The Christmas Helper Strikes Again November 30, 2011

Happy Holidays everyone.  With the passing of Thanksgiving I’ve decided to spend several times over the month sharing some of my favorite gaming related Christmas shopping memories.  I want to share another quick story with all of you from a few years back.

I’ve got a pretty short story to tell this time.  With all the major technological advancements that are made every year and then become standard within the next year, some people who are just jumping in can find themselves in deep water without a floatation device.  Six years ago, did anyone even know what an HDMI cable was?  By 2013 everyone will have to support it if they want to continue to watch Blu-Ray movies after that date.

I have two stories that happened at two different years right around Christmas that involve people from the analog generation being thrust into the digital one, and thankfully, I was there to help them out so they could give their families a merry Christmas.

The first story happened while I was Christmas shopping for various friends and family, and at the time I was just browsing looking for deals on hardware.  I overheard a cell phone conversation with this older gentelman (looked to be in about his mid-40s) and it was clear he was talking to someone he had trouble understanding.  While I couldn’t hear what was on the other end of the phone, his mannerisms and what he was saying made it pretty clear he was being told to buy something he had no understanding of, and was completely lost.

Just to show you how lost he was, he clearly said into the phone, “What’s HDMI?”

Oh boy, was he in trouble, and he needed help.  I flipped around a DVD player I was looking at and saw it had an HDMI port.  I said to him, “That’s HDMI,” and pointed at the port.  He heard me and nodded and I walked away.

I know I probably should have minded my own business since that’s the popular judgement most people have for each other nowadays, but it was Christmas and this guy was obviously completely lost as to what he was expected to do.  I figured some help was in order, and I’m sure his family appreciated that he got them the correct gifts for Christmas, instead of running the chance of having to find reciepts and return anything that he incorrectly purchased that wouldn’t work properly with whatever their existing setup was.

In short, this is just another example of what can happen when you have what should be private cell phone conversations in public.  People around you can probably hear you better than the person that’s on the other end of the phone.  In my case, I decided to be a nice guy and help him out.  I mean, wouldn’t anyone help a lost man find his way out of a forest?