> How would you advise nonhackers to evaluate hackers?

That's a very good question. Competent people generally know if they are better or worse than one of their peers. However, if no-one in your extended social circle is better than a mis-guided power user then you'd be unlikely to get a trusted and reliable opinion on ability.

In which case, a good proxy would be a de-emphasis on whizzy pixels. Any kid can make CSS menus and non-interactive Flash. However, how many normalise a database or install a firewall?