my PPC. I am torn on what to get him for Christmas...he's so music-oriented I think the iPod will have to be my first purchase. :)

I couldn't be more proud. *sniff*

[SteveHoward999]

My wife bought me my first PDA.

Not becuase she is more geeky than I, but becuase she wanted me to test it out to see if she would want one!

After a month or two of hearing me rant and rave about how great it was, she bought her own.

We do the same kind of IT work, but she tends to be more into the code and design and me more into the code and hardware.