Prove your geekage

[Evil Moo]

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.

[[WebCarnage]]

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

[HTRegz]

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.

[x acidreign x]

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

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.

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

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).

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!

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

[shtychkn]

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"

[IKnowNot]

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. ;-)

[Noia]

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

[KissCool]

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/

[Noia]

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.

[KissCool]

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.