Geeks vs. Geniuses

When I say Geek, I am referring to the geeks of Best Buy’s Geek Squad; and by Geniuses, I mean the boy wonders at Apple. I am pretty sure that you already have your own opinions – whether they are based on experience or not, I don’t know.

Zack Stern of PCWorld took it upon himself to carry out a test to determine who’s smarter of the two groups. What he did was to create a test comprised of seven “platform-agnostic” questions. These questions are based on real-life issues that real people have encountered.

Here’s a sampling of what he asked and the answers he got from both sides.

Q:I can’t play certain online video files. On my Windows 7 PC, the problem seems to happen on Apple’s movie trailer site. On my OS X Mac, I can’t see various HD files on the Microsoft site.
Geek (answers about the PC): If you’re getting video from the Apple site, it’s going to need QuickTime. There should be an error message telling you that.
Genius (answers about the Mac): The video should say what the requirements are. Those videos should be in Windows Media; you’ll need to get the Windows Media codec. You could also download Perian, a multicodec tool. Perian works for all kinds of Internet video.

He gave the Genius the point here because of the multicodec suggestion.

Q: I installed MP3 Locker to sync my music online, but it keeps harassing me when I start up my computer. Is there a way to stop it?
Geek: Find it in the bottom-right (System Tray) and click customize. Or go into the application’s options/settings screen and look for a way to turn it off in startup.
Genius: Your best bet is to look in System Preferences. Go to Accounts, and click Login items. You’ll see everything that happens when you start.

For this question, the Geek won because he offered two options.

So who won? Why don’t you go to the full list of questions (and answers) and find out for yourself?

What I can tell you now is this: if you asked Sheldon Cooper, he would just scoff at you!