More from The Geek Handbook:

3.2.4 Eating Out With Your Geek Part I

Occasionally you may attempt to take your geek off-site for a dining experience. A meal off the grid presents several challenges. Try incorporating your geek’s surfing skills into the planning. Say to your geek, “I wonder if there is a Moroccan restaurant near the movie theater, with parking, and entrees between twelve and fifteen dollars?” Your geek will happily hunt down this information for you on various city guides and search engines, while the phone books of your father’s generation sit sullenly. Warning: this option does limit you to eating at places in the search engines, but at least you’re getting out of the house.

3.2.4 Eating Out With Your Geek Part II

Ready to go? Your geek will arm himself with a palmtop, cellphone, GPS, beeper, and anything else he can think of. Your nice meal at a local bistro has turned into an Apollo mission. There are two ways to confront this. One is to go to a geek-themed restaurant which provides an arcade or other stimulating environment. He won’t need his silicon security blanket if you give him a roll of quarters. The other strategy is to appeal to your geek’s rebel side. There is a moment in many geek narratives where the hero is required to go forth with no technology to help him. Remember, the Federation always ultimately beat the Borg with nothing but their human ingenuity even when all shields were down. Carelessly say to your geek that you know some programmers need those silly accouterments, but you know that your geek is so efficient that they aren’t necessary. Besides, surely if the server goes down, either the company will send out a SWAT team for him, or he will just know. It is like a mother hearing her baby cry.