One fact that people like to label as a sexist statement is – Guys account for atleast 60% or more, when it comes to Geek. That is not a sexist statement. It’s a fact. A sexist comment would be that “a girl can never be a geek”
Stop running away from facts. Racism and Sexism are overused these days.

Relax! Life is too short to waste time finding ways to be offended. Instead, look for ways to be helpful to others! I wasted too much of my years holding a mirror in front of me! That just blocked my view of those who really matter in life. ;-)

I think you can atone for all your evil chauvinistic wrongdoings here by getting her a 3G. The 16G one, in fact, so she doesn’t have to worry about running out of space once she figures out the joys of music and podcasts on the same device as her super-cool phone.

(I fear I have to add that I am totally kidding. Well, about the evil chauvinistic stuff, anyway. She really does deserve the 3G!)

She never had a computer before, but she loves her iphone. So much so that when the 3G came around, I got her the 3G months before I got mine. We sync calendars and contacts with MobileMe as she rarely syncs to the computer. I missed ONE fertility doctor appointment before the MM sign-up. Consider $100 well-spent.

Now she reads news, emails me back!, plays games, reads books with ereader, checks the weather, stays more informed, mostly loves taking and sharing pictures. No other gadget would have enticed her into the realm of tech. I am not an Apple Fanboi (my new iMac seems to run very slow compared to the Windows XP I normally run), but Apple did this right. Tech and non-tech alike love this thing. There are bad things, sure- cut and paste- but overall both my wife and I both agree that the iphone is the most useful THING we own, dollar for dollar.

As for the ‘Hand Me Down” original iPhone, I deliberately left out the reality behind THAT situation – She was so nice to wash some of my jeans one afternoon (before I was ready to have them washed) and didn’t realize my iPhone was in the pocket… So I was forced to get a new one that afternoon. A week later after letting it dry, we fired the original up and it worked!! So that’s the story of how she got it – I thought it more kind-hearted to leave the incriminating part out, but since you asked… ;)

I guess the first paragraph could have been lifted so that it leaves out the generalizations. But I don’t know, I’m not getting too exercised about it. Interesting perspectives though!

Oh, and I’m glad your wife is finally seeing the life-changing benefits of the iPhone. Frankly, I think the worst part of the story is that you made her take your hand-me-down original. Now that she’s seen the light, are you going to seal the deal and upgrade her to a 3G? :)

The geek stereotype is typically male and single. The author didn’t establish this stereotype, nor is it at this point socially taboo. His parenthetical comment was actually saying that the stereotype “may” not actually be true.
Funnily enough that doesn’t imply that the readers are romantically challenged, rather the opposite, unless of course you are looking for it to.

In fact the only assumption that is made is that most geek’s better halves usually aren’t technical. While I have no idea if this is true or not, as far as I can tell, that doesn’t imply that most women aren’t technically inclined. At most it implies that geeks usually are smart enough to marry or date someone that balances them out.

As to the 1950′s cliché, if the rest of the article wasn’t directly related to how his wife uses the iPhone, I could see that as a valid point. However, since it is, and it’s also 2008, I would hope we have gotten past gender roles. Since his wife chooses to place her priorities in such a manner, I’m wondering why some people are choosing to point it out. Or perhaps it would be “better” if she was a high powered executive.

Thanks for the interesting article. Sorry that some people chose to find it inflammatory.

“As I think it goes with most geeks, our better half (yes as a matter of fact, some of us have girlfriends and wives!) usually isn’t the most technical of people”

He’s a self-described “geek”. It is assumed that his spouse is a non-”geek”. Calling a non-geek not the most technical of people, is logical. Where’s the sexism? Would it have been better if he were a female “geek”? Would then some males get upset about the sexism? Is the problem the fact that we’re assuming he’s married to a woman, and leaving out the possibility that he could have a male partner, thus the sexism is in assuming his partner has to be female?

People see what they want to see. If you look for sexism, you’ll see it in the water you drink.

There are still a lot of women out there who would rather be the “still-rather-common housewife” … as you put it Ken. I and everyone reading this knows the content of this post is meant for anyone to read and comment on but “doesn’t” apply to every single person. The reason why I thew in … “I don’t read all your articles for one reason or another but enjoyed this one because I went through the same ordeal but failed miserably.”

And perhaps yours is a 1970s-era cliché.

On a lighter note, Nick our author noted:: “… there’s still that whole forgetting to take the phone off vibrate issue.”

What a wonderful opening for an application, one that would put an iPhone on vibrate for a user-selected time and then switch it back to ring automatically.

“As I think it goes with most geeks, our better half (yes as a matter of fact, some of us have girlfriends and wives!) usually isn’t the most technical of people.”

I don’t think you have to read too deep to get the implication that (a) readers of this blog (“us”) are, er, romantically challenged, (b) readers of this blog are male, and (c) women are not technically inclined. (Okay, at least you acknowledge that the “half” is “better”, but that’s easily lost and might even sound patronizing in context.) We should give ourselves a good, hard stare and consider which of these assumptions we actually hold. Then, maybe we could all go read this. (:

Meanwhile, I have to firmly disagree with DaveE and suspect that Nick would, too. The real content of this post applies to any parent, from the single dad to the still-rather-common housewife. Aside from fixing the distracting intro, it could remain an account of Nick’s wife’s personal experience and be a perfectly fine post—no compromises. It’s all good, as long as we remember to acknowledge that our individual experiences are just that—individual experiences.

Gazoobee probably could have made these points without getting snarky, but it’s easy for me to forgive. My wife works in software and deals with crap like this on at least a weekly basis, and that’s at a company whose culture we think is on the upper tail of the curve. Most places now have the sense to stop holding company parties at strip clubs (I’m not making this up.), but we’ve got a long way to go to get past the latent “boy’s club” attitude. These things might seem small, esp. to some who take for granted the privilege that comes from being in the majority, but assumptions like these can, over time, profoundly affect how people feel they fit in or belong in an organization or community. What a sorry way to lose creative talent and perspective.