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Man To Live In House for One Year

Posted by Hemos on from the dumb-pr-stunts dept.

Barry K. Nathan writes "MSNBC is reporting that a geek is actually locking himself into a rented house for a year, to prove that e-commerce makes it possible. He's even changed his legal name to DotComGuy. He says, 'I'm going to come out being a loon,' but I think you have to be crazy already to even think of doing this in the first place... " Actually, it does appear that he can go in the backyard - and can have visitors. But still, I think I'd lose it after about two weeks or so.

12 of 228 comments (clear)

  1. What Does E-Commerce Have To Do With It? by turg · · Score: 3

    If you lived in a medieval town (or ancient Roman, etc.), wouldn't people would deliver your purchases for you if you paid them extra (i.e. shipping/delivery fee) for it? How does the Internet make staying in your home more possible than the telephone does? or an inky quill and a sheet of papyrus?

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  2. Top Ten Reasons... by msslave · · Score: 3

    The Top Ten Reasons the DotComGuy is not a True Dallas Area Geek.

    10. He will miss Fantansia 2000 on IMAX. Geeks dig classical stuff like that has a break from the techno and rock-n-roll life styles.

    9. People in Dallas drive, even geeks. Those who drive bicycles, motorcycles and small cars are called "targets". Then there are road trips to Austin and such.

    8. Geeks in Dallas go to users group meetings. There are ten different users groups where half the other geeks are named Chris. NTLUG, DFWUUG, etc..

    7. A true geek would have invited some buds along fro the piece of the action. At least a cat or a kitten. Then he could have a DotComPussyCat.

    6. First Saturday Sale. A Dallas thing.

    5. Going to Frys or MicroCenter to scoop out the latest stuff. Both carry Linux stuff and other essentials. MicroCenter has more BSD stuff and better books. Frys has a bit of everything. CompUsa is for the lame.

    4. Resturants. Dallas has more resturants then any other place in the known universe. You could eat out every meal for a century without being in a chain or repeating yourself. See Addison.

    3. A true geek would have a column in the Dallas Observer and substain from messing with Belo association. There is the WFAA Kristine Kahanek weather babe exception. www.wfaa.com

    2. A true geek would have moved in with a workstation to start with. A older geek would have an old PDP-11 or maybe a SGI 02. Laptops as a sole system are for marketing wusses.

    1. Babes. How is he going to get any quality women? True geek women are not into idoits called DotComGuy. What the heck do you call him? Dot? Com? Guy? Women want a true geek, half which in Dallas are called Chris Something.

  3. Man to live in Real World" for a year by chazR · · Score: 3

    "MSNBC is reporting that a geek is actually locking himself away from Internet access for a year, to prove that real-commerce makes it possible. He's even changed his legal name to NotDotComGuy. He says, 'I'm going to come back being a loon,' but I think you have to be crazy already to even think of doing this in the first place... " Actually, it does appear that he can go in the newsgroups - and can have check his email. But still, I think I'd have lost it after about two weeks or so.

  4. First Poster Who Actually Read The Article! by quadong · · Score: 3

    So, while this seems really dumb to me, i am interested in wheather he is actually going to make it, or if he will quit in the middle. It sounds sorta like thirty-days.com, which was interesting to look at for a little while, but i am sure most of their hits came from the few days after they were featured on slashdot. Wierd things like this just aren't captivating for that long. Once he realizes that few people are still paying attn to his show, i wonder if he will decide that it is no longer worth it.
    The article doesnt give much insight into his personality, except that he IS crazy enough to actually change his name to something that nobody wants to say everytime they talk to him (and with internal capitalization, joy!).

  5. Emotional/Mental stability by slag187 · · Score: 3

    I work at home (telecommuting). All I can say, is that I think that I would go nuts not being able to leave my house AT ALL. I make a point to get out everyday, usually by eating lunch out. I live in a small enough town, that I can walk to an area that has a dozen or so restraunts. If it wasn't for these daily jaunts out, I'd go stir crazy that's for sure.

    I guess it would be a small consolation that friends could come to your place - at least then you probably wouldn't talk to yourself. And being able to go into the backyard would prevent you from turning into a mushroom . . . but your human interaction would be severly limited. And unless you already had a (very understanding) significant other . . . (you get my drift :))

    But still, lets think of all of the social and cultural things that you can not participate in without leaving home. Theater, movies, concerts, parties, going to a bar with friends . . . these are just a few of the things that I do at least once a week. Without them I'm pretty sure that most people would become hopelessly depressed (at least I would).

    Anyway, I don't think I'd do it. One thing we've learned in the tech world - lots of money can't make up for having no life :)

  6. Livin La Vida Loca by richj · · Score: 3

    Groceries from PeaPod: $80

    Shampoo from DrugStore.com: $4

    Call Girls from an Online Pimp: $800

    Pulling off this lame Publicity Stunt: Priceless

  7. A First by W^3 · · Score: 3

    Does this make him the first 'e-hermit'

  8. Okay... by QuMa · · Score: 4

    I'm usually not the kind of person to suggest this, but this is getting way out of hand:

    Who can obtain his IP address? As soon as we get it, we'll pingflood/teardrop/whatever him to kingdom come... No food, no online shopping, nothing to do (Unless he's got enough books :0 ).

    As long as that doesn't happen, he's just getting way too much money.

  9. THIS IS NOT NEWS! by TheKodiak · · Score: 4

    This angers me so much - I am so sick of hearing about this guy on the nightly news, in the newspaper - it's SO much worse when you live in Dallas, because so many of his sponsors are local, including fucking A.H. Belo corp who runs half the media in this city, so they're all covering it like it's interesting. What's even passingly interesting is the amount of money the sponsors are pumping into this. Otherwise, it's basically a year-long talk show featuring a dork.

    It's not an advance in web-cam intrusiveness - we have 24-7 webcams all over the place.

    It's not an advance in "using technology to avoid leaving the house" - my parents have just about managed it, themselves. Thousands of people have lived most of their lives that way without the benefit of professional caretakers. Even 50 years ago, with enough money, you could buy every single thing you wanted with just the phone. Augh.

    This is an advance in hype. Nothing more.

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  10. It's essentially been done for the past 100 years by Wells2k · · Score: 4
    This isn't so bad. At least he is alone. When I was in the Navy, being out to sea for a couple of months in a submarine was a lot worse. Imagine being stuck in a house of probably the same square footage, only you are there with 100+ other men at the same time.

    Big deal. It's been done.

  11. What the hell is the point of this? by NightHwk · · Score: 4

    This is just an extended version of the crap experiment we see made by journalists all too often.

    If he suceeds, so what? Can we make use of his knowledge in our future space exploration? Would we have not lost the Mars probes if one click shopping was more common?

    If he fails, does that herald the end of the internet? The automobile didn't spell the end of walking, why should the internet spell the end of going anywhere?

    Nothing of value can possibly come from this as far as I can see. This is just another publicity stunt to make money for whatever parties are involved.

    Something more worthwhile would be starting a business with every employee from a different city around the country or globe, and have them do all their comunication through the internet (no phone calls, no fax, no paper just email/messaging and file attatchments).
    Or another idea: Send Katz to Alaska for a year to live /without/ the internet and have him journal the experience, I'm sure enough /.'s would love that one =]

    NightHawk
    Set threshold at -1 flamebait to read this comment

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  12. Alternate headlines: by bons · · Score: 4

    Man gives up. Admits he'll never get laid.
    Sewer problem causes back up. Man stays in home anyway.
    How to roach bomb without leaving your home!
    Man gains over 100 lbs on Domino's Pizza. Wishes he had been allowed to go to the gym.
    Doctor makes house call! Film at 11.
    (alternate) Doctor still refuses to make house call. Building condemned.
    Man vows revenge on unknown hacker who ordered 100 boxes of termites and had them delivered to his house.
    Local Escort Delivery Agency records record profits.
    Man discovers that car insurance rates get jacked up when you cancel your car insurance.
    Local Cable TV ups man's rate to $1000/month. "Come in and complain if you don't like it." says company exec.
    Man jailed for refusing to serve on jury.
    UPS refuses further delivery until occupant showers.
    Neighbors sue over local eyesore. Man hasn't cut grass in months.

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