Couple Bonding Through PC Building 465
mikemuch writes "When his lovely girlfriend Glenda needed a new PC, Jason Cross, who spends much of the week assembling PCs with the latest gear to test for ExtremeTech, decided he would let her build it herself. She gave him her list of needs, he came up with a part list, and then watched as she did all the screwdriver wielding herself. Despite a DOA hard drive and some mis-connected wires, everyone was smiling when it was all finished. (Slide show here.)"
How is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How is this news? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
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OTOH she still had to get her husband to authorise a loan from the bank.
... which any woman should do anyway, even today, unless she's doing it on behalf of a corporation.
When you're married (and in the absence of a prenuptial agreement), all your assets are co-owned with your spouse, which means your creditors will come after both of you when the sh*t hits the fan. You have to be a pretty big asshole to get a loan without clearing it with your spouse first.
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
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- I'm on
- I'm a geek
- I have a girlfriend
- She is good looking and pregnant to boot
- I caused the pregnancy
- To top it off, she's a former HP-UX and Service Guard field technician and account support engineer
- She did VMS maintenance for the Israeli army during the draft
- She is currently an L2 storage software support engineer
Why is this clown on the front page with his better half while I am not? My girlfriend could out-weld p
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
- She is good looking and pregnant to boot
- I caused the pregnancy
You know, some people would consider getting married in the circumstances...
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Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
NOTARII was the term given to shorthand writers who in the early days of the Christian Church reported the examinations and trials of the early Christian martyrs and confessors. They were employed to take down in writing the whole judicial process of the Roman judges against the martyrs, and to write out the circumstances of their examination and passion. The early notary recorded the questions put to the Martyrs and the answers they gave.
The first institution of these NOTARII at Rome was under the Emperor Fabian. Notaries were also employed to take down the discourse of eloquent preachers. By this means many of St Chrystostom's sermons were preserved.
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
I will not, however, partake in ceremonies that have their roots in organized religion. So no, I would not consider getting married.
Marriage went on for centuries (maybe millenia) without organized religion's involvement. The early Christian church had no marriage services, and did not keep records of who was married to whom. That was a civil job.
When the Roman Empire collapsed, the church took over registering of marriages and births because there was nobody else to do it. (That's also how the Pope ended up administering so much of Italy: the job needed to be done and no one else was around.)
The notion that Christianity (or Judaism, or whatever) invented marriage is silly. Marriage (at least here in the USA) serves explicit legal purposes that have nothing to do with religion. There has been more than one case wherein I have gotten a mindless paper-shuffling droid to shut up and do his job by saying "I'm her husband", which cuts through rubbish like nothing else.
I dunno what the legal situation is where you are, but I'd be astonished if there's a quicker way to establish in people's minds that two people go together than to say "We're married". Why do you think so many gay people want to get married? To get official recognition for their rights.
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With a wise attitude like that, your odds are good she'll stay a very long time.
Re:How is this news? (Score:4, Funny)
I'll bet you're AWESOME at pillow-talk.
...Then it won't be (Score:3, Insightful)
Relationships are not easy. I think it's precisely the fact that I'm determined to stay married that will enable me to do so. If I said "I'm not making any promises," that would create insecurity for both of us ("Did I make him mad? Does he want to leave?"), thereby making it more likely that we'd fight and give up.
Genuine commitment is a self-fulfilling prophecy - and so is the lack the
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We're going to wait for Maury to announce the DNA test results just the same, thanks...
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As for this being front-page
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Screw that, I'm going to have an operation and become a businesswoman.
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Interesting)
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How horribly wrong! (Score:2)
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It's a geek, and he's got a girlfriend, and she's not pixellated... of course this is major news!
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Funny)
First, a self-professed geek (see author bio), has a girlfriend. This alone deserves several duplicates on slashdot front page. Second, astonishingly, she is not ugly. This would deserve to be on the NYTimes or FoxNews. Third, he manages to combine voyeurism and shiny new hardware - all this documented with color pictures !
Re:How is this news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Have you any idea how difficult this is? We're all control freaks.
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Of course with this as the reason for building the new PC, (from TFA):
But then again they both get total geek cred for finding any excuse to have a new computer!
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1. That person is female. Not that girls can't build computers, but rather that
2. A geek has a female SO.
3. Power tools.
4. Shiny new hardware.
5. Girl with power tools and shiny new hardware.
6. Quite attractive girl with power tools and shiny new hardware.
7. Quite attractive geek girl with... you know the rest.
I think it ain't so much that it's a computer or that she's female. It's a combination thereof. Oh,
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Re:How is this news? (Score:4, Funny)
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Innuendo? (Score:2)
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reality (Score:5, Interesting)
This article doesn't read so much as "hey guys, it's possible for a girl to put together a PC", so much as it reads "Hey guys, look at my girlfriend. No, really, I have one. Let me show you her."
Re:reality (Score:4, Insightful)
And the only reason it took so long is that we men did everything in our power not to let them.
Now, we're supposed to wonder that a woman used a screwdriver without impaling herself through the hand?
Pass.
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I'm sure every time someone puts up a blog about how they raised a barn on the weekend (complete with happy snaps) the people in the developing world think "yeah, so what?"
It's not a question of capability..
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You really, really need to widen your social circle. The vast majority of men, and a vaster majority of women, are about as likely to build their own PCs as they are to build their own houses.
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The average man can't afford to build his own house. Duh.
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Sure, that was *one* of the reasons, but not the only one.
I agree though that it's completely underwhelming that a woman is capable of putting together a PC -- after having been adviced on part-list by her nerd boyfriend and having him assist her. Many women are even capable of putting together a PC with no help whatsoever, which is also not really a spectaculat feat.
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Look at what she plans to do with this PC (games, photoshop,etc) and see the final price $US 1417.She spent hours to get it.
If It was purely rationnal she would order the desktop from Dell or HP or from a local shop. she would choose a less expensive configuration.
This is truly for fun and for her pleasure. This is a novelty for me.
Most girls find such things boring. boring not because they couldn't understand it, boring because it is usually p
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Hell I'm more interested in software so while I've fiddled with adding components,
WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Look, I'm sure this was fun, and all, but seriously... When did "Stuff that matters" become "Some guy's holiday snaps."
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You don't read the political articles or the stories about RIAA lawsuit claims, right?
Schools (Score:2, Interesting)
And it really doesn't take more than a couple hours for all the kids to get a hands on experience with it.
SLOW NEWS DAY? (Score:2)
at least it isn't a iPhone story
my g/f needed a new computer a bit ago...I did try to get her to build it with me...(you know me show her how to do it and what not)
zero interest on her part...she just didn't care..she just wanted me to do it and tell me when it was done..... which is fine and all.
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I dont beleive this for a second! (Score:3, Funny)
HOT CHICK was a dead give away. FAKE.
GAAAAH!!! (Score:5, Informative)
She's using a power-screwdriver on a computer????
For crying out loud, it's a computer case, not a swingset and not furniture... The point of the screw is to hold things in place, not to fix them so fast that they are going to be resistant to coming out.
I was taught that you _ALWAYS_ hand-tighten screws on a computer case, and even then only just to the point that it just stops turning freely, because that way you won't accidentally strip the threads.
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I've stripped more threads by hand than I have with an electric, even then I can probably count them on one hand.
Re:GAAAAH!!! (Score:5, Funny)
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what a shitty BF though.. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fuckin' genius.
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Everyone who's spent enough time with Vista knows the Experience Score is rated out of 5.9, so her score is pretty decent.
Like the stock market (Score:2)
Bloody right. I've always wondered what the Dow goes up to, as well. While you're at it, clue me in on the maximum limits of Moh's scale, Scovilles, pH and Degrees Celsius too.
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Interesting? Not really. (Score:5, Insightful)
Let me be the first to say... (Score:5, Funny)
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Slashdot. Sad but true.
Let's all take this as a reminder to (Score:5, Insightful)
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Windows Experience Index? (Score:4, Insightful)
So I googled for a bit and eventually found this page [microsoft.com]. Which says "The base scores currently range from 1 to 5.9." WTF? So it's out of 4.9 and you just add 1 for fun, is that it? I wonder if it's a linear scale or what.. maybe it's logarithmic.
If this is how broken the business rules of their software are, I can only imagine how broken the implementation must be.
Microsoft, you're a disgrace.
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Having seen this screen shot I had to ask, what is a Windows Experience Index? It seems this machine has a score of 5.6. Great, what's that out of Microsoft? 10? That's pretty crappy. Maybe it's out of six?
Not every number is "out of" something. For example, the speed ratings AMD put on their CPUs.
So I googled for a bit and eventually found this page. Which says "The base scores currently range from 1 to 5.9." WTF? So it's out of 4.9 and you just add 1 for fun, is that it? I wonder if it's a linear sca
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In other words it gives n00bs the ability to see how shit or great their system is without know how to benchmark, and it gives devs the ability to know how well their app is likely to perform.
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Re:Windows Experience Index? (Score:5, Funny)
I agree completely. This shows how vile Microsoft is as a company, by choosing this absurd scale without a nice round number as a maximum. Seriously, decisions like this show how the company should be broken up and have the workers sold into slavery - brothels for the women, while the men can be sent down mines in third world countries.
Forget DRM, this arbitary scale of the Windows Experience Index is what will really kill off the operating system.
It is so obvious that the scale should have had a maximum of 10, with the current level of computers sitting at around 1.5. And in many years to come when computer hardware has progressed enough to surpass 10, they should make it constantly play a looped voice saying "DOES NOT COMPUTE" while emitting smoke from the hard drive. This is the only sensible solution.
Yeah honey, I listened to your needs, honest! (Score:5, Interesting)
Heavy Internet surfing (multiple windows)
Store and play plenty of music
Store and manage big digital art files, including many-layered Photoshop files
Operate quietly
Play the latest games without turning details way down
2GB of ram will just about get Vista running with a little left over for smaller PSDs. The size PSDs she's talking about will be thrashing the hard drive to run. Doubling that ram up to 4GB, what's generally regarded as the sweet spot for Vista anyway, and dropping to a $300 graphics card would serve her far better for her main needs and let her still run pretty much any modern game with pretty decent quality settings.
But, hey, he gets to reassure himself it's a sweet gaming rig with that quad core processor and the 8800. Just a shame that was lowest on her list of requirements and likely added after a few rounds of, "Are you sure you wouldn't like to play games? I know they're not your main focus. But surely you'd like the option, right?"
Even ignoring that she plays Civ IV and Oblivion (both of which will run just fine on much cheaper hardware), he commits a cardinal sin amongst gamers too: He bought what he figured would be great for running a game in the future (Spore), not what was needed for her level of gaming now. Spore won't be out until sometime next year and probably late spring at the earliest from what they're saying. That $100 off the GPU now wouldn't cost her much right now, would get her the memory that would really aid her, and she'll likely want to upgrade to whatever the latest and greatest GPU is in a year's time for Spore anyway. At that point, it'll be pretty much guaranteed that $300 on nVidia's 9xxx series will beat $400 on the 8xxx series now and have whatever fun and exciting new features the 9xxx series has that nVidia worked with Maxis to get in to Spore.
It's cool to share building their PC with your girlfriend/wife/mother/friend/anyone who wouldn't normally build one, giving them a real sense of ownership and achievement with their new PC. But fooling yourself in to believing they need what you think is cool, rather than actually listening to their needs, is a great way to undo a lot of that when they realize they got you something cool rather than built what was right for them.
And, yes, this comes from a guy who sat there while his wife tapped on dozens of keyboards because she figured I'd make sure it simply worked and so the most important thing to her was the keyboard felt right. To me, that was crazy. To her, it was what mattered. So, crazy or not, I listened and made sure she got what felt perfect to her.
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A slap in the face of gender equality (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just another way of saying: "Hey, World! Here on Slashdot, we consider women far inferior to men when it comes to technology. We can't imagine girls interested in computers, so we will make it a headline whenever a girl tries something techy."
Come on!
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Operating system (Score:4, Funny)
Diggified? (Score:5, Insightful)
So What? (Score:2)
I'll save all the lonely geeks some time (Score:2)
You're welcome
Why Windows? (Score:2)
Scraping the bottom of the barrel (Score:2)
Rarely have I EVER been even close to tempted, to stop what I'm doing and reply to a post.
This really is the most pointless and ridiculous article I've seen on the front page for a long time, and I've seen some ridiculous articles believe me...
Love the picture on the front page though.
Only goes to show a girl CAN take it from behind and build a PC at the same time. GO GIRLS. Next, perhaps
1400 $ - isn't that a bit expensive? (Score:2)
Anyway, I reused an Athlon64 3000+ from a previous upgrade, and for single threaded applications it is still very close to the top performing CPUs. In the end I only had to buy a new main board (45 Euro) and a new memory module (15 Euro on ebay), and the rest found itself.
anti-static (Score:2)
I hope you told her to keep grounding herself, else you're likely to get a somewhat unreliable computer or shorten it's life a bit.
Vista Ultimate (Score:5, Informative)
From the article:
Fine, she likes Vista. But why Vista Ultimate? According to Microsoft's own comparison chart [microsoft.com], ultimate just gives additional backup, encryption, remote desktop, and fax & scan capabilities... none of which are apparently needed from her list of needs.
Let Me Get This Straight? (Score:5, Funny)
hotornot ... (Score:2)
Kids today... (Score:2)
Until systems are cheap enough and treated like a cell phone, I guess this qualifies as 'building' for most folks.
Why is IT missing females? Articles like this one! (Score:5, Insightful)
And you wonder why IT is so short on females. It's because of the condescending ... ooooh, look, they can even build computers ... attitudes. Try working around that atmosphere for a few weeks and you'll either quit or be arrested for going postal.
The only hard part about building a computer - for females - is having some guy who thinks that his dick is an essential tool for building anything try to take over. It's no harder than, say, sewing up something with 17 pattern pieces. The instructions on recent mobos are easy to follow ... easier than the care tags on some clothing.
Clap... Clap... Clap (Score:4, Insightful)
Hogging the spotlight (Score:5, Insightful)
While I can appreciate Glenda's (the girlfriend) desire to experience this, I pity the pain she'll feel over the next two years and I hope she blames her boyfriend. Whenever something goes wrong, she'll question herself of whether or not she did something wrong. When she calls him to fix it, he'll likely push it off as "This is your computer; you built it." When it can no longer handle new applications or games since 2GB is the realistic minimum for Vista, she'll wonder why her boyfriend let her install it when she could have been appreciating the speed of this system on Linux or XP.
Good learning experience. Here are the lessons:
Congratulations to Glenda for completing this task. Now you'll know better to take the easier, same-price route the next time.
Re:Girlfirend my ass... (Score:4, Funny)
But, when the nice priest tries to "girlfriend" your ass, it's OK to call him a bad man.
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A girl (woot)
A camera
A power tool
Several good photographs while the girl is doing something...
A title like Couple Bonding through PC Building..
Yup sounds too familiar....
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Apart from that he can't be a die-hard geek- he actually has a girlfriend (and one which looks real not just some warped figmant of his darkest desires
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More like
MOV DX,AH
(yes, I know I lost 8 bits)
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If that enhanced their relationship, they should consider sitting in front of their computers less ...