Prove your geekage

Alright.....Background for this thread; Today I was asked by another geek in school to prove my geekage, coz I don't look any thing like your generic geek. So, later that day It dawned on me......why don't I ask the nice ppl of AO how geeky they are or can be.

so...say with me "We'r Geek's, We'r Loud. We'r Freaks, We'r Proud" or do like me and mumble it so no one hears you :D

Any how....I just wanted to know who is the geekyest in AO, and how geeky is the general AO Population.....call it my "AO Dooms Day Project"

- Noia

Being a geek is no easy job now a days, if anyone has some ideas to become more "geekier" fill me in on them, other than wearing a pocket protector.

I try to be as socially ungeeky as possibly. But I tend to slip up and use computer terms to describe my thought process and actions.

hehe....I wouldnt be cought dead with one of those...although I do have a craving for one.....not coz I need to protect my pocket, but because I can look important....er......well.....

I acctualy failed to prove how geeky I was, although I did say I re-wire the inside of my comp alsmot twice a day..trying to find the best config.....and that's almost true....:D

- Noia

Hmm, I am definately not a stereotypical geek either, at least not physically. My build is probably more football player like, and I have about 30 inches of hair that stops close to my waist. Thats where my non-geekishness stops. Most of my friends would probably agree that I average at least 8 hours a day on the internet, many of which are spent on IRC. I check my email and IRC chanel before I do anything else in the morning, hell there are even pictures of me culed up asleep with my laptop laying on my chest in a friends room.

Suberme > if you wanna go geekier than a pocket protector, try having ascii art of nude or semi-nude chicks on your walls. (Bonus points for computer related females) Or if you make it a habbit to have a internet ready machine within arms reach of your bed so you can be on the net within a minute of waking up.

Actually, i was asking for ways other than a pocket protector, not better. Although your idea of porn in ascii is pretty interesting.

go to thinkgeek.com, they have plenty of ways for you to bring out your inner geek.

there's always geek jokes and such. you know, things only geeks would understand and laugh at. like today, in class, we had a test. the question was something about DNS, and one guy said he knows he got the answer wrong. when the teacher asked what he put, another guy said "WINS!" and everyone started laughing.

and, of course, you can use computer termonology in every day life to replace other words, making it seem like you're not doing anything wrong. for instance, while doing a head-to-toe scan of an attractive female, rather than saying the obvious "checking out", the geeks in my class say "rasterizing". you don't even have to worry about what others will think when a few girls walk by, then another guy says "ah, doing a little rasterizing?"

haha! lol! "rasterizing" that's geek alright!

Oh, and did somebody say thinkgeek.com! Half my t-shrits are from thinkgeek and openbsd. I love my thinkgeek "Geek" (GAP parodie) hooded sweatshirt (http://www.thinkgeek.com/apparel/hoodies/583e/); perfect for those cold server rooms! ;)

Ammo

Prove my geekage eh.. well this is for me and my roommate combined.

First of all, like Syini666, i'm built more like a football player.. at 6'2, 250lbs.

Now. here's my apt.

We had until 3 days ago 6 TVs, 3 of which were disassembled on the floor. right now in the apt (which is roughly 20ft by 20ft) we have at least 4 fully functional computers, holes drilled with wires running to all rooms. a soldering iron laying on the living floor... all custom stereo systems in every room. a stack of monitors in one corner, boxes of old comp parts on my roommates floor. We both have cell phones + our home line.. 3 lines for 2 people... We own webspace, and have around 10-15 shell accounts + run servers out of our apt. our decorations include an Alex.. for an older canadians (don't know if it was in the states) it was in the late 80s and eraly 90s that bell introduced a BBS with it's phone system. and Alex was the device used to connect. it's got a monochrome monitor, data modem, keyboard and will automatically switch to console mode when it detects a modem on the other end, but can also be used for regular phone calls. other decorations include a string with CDs tied to it hanging down the wall.. computer boxes. and such. we also both treasure our calculators.. bringing them everywhere... We both used to have PDAs.. i traded mine for a digital camera which my roommate bought of me.. we've got every peripheral you can name.. 2 scanners, 2 printers, 2 webcams, a barcode reader (yes a barcode reader), my roommates homemade AC to DC power supply... and countless other things..

My roommate also has acomputer running in his car with a touch screen and custom written programs...

We also own and run a computer sales and service + webdesign + custom app programming out of our apt.

so yeah.. I'd say we're geeks..

thinkgeek.com is awesome!!! I've got three shirts from them -- one that just says geek, another that says codegirl, and an older one that says #!/usr/bin/girl.

My favorite geek item....are these beer glasses that I bought last fall.

Also...I have three computers running in my room at all times and my laptop does get half of the bed every night. Am I a geek -- maybe. Am I strange -- likely. ;)

I think the whole geek thing came to a new level when in a the middle of a college party at a fraternity my buddies cd player started going spazastic so I took it apart with ppl dancing around me cleaned the laser, reset the line and closed it back up to continue partying and having a good time. Just one of the many geeky things I have done. I own almost every new gadget as soon as it comes out (even though I dont use half of them). I live alone and due to my computers my electric bill is equal to that of my 5 friends that live together. Obsessed i think

I feel like a geek now . I used to a party girl :) and now I have 3 computers and 2 laptops all of them running *nix (different OSes...yes I am just beginner *nix BTW, but I am learning fast..faster then you though ;) ). My friends told me my bedroom 's like "computer shop" LOL... but well that's parts of my learning thing and I am enjoy being geek...geek is rock.. :p

well dress wise im pretty normal I most certainly dont wear a pocket protector or anything like that LOL i dont wear glasses or have any of the old sterotype featuresof one that may be labled as a "geek"
at the moment i only have one comp. but I'm saving up to get a new one and then im probably going to turn this one into a *nix box so i can learn that as well because Ive always been interested in learning that OS and now being an AO member it just increases and makes me want to learn it even more LOL thanks alot guys and gals ! (meant as a compliment) LOL
unfourtunantly too I'm working in retail *UgH*! but I would love to be in the tech field in some shape or form someday :D I'm always reading the magazines and constantly ending up at the computer section of my local Barnes and Nobleand of course browsing online I'm always talking about this stuff at work either talking about some tech subject or telling co-workers about the specs' of the computer I'm saving up for LOL just to find that alot of the ones I mention it too have NO clue what the hell I'm talking about LOL .. and I'm sure think I'm weird. there are some exceptions of course but the more I think about it ... LOL yeah I'm with ya bro LOL I'm a geek !!:confused: :thumbsup: but hey I'm proud its something I really enjoy and enjoy learning new things about it expanding my knoledge and understanding.
and I'll shut up now LOL

Heheh, this is a wild topic! Geekiness is in around my area I guess? In high school I was your typical geek, I wa in the A/V plug, I taught classes, I looked over computer labs on my free time, helped teachers outside of school with computer problems, was able to skip school because I could fix a computer, I used all the 'puter lingo, I was happy to be a geek. By my senior year I was actually very popular because of it, and by my looks you wouldn't know by just looking at me because I didn't wear really geekish looking clothing... but I always had fun pointing out I was a geek. Especially with my friends who weren't as geeky as me but were learning, we would always have battles in the middle of class for fun arguing about how the other person couldn't out process a 386SX with no math co-processor and things like that.

Personally I'm kind of happy to see it's hard to be a "geek" today. Because people always use to put a geek out there as someone never to talk to, an outcast, etc. But today it's all a mix, you can be a hardcore nerd/geek/whatever and still be socially excepted. Or at least that's what I've seen around my area and in the few places I've gone.

Oh dear...I'v been out-geeked.....Currently, I have one computer in my room, one downstairs, and I'm building one from scrap... (Wish me luck)
I SOOO wish I had more comps..but there ya go.....I think that geeks these days dress more or less the same as every one else.....and act more or less like every one else......how ever....what pisses my friends of is that they can ask a Hypothetical question, and I can answer it just of the top of my head, and I'll be right, also..I have an annoying habit ot telling every one useless facts that are linked to what ever we happen to talk about...

lol, it's nice to see the geekage grow and expand here in AO and else were.

- Noia

I literally had a dream the other night about a way to "mark" packets at the router to ensure that they were not being intercepted or eavesdropped upon. I'm now working on a way of making it so. All done at the binary level.

Regarding thread_killer's post.

Computer dreams! Another excellent topic! I've had a few code dreams. In some I see the code so clearly but when I wake up all I can remember is that I "could" see the code and the rest is lost.

One was the c++ code for (I know this won't make sense, but, hey, it WAS a dream) for diplaying the trajectory of a car as it flies off a ramp given the angle of the ramp, the speed of the car and the weight of the car. Then (this is the part that doesn't make sense) it would display a visual of the car's path on a wall. Sounds more like VB, but it wasn't. The other was code written to make an old machine age desk lamp work. What was strange about this code was that it was written on some kind of electronic "tablet" (not a computer) and the lamp could be plugged into the "tablet" (which had the code to restore the lamp) and the lamp would just work.

Anyone else have geeky dreams?

I know about lego-porn does that make me a geek? ; ) Seriously though, when I have laryngitis no-one would recognise me as a geek, but the moment I open my mouth. (My T shirts don't help - wore one on Monday which said '404 - shirt/tie not found' to which our Dir of IT remarked: "when you get a bad stomach is it a '500 (internal server error)'?"

I consider myself an ubergeek, ie one with social skills and good hair.

Rachel

I actually dream computer stuff all the time. I won't even go into some of the embedded *nix devices I dream about. I'm actually working on one of them too, as well as the "radioactive" router packets. All playing with fill bits and modifying the Cisco IOS (essentially FreeBSD) a little bit.......that's pretty geeky. :D

W00t. I was negged for my last post on this thread.. Does that mean I win..?? YAY for me. the geekiest of them all..

Anyways. heh.. today ina hardware class of second semester computer students I was the only one able to completely disassemble the PC and put it back together working.. does that add to my geek points? There's what AO needs.. instead of APs .. GPs geek points. based on how geeky or ungeeky your responces are

hmm, Am i a geek..

I drive a fast car, listen to dance music... and have a military stile haircut - but what it still boils down to....

The 1st thing i do when i get up every morning.... check my email!, Check the news sites... then spend all day sitting infront of the PC fiddling with ppl's web servers.

Yes that includes in the evenings, nothing quite like a cheap night of Vodka & Internet abuse ;)

With today's standards, its hard to point out your stereotypical geek by sight. I mean we do come in all shapes and sizes nowadays right. Its no longer some scrawny overly short young kid hidden away in his parents basement. However, i guess there a few of us left :-). Easier ways to point out a true geek is getting them to talk in front of groups of ppl. You can just tell they some ppl are geeks by the way they talk. Sometimes we even sympathise with these people. I think if you starting using thinks like "lol" or "ppl" ( representing people) in everyday writing, and converstaion; then you are truely geeky. Now me? i think i am a geek. i am 19 years old, own my own computer company, and spend 18hrs a day plus on a computer. If you saw me on the street you'd never assume that. I am 6'4" built like a tampa bay linebacker :-) but yes i am geek.
But only because i truely worry about those little things. un-important things about technology, like theories and technologies based on IPV6 (internet protocal version 6) so we dont run out of ip addresses..
yes this is a big worry for me.
and yes.. its keeps me awake at night
:-)

You know in this day and age, when programmers are in one of the better paid career paths I think we probably need to take back the term geek. I always tell people I consider being called a geek a compliment (it implies knowledge). However I still consider the term 'nerd' to be offensive.

I have dreams about Windows Working.....yes...working.....this isn't a joke...I have had dreams where all of a sudden I could do really cool stuff on Windows...can't remember wot...but I remember waking up...turning on Windows...and feeling disapointed coz it wasn't like that..

A friend of mine had a dream about Windows-Install for XP.....hes spent a week fixing it and musta installed it like 48 times....poor guy.

Lol....Geeks Rule!

- Noia

Quote:

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Originally posted here by englishgirl1
I always tell people I consider being called a geek a compliment (it implies knowledge). However I still consider the term 'nerd' to be offensive.

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yeah, same with me.

as far as geek dreams go... once i dreamt i was buying RAM. i think i'm not sure if that's sheer geekiness, or complete sadness :p

either way, i think once i get my own place and a decent-paying job, it'll only get worse. my room will only glow from the monitor and various LEDs. possible cold cathode lights inside the case. and whatever other gadgets i have. and i'm sure i'll get that binary clock from Thinkgeek :D

Quote:

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Originally posted here by englishgirl1
You know in this day and age, when programmers are in one of the better paid career paths I think we probably need to take back the term geek. I always tell people I consider being called a geek a compliment (it implies knowledge). However I still consider the term 'nerd' to be offensive.

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I'm with you on that... somehow I associate "nerd" with the "old stereotypical geek" (ie: "pocket protector geek"), which we obviously aren't...

(Does this mean we wouldn't be accepted as geek if we went back in the 70-80's ? Would we still be geeks? Are we geeks and they were nerds, or as geekdom itself change? Heh... )

Oh, an btw, yeah, code dreams, useless facts, being right about hypotetical questions, knowing what users did wrong even before they start explaining there problem, and (other techs will surely agree) Tech Aura (TM)* are all definit signs of geekness!

*Tech Aura: You know, when someone swears that their printer or computer or whatever tech gear isn't working, that they've been trying to fix it for days without success then call you in desperate need and then you walk in, try it AS IS once, and works fine... (I've always wondered if that's because the gear in question is intimidated by us or our aura has techno-healing powers... ;)


Ammo

Hmm...Whenever I lose anything in the physical world (not cyberworld) I always think to myself if only I could do a Control-F and search for it, it would be so much easier. (Please note i never say this out loud.) I cant eat popcorn without busting out a corny joke on the latest linux kernel, (get it "corny" hahahah). I wake up in the middle of the night and relize a possible solution why my program wasnt compiling yesterday at work. Then i stay up the rest of the night finishing it. Consequently, I have nothing to do at work the next day except develop my googling skills. Consequently, I have been known by many people to give very inspiring tutorials on all the little known but extremely useful features of google. Contrary to popular belief I dont work for google. What else? Thats all i can think of right now but trust me there is more.

pEaCe

Omg lol its like impossable for me to be a geek i cant even spell lol

ok...the dreams, I network in my dreams, re-run cables, config the server, mess with the switches. . all that stuff.

thinkgeek, love it all - wore my "No, I will not fix your computer" t-shirt to work today (I'm the only computer person @ my site)

and the geekiest thing about me...I have a board mounted over my tub and drops in every room (including the bathrooms) just so I can be online anywhere,

Don't mock me. . . do you know how much surfin you can get done while taking a bubble bath?

BTW yes, every precaution has been taken so that no techtech's will be hurt while surfin and soakin.

*techtech is so very sad. . .oh yes. . .so sad...she is ubergeek...and yes...she knows it.

I dunno, "geek" is a hard word to pin now. I'm extremely involved with anything tech. Especially with my courses and such. But I don't get perfect grades (homework*sigh*)or have a non-existant social life. I'm very apt with tech things(but pales compared to some alot of people here) but I still have a very good socail life. The past year of my life was spent clubbing and having a fantastic night life. I had a band awhile back and everything. You'd be surprised how many people are just like me in that sense. Computers today are such a common part of life that they arn't really regarded as being "nerdy". Like said earlier in this topic, geek implys knowlege more than anything else. And yes, the 80's geek is truely dead. YAY! Peace.

*yawns*... I'm so Geek it hurts...

Well since this is going so strong.. let's add a lil addendum to the thread because i think this determines how big (or lil) of a geek you are..

How many hours do you spend on AO?.. I think it's valid.. the geekier ya are.. prolly the more time you spend reading AO or AO type forums.

For me personally I prolly spend at least 4 hours a day, probably more. I love having a laptop infront of me while I'm supposed to be listening to lecture.

I fit the "J Random Hacker" profile in jargon.txt to a tee.

Quote:

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Intelligent. Scruffy. Intense. Abstracted. Surprisingly for a sedentary profession, more hackers run to skinny than fat; both extremes are more common than elsewhere. Tans are rare.

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Only thing above that doesn't fit me, I'm not skinny...

Quote:

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Casual, vaguely post-hippie; T-shirts, jeans, running shoes, Birkenstocks (or bare feet). Long hair, beards, and moustaches are common. High incidence of tie-dye and intellectual or humorous `slogan' T-shirts (only rarely computer related; that would be too obvious).

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Check out my picture in my profile: the t-shirt says "probation violator" by the way. and i don't wear any establishable facial hair configuration, but i rarely shave. and I do NOT wear friggin birkenstocks!

Quote:

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Things Hackers Detest and Avoid:
IBM mainframes. All the works of Microsoft. Smurfs, Ewoks, and other forms of offensive cuteness. Bureaucracies. Stupid people. Easy listening music. Television (with occasional exceptions for cartoons, movies, and good SF like "Star Trek" classic or Babylon 5). Business suits. Dishonesty. Incompetence. Boredom. COBOL. BASIC. Character-based menu interfaces.

---

yes to all

I found myself driving on the freeway tonight pretending I was a packet, and all the exit #s I took were ports.
Plus I bought my gf a tshirt that says "I love my geek"

Does this mean I’m a geek, or just an old fart?

. My wife hasn’t let me wear my pocket protector for the last 20+ years ( her father got it for me, they made sense to me and wanted one since I was in high school )

. When my 29 yr old was small and having problems telling time, I wrote a program in basic which would randomly replicate the face of a clock ( analog ) and ask what time it said ( yes, she learned to tell time and enjoyed doing it! )

. I believe outdated equipment means “spare parts”

. my attic ( and bedroom, living room, basement, ... never mind, lets focus only on the attic ) is full of old, out dated computer parts including an original, sawed and hacked IBM PC ( that’s an 8088, and yes I know what that means ), and a Tandy Model I

. I was in awe the first time I downloaded and installed Mosaic ( thank you Marcus for reminding me )

. I used to have TechTV on whenever I was awake and at home, until those ( expletive deleted ) at Comcast took it off their lineup. ( for those outside North America, TechTV [ techtv.com ] is a telivision network geared toward computer related issues, which my wife referred to as “Geek TV”. Although redundant, was a great source to keep up with the changes in tech. )

. People are afraid to mention the word “computer” around me unless they don’t know any better or they have a problem no one else has been able to help them with

. when someone does have a computer question no one else can answer, and they do resort to asking me, I have twenty to thirty questions trying to pin down exactly what their problem or question is, and they look at me like I have three heads ( I’m trying to correct this and give general responses, but it is very difficult: I sincerely want to help solve their problem )

. I have a Red Hat 5.2 bumper sticker on my car ( truck actually, I’m a closet Red Neck )

. I feel very comfortable wearing a Red Hat 7.1 baseball cap for “dressed up” casual dress
( for Formal dress I used to wear a Stetson, but by 29 year old sat on it when she was small: see above )

. Several years ago when I first became interested in Linux, then again just four years ago, ( wow, after thinking about it had to change this value several times ) one of the top level MIS employees told me he knew nothing about Linux, now claims to be the resident expert.

. My last six supervisors in my yearly reviews, ( several duplicated through the years ) stated I should be transferred to MIS

. the MIS people avoid me

. the people in charge of MIS avoid me

. I am constantly amazed at the solutions of the MIS dept. at work:
network not running right; upgrade all computers to W2K .
Excessive hard drive failures; upgrade computers ( wait a minute. They upgraded all the Pentiums and PIIs w/16-32 meg RAM to W2K, and now wonder why they have constant hard drive failures?????? The solution is now to replace all those computers when all they are used for is to compose an occasional letter??? If you understand the problems I have with this, YOU ARE A GEEK! )

. After years of reading AO when I could, finally registered.

. I wrote this only to come closer to the ten posts I need to use a custom avatar, which I haven’t decided on yet. ;-)

WOW....

I would have to say I spend around 5-7 Houres on AO deppending on how well I do my home-work.....clearly I'v been out-geeked...still, it's nice to see that people havn't given up on their geekage and tried to be "cool" hackers like the ppl from Hackers or the Matrix (I hate people like that) oh well.....

Long Live AO! lol

- Noia

Am I an incurable geek?
When I waste one hour doing something like this:

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.1
GCS/L/MU/S/IT/ d-(+) s:- a? C++ UL++ P+ L++ E W++ N+ !o K- w--
!O M- V PS+() PE Y+ PGP++ t- 5 X+ R* tv- b+++ DI+ D++
G e>+++++ h* r-- y?
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------

I think I am.
Explanations on http://www.geekcode.com/

Decoded (In rough):

GCS = Geek of Computer Science
L = Linux
MU = Has no Variable, might hve been GMU - Geek of Music
S = Sun OS/Solaris
IT = Can't find the variable, might have been GIT - Geek of Information Technology
d+(-)
d+ = Good leisure-wear. Slacks, button-shirt, etc. No jeans, tennis shoes, or t-shirts.
d- = I'm usually in jeans and a t-shirt.
C++ = Computers are a large part of my existence. When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is log myself in. I play games or mud on weekends, but still manage to stay off of academic probation.
UL++ = [L Linux] = U++ = I've get the entire admin ticked off at me because I am always using all of the CPU time and trying to run programs that I don't have access to. I'm going to try cracking /etc/passwd next week, just don't tell anyone
P+ = I know of Perl. I like Perl. I just haven't learned much Perl, but it is on my agenda.
L++ = I use Linux ALMOST exclusively on my system. I've given up trying to achieve Linux.God status, but welcome the OS as a replacement for DOS. I only boot to DOS to play games.
E = Yeah, I know what emacs is, and use it as my regular editor.
W++ = I have a homepage. I surf daily. My homepage is advertised in my .signature.
N+ = I read news recreationally when I have some time to kill.
o = I've submitted a question, but it has never been incarnated.
!o = Above but with anger.
K- = I don't know who Kibo is.
w-- = MS Windows is a joke operating system. Hell, it's not even an operating system. NT is Not Tough enough for me either. 95 is how may times it will crash an hour.
O = I finally managed to get OS/2 installed but wasn't too terribly impressed.
!O = Above with anger, I think.
M- = Macs suck. All real geeks have a character prompt.
V = I've used VMS.
PS+ = My whole concept of liberalism is that nobody has the right to tell anybody else what to do, on either side of the political fence. If you don't like it, turn the bloody channel.
PE = Distrust both government and business.
Y+ = I have an interest and concern in privacy issues, but in reality I am not really all that active or vocal.
PGP++ = I have the most recent version and use it regularly.
t- = Maybe it is just me, but I have no idea what the big deal with Star Trek is. Perhaps I'm missing something but I just think it is bad drama.
5 = I've seen it, I am pretty indifferent to it. (Babylon 5)
X+ = I've Converted my family and watch the show when I remember. It's really kinda fun. (X-files)
R* = I thought life WAS role-playing?
tv = I watch only the shows that are actually worthwhile, such as those found on PBS.
b+++ = I consume a few books a week as part of a staple diet. (Books)
DI+ = I read Dilbert daily, often understanding it.
D++ = I've played the shareware version and bought the real one and I'm actually pretty good at the game. I occasionally download PWAD files and play them too. (Doom!)
G = I know what the geek code is and even did up this code.
e+++++ = I am Stephen Hawking (Education)
h* = I'm not sure where I live anymore. This lab/workplace seems like home to me. (Housing)
r-- = People just aren't interested in dating me. (Relationship)
y? = I can find no variable for small y.

I add:
S: Geek of science
e>++++++: the "e" says I am only high-school graduated, and the >+++++ that I hope to tend to this level.
y?: indicate I am a man.

This Geek Code is amazingly useless. But it's fun to play with.