macogw
July 19th, 2007, 05:04 AM
I saw this wireless card (http://i19.ebayimg.com/02/i/000/8c/72/b222_1.JPG) at Best Buy (American chain computer store), and since I have a Broadcom-based wireless card in this computer right now, I thought I'd ask what chipset that card was. If it was Atheros or RaLink, that'd be awesome, right? The package gives no hint, so I asked the nearest sales guy what chipset it was. He said PCI. I pointed out that that's the bus, not the chipset, and he went "oh...yeah...chipset? I don't know." So, I wandered a bit trying to see if any of the display computers had an internet connection on which I could look it up, but no such luck.
I took it over to Geek Squad (their tech support / computer repair people), and waited in line while a guy tried to say that his inability to install iTunes on Vista should fall under the category of a warranty issue to get the lady at Geek Squad to install it for him without charging him the $30 software installation fee. When it was my turn, I asked what chipset it was. She looked at it, and said "PCI." I repeated, "no, chipset, not the bus." And again, she said, "PCI." Hoping, this could fall under the category of "brain fart" and that I could nudge her train of thought in the right direction (she works for Geek Squad...a geek knows that chipset ≠ bus, so this is just a blip, right?), I said, "No, PCI's the bus, I'm asking about chipset," and she responded, again, this time pointing at the phrase "PCI Adapter," "it's PCI." OK, obviously a rather dim bulb. Time to talk to her like she's 5. My voice was starting to get an edge to it because this woman has no business working in computer repair when she doesn't even know that PCI is a bus. "The bus means how it connects here *points to shiny gold part* and goes in the slot. The chipset is all these little circuitry bits all over--" "Ma'am, don't speak to me like that." Well, gee, lady, you're the poseur pretending to know about computers. From any random person, perfectly acceptable response. Unacceptable from a "geek."
Finally, she asked what it's for (not relevant!), but I answered truthfully, "my desktop running Linux," and she Googled it. She said it was a Broadcom (damn) and that there's no Linux drivers. I told her that there may not be ones for n (n isn't even a finished spec yet!), but in general, Broadcom is supported for unencrypted connections, and that card can do B & G, of which at least B is supported (not sure about G), meaning it would work, just without the N speed-boost, but given that my current one is a Broadcom too, this wouldn't be any sort of improvement.
One of my cousins said I should've asked to speak to her supervisor and told them about her lack of knowledge, but I rather doubt the supervisor would've been any better. Between the experiences I've had with them, those friends have had ("Linux kills hard drives"???), and stories I've seen, I'm starting to think Best Buy has a policy against hiring knowledgeable people. I will back this up by adding that although 3 times while shopping there the salespeople have asked if I wanted a job because I kept asking questions about specs they couldn't answer and correcting them (the Turion64 X2 is not a desktop processor!), their computerized application / personality test always rejects me (of course, this is before the interview where I could show I know my stuff). And then they hire people like this.
I took it over to Geek Squad (their tech support / computer repair people), and waited in line while a guy tried to say that his inability to install iTunes on Vista should fall under the category of a warranty issue to get the lady at Geek Squad to install it for him without charging him the $30 software installation fee. When it was my turn, I asked what chipset it was. She looked at it, and said "PCI." I repeated, "no, chipset, not the bus." And again, she said, "PCI." Hoping, this could fall under the category of "brain fart" and that I could nudge her train of thought in the right direction (she works for Geek Squad...a geek knows that chipset ≠ bus, so this is just a blip, right?), I said, "No, PCI's the bus, I'm asking about chipset," and she responded, again, this time pointing at the phrase "PCI Adapter," "it's PCI." OK, obviously a rather dim bulb. Time to talk to her like she's 5. My voice was starting to get an edge to it because this woman has no business working in computer repair when she doesn't even know that PCI is a bus. "The bus means how it connects here *points to shiny gold part* and goes in the slot. The chipset is all these little circuitry bits all over--" "Ma'am, don't speak to me like that." Well, gee, lady, you're the poseur pretending to know about computers. From any random person, perfectly acceptable response. Unacceptable from a "geek."
Finally, she asked what it's for (not relevant!), but I answered truthfully, "my desktop running Linux," and she Googled it. She said it was a Broadcom (damn) and that there's no Linux drivers. I told her that there may not be ones for n (n isn't even a finished spec yet!), but in general, Broadcom is supported for unencrypted connections, and that card can do B & G, of which at least B is supported (not sure about G), meaning it would work, just without the N speed-boost, but given that my current one is a Broadcom too, this wouldn't be any sort of improvement.
One of my cousins said I should've asked to speak to her supervisor and told them about her lack of knowledge, but I rather doubt the supervisor would've been any better. Between the experiences I've had with them, those friends have had ("Linux kills hard drives"???), and stories I've seen, I'm starting to think Best Buy has a policy against hiring knowledgeable people. I will back this up by adding that although 3 times while shopping there the salespeople have asked if I wanted a job because I kept asking questions about specs they couldn't answer and correcting them (the Turion64 X2 is not a desktop processor!), their computerized application / personality test always rejects me (of course, this is before the interview where I could show I know my stuff). And then they hire people like this.