Tech Replaces Diamonds As Girl's Best Friend 313
Ant writes to tell us that 'diamonds are no longer a girls best friend', at least according to a recent study commissioned by the Oxygen Network. From the article: "The survey, commissioned by U.S. cable television's Oxygen Network that is owned and operated by women, found the technology gender gap has virtually closed with the majority of women snapping up new technology and using it easily. Women were found on average to own 6.6 technology devices while men own 6.9, and four out of every five women felt comfortable using technology with 46 percent doing their own computer trouble-shooting."
Great, just great... (Score:5, Funny)
In my book, this means that 46 percent of the women we'll never have a chance of doing a favorable impression on. Not much of a chance to begin with, but now - no chance!
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Funny)
I suspect that 46 percent of women already had a "nerd" over to fix their computer.
Don't fret, as long as they don't talk there is still the other 54 percent.
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:2)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:2)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course I'm speaking in generalizations here. I figure that the actual individuals that make up society are a bit saner.
Re:Great, just great... (Score:4, Funny)
Knowing how to run AV software never got any woman hot.
Re:Great, just great... (Score:2, Interesting)
In contrast there are three or four females that are excellent coders. It's probably safe to say that each person has a differant way of thinking about th
Re:Great, just great... (Score:5, Funny)
Not surprising you posted as anonymous coward (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:2)
I would tend to disagree with your assessment, but then I use a different definition of the work hot
When you can't log on to check your email or open you term paper in less than 10 minutes that is likely to get you pretty hot.
Vista comes to your Rescue! (Score:3, Funny)
Question is: How many Girlfriends can One Geek Man (TM) handle with his Linux expertise?
Re:Vista comes to your Rescue! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Vista comes to your Rescue! (Score:2)
Re:Vista comes to your Rescue! (Score:5, Funny)
That's so cool... so, what colour did you pick?
Re:Vista comes to your Rescue! (Score:4, Funny)
Cluster fsck (Score:5, Funny)
I just imagined a Beowulf cluster of girls running Linux, and almost had a kernel leak.
Re:Great, just great... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, geez, women are only 51% of the population, so that leaves only 5% of the women that we can impress with our intelligence!
Re:Great, just great... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:2)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Great, just great... (Score:3, Interesting)
Explaining to your fiance why she will have a piece of glass vs a real diamond will probably result in you not needing one anyways.
Who is talking about a piece of glass? Artificial diamonds are virtually identical (or superior in most quality respects) then the "natural" ones. DeBeers is spending hundreds of millions dollars desperately trying to come up with ever more convoluted ways of detecting them for the sole purpose to be able to claim that they are "fakes". But science and time are against the tro
That can't be right (Score:5, Insightful)
One possibility... (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:2)
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:2)
LOL, reminds me of myself. At least I try to keep a mental list of what I've touched so I that can rollback edits. It's easy when you're "troubleshooting" something like a macro or a game crash. Less so when it's an Apache config...
Anyway, tinkering was supposed to be an ancient and honorable tradition. Is it not anymore?
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:4, Informative)
There's this cool new feature on computers now where you can save a file under a different name, then rename it back when you want to roll back. =) Don't tell me you really play around in httpd.conf without saving a copy! It takes all of 5 seconds!
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:2)
Or you can be really cutting edge, and put your httpd.conf into a CVS repository. In the long run, that's a lot easier than keeping a bunch of renamed files. Besides, you should be keeping your HTML and PHP in there anyway, so why not add httpd.conf?
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:2)
Re:As someone who spent time in tech support... (Score:2)
Seems a bit misleading.. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Seems a bit misleading.. (Score:2)
Warning (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Warning (Score:2)
In what direction?
Also, does it play MP3's?
Re:Warning (Score:5, Funny)
The Microsoft version is larger, but there have been complaints about the power adapter and USB port getting in the way, and not being adequatly waterproofed. The Sony ones seem to have problems with DRM screwing the user (and not in the good way)...
Re:Warning (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Warning (Score:2)
Plus, the box they get rooted on loses some of its performance...
Re:Warning (Score:3, Funny)
Root: Kiwi/Australian slang that is used in place of the more commonly used term "fuck."
Re:Warning (Score:3, Interesting)
"In what direction? Also, does it play MP3's?"
Well, if you wanted it to, I supposed you could get her an iBuzz [ibuzz.co.uk] and have the best of both worlds!!
sex toys for geeks (Score:2)
Questionable statistic... (Score:5, Insightful)
Based on personal experience, I can't imagine this is accurate. I seriously doubt that 46 percent of women or men do their own computer troubleshooting and repair. I can honestly say that most of the people I know own computers, and far less than 46 percent are anywhere near capable or knowledgable of even basic troubleshooting and repair tasks. I expect many
Besides, who conducts a survey comparing the preferences of men and women with a sample set of one group (men, in this case) half the size of the other. While I am by no means a statistician, it seems to me that you would use equaly sized data samples, or at least weight the sample sizes based on the percentage of the population as a whole. Based on my luck recently, I'm quite certain there are not twice as many women as men in this country.
Re:Questionable statistic... (Score:2)
Re:Questionable statistic... (Score:5, Funny)
Someone who thinks that instant messaging is a "tech area"?
KFG
Re:Questionable statistic... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Questionable statistic... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Questionable statistic... (Score:2)
Re:Questionable statistic... (Score:2)
I'm not a statistician, but I have taken enough statistics classes to know that this kind of sampling still works. The rough idea is that, while there might be differen
Re: silly point estimates... (Score:2)
With a 99% confidence interval, 42.5 to 49.4% of women prefer doing their own computer trouble-shooting.
Additionally, With a 99% confidence interval, women prefer a new:
plasma TV to a diamond necklace, 74.1 to 79.9%
plasma TV over a weekend vacation in Florida, 52.6 to 59.4%
digital video camera to a pair of designer shoes, 83.6 to 88.4%
This is great! So much better than buying the S.O. a bowling ball for Christmas.
NICE!! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm pretty sure that I'll enjoy the present as well! Not to mention that it's way more useful than a ring unless, of course we're talking about this ring [thinkgeek.com]
Re:NICE!! (Score:2)
Well, according to the article:
looks like you wouldn't be far off. However, you might want to do a study of your own since you might be one of the unfortunate few to be stuck with that leftover 23% ;)
Whole Devices (Score:5, Funny)
The men assured the women that it will be 7 technology devices soon, but they just need to tinker with a couple of parts in the last device and that they are certain they are supposed to come apart its just that the device is being a bit stubborn...
Re:Whole Devices (Score:2)
hmm (Score:4, Funny)
Warning, sexism coming your way (Score:4, Funny)
Insightful? (Score:2)
But it's nice to see that I'm not the only sexist pig in the IT world.
Re:Insightful? (Score:2)
Blame it on Microsoft... (Score:2)
Exactly what does this trouble-shooting mean? Downlaod patch, double-click, install, Say your prayers and Reboot?
Back in the Unix days, it used take Real Men (TM) to troubleshoot a computer!
Troubleshooting? (Score:3, Insightful)
Of all the women I know exactly one do their own troubleshooting. And don't say things like, "You're a geek, maybe you know two women, your mom and sister, and the latter does her own troubleshooting".
46% just sounds a lot if it's not very basic troubleshooting. I don't even think 46% of the men is doing his own troubleshooting.
But when will he...? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But when will he...? (Score:3, Funny)
Well, of course (Score:5, Informative)
Their monopoly was threatened by the Soviet Union finding diamonds in modern Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, De Beers bought out nearly all the diamonds that had fallen into the hands of former Soviet countries. In the 21st century they are threatened by a Canadian diamond company founded by a Canadian geologist once thought to be crazy for suspecting the presence of diamonds in Northwest Canada.
They were finally fined $5 million by the Department of Justice with their monopolistic tactics, but obviously that's like the EU fining Microsoft. I think people are finally waking up and smelling the coffee, realizing that these gems are merely worthless shiny rocks, though the advent of artificial diamonds doesn't hurt.
Here, Wikipedia has an entry. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Well, of course (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well, of course (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well, of course (Score:5, Informative)
I'd take a healthy dash of doubt on those numbers (Score:3, Insightful)
I'll grant you that not everybody is proficient with these devices/apps. But pushing shutter releases and send buttons does not make one tech savvy. Man or woman.
I also wonder where they draw the line for 'technology devices'. Since everything from forks to keys to credit cards to laptops is technology. Just not all of it is recent.
And lastly.. does the thought "well, I rebooted Windows and everything worked fine" count as "computer trouble-shooting" ?
Re:I'd take a healthy dash of doubt on those numbe (Score:3, Insightful)
My point wasn't to say "ooooh. lookit the women who think they're technophiles but aren't!"
My point was to more say "using the ubiquitous tools of the day isn't particularly noteworthy."
The AC above was pretty close. Young women are pretty well noted (deservedly or not) as talking a lot on the phone. But since now the phone is celluar, there is something new going on? There isn't. Or instead of loading the camera with film, its loaded with a card. Its still a came
Girls prefer tech huh? (Score:5, Funny)
Smells of sampling bias! (Score:2)
I can't find a more detailed breakdown than the linked article to be sure, but it smells fishy.
I'd also love to know what the "technology devices" they counted were - an iPod, mobile phone, console, digi camera or even laptop are commonplace
Re:Smells of sampling bias! (Score:2)
Do girl geeks bathe even less than guy geeks? That might explain it.
Yeah right! (warning...on-topic rant!) (Score:5, Funny)
They obviously didn't ask *my* SOH. Here I sit in front of 5 TFT monitors, 3 computers, hi-def projector, a plethora of consoles, and is she content with that? No! She still wants the diamonds! I mean - seriously! Where did they get these mythical women from? Shoes?! Don't even get me started on shoes! Have you seen our shoe closet? It's applying for its own post code next month. You can see it from Google Earth. And TFA wants me to believe that women would choose to have tech *instead* of holidays, shoes, gems? I call foul, I tell you - FOUL! They want the lot! Tech and shoes. Shoes and tech. Techy shoes would have my grrl in a shopping frenzy. Ohgodohgodohgodohgod can you imagine? The horror! THE HORROR!!!!! (5 exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind)
*ahem*
[/rant]
Re:Yeah right! (warning...on-topic rant!) (Score:4, Funny)
It was only after a several days out we figured that she'd managed to pring 9 pairs, having individually talked the me, my wife and my son into carrying her 'extra two pairs'.
Re:Yeah right! (warning...on-topic rant!) (Score:2)
Too late. [wikipedia.org]
Early Adopters.. (Score:4, Interesting)
I got a Tivo 5 years ago, one sister bought it 2 years ago, and the youngest is probably going to buy one before she heads off to college this fall.
Once in a while, I'll catch my youngest sister talking on her phone to her boyfriend about WOW and be embarrassed for them. A nice change for once.
My Observations (Score:3, Insightful)
That aside, it seems to me that women have a higher average technological competency than men, speaking in general terms, however there also seems to be a smaller standard deviation. Of the men I know, most seem to be either geeks or luddites. Most of the men I know have only very recently started considering using cell phones (many men I know don't own one), and very rarely, if every, use a computer. On the other hand, I know very few female geeks, but I also can't think of any female luddites. Most women I know were early adopters of cell phones, and most women I know use the computer more than men, and for more versatile tasks (e.g. I know a lot of men who literally never use the computer for anything except ebay, most women I know use the computer for the web as well as email, IM, iTunes, photos, etc.).
Of course the survey contradicts my own observations, but I also think terms like "technology gadgets" are extemely vauge. In my experience, women are generally early adopters of technologies that enable creativity and communication (cell phones, IM, scanners, photo editing software, etc.) whereas men tend to be early adopters of technology that is primarily entertainment (dvd players, video games, etc.).
eh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Social Commentary (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm curious. I seriously wonder if this, too, will be used as evidence to support that men and women are more different than alike (philosophically speaking, note).
Here's my prediction: The current status quo tends towards women not being adopters, purveyors, or masters of technology. While there are certainly pockets of discourse and space that argue against this, I would suggest this story is more widespread than its alternative (e.g. "women are technologically-savvy"). I have to wonder at what point the evidence for the realization that there is more intra-group variability than extra-group variability between the sexes will become wholly overwhelming and force a change in the commonplace "line" on women in/and technology.
I promised a prediction - here it is.
I should blog on this, but it's late. Thoughts? Am I way off-topic here?
Oh... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Oh... (Score:2)
Nothing New To Me (Score:2, Interesting)
Survey Problems (Score:2, Insightful)
Second, the fine print says women ages 15-49. Why not 15-99? Perhaps they wanted to distort the numbers to make it newsworthy.
Lastly, the study cannot imply anything about whether women actually like technology more than clothes. Perhaps they would prefer a digital camera to a pair of shoes because they have 200 shoes, and
I am a woman who loves technology and hates shoes (Score:4, Interesting)
This articles makes women out to be a bunch of fashion whores who are shocking people by wanting tech items. A weekend vacation in Florida is over in a weekend. That diamond necklace will only be worn on special occassionas (unless given by someone special, in which case I'd never take it off, as I never take off my pearl necklace except to shower). Why take the designer shoes over a pricey camera when knock-offs of those shoes can be had for $20? That plasma TV would be great for picking up the details in every outfit on Sex and the City. *sense the sarcasm*
Yet a plasma TV hardly counts for tech in my book. Why is an LCD TV not considered tech? Because they are hardly more than appliances. You want to fix a TV, you take it to an appliance repair person. Would this TV be considered a technological item if this study were done with men? Or would it be done with an item that requires more knowledge than how to press some buttons on a remote to change the channel?
Do this study with a MacBook and give women a little more credit than as mindless whores only concerned about where they shoes are Jimmy Choo or whatever. Then maybe more of us wouldn't be afraid of entering the domain of men.
Who am I kidding? I love being a woman in a man's world.
Re:I am a woman who loves technology and hates sho (Score:2)
Re:I am a woman who loves technology and hates sho (Score:2)
You know, if I were to try tagging anything in this reply, I'd come off looking like a loser. You took the fun out of it.
Re:I am a woman who loves technology and hates sho (Score:2)
Re:I am a woman who loves technology and hates sho (Score:4, Informative)
<tag>...</tag>
to get this result:
<tag>...</tag>
Otherwise the comment parser will eat the tags.
hot and bothered (Score:3, Insightful)
So what? (Score:3, Insightful)
What's more interesting is whether a) you can explain how a "tech" device works on a deep level and b) Whether you can alter it to make it more useful to you, whether through prgoramming or hardware mods. That's what they should be thinking about, not whether you have sufficient extra income to buy such devices.
Square root of 69? (Score:5, Funny)
8 something
Re:Square root of 69? (Score:4, Funny)
You get 8 more
Darn google. (Score:2)
8 something
8.30662386 to be precise, according to google calc [google.co.uk]
I know there is a joke inside there but as a non native American I could not catch it. So my first reaction was to copy/paste the question to Google and the humor insensitive search engine answered exactly what I was not looking for.
So, could anyone be so kind to tell me, what is the reason that everybody in the room I laughing out loud? I just imagine the scene =oP.
Re:NOOOOOOO!!!! (Score:2)
Ok now I've stopped laughing. Carry on.
Re:Come on... (Score:2)
The upside is: if she ever wanted to leave me, she'd first have to find another geek to maintain her PC for her.... or so she tells me