# Geekier than Thou **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 21, 2005, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229 "2005-02-21T20:34:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/21 "2005-02-22T11:47:43Z")
I designed a CPU and didn’t get paid for it. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/22 "2005-02-22T12:44:26Z")
I differentiate, integrate, and prove by induction, for fun. And some other math stuff too. I have no practical use for it and do not intend to take any more math exams ever. Note that this does not mean I am hugely good at it, but my day was a little brighter when I found an exposition on the Internet on how to integrate sqrt (tan _x_). It isn’t easy. Oh, and I envy **catsix** for being _able_ to design a CPU. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/23 "2005-02-22T13:50:41Z")
> [@CynicalGabe](#): > > I am all that is man! And you can quote _Super Troopers_ in everyday conversation. That makes you both a geek _and_ a dork. Will you marry me? ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/24 "2005-02-22T15:43:33Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > They’re fairly synonymous but “geek” implies expertise in some technical area. Nerds are socially inept, period. “Computer geek” beats “computer nerd” more than 4 to 1 in a [Googlefight.](http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=computer+geek&word2=computer+nerd) same with just geeks and nerds as single terms. > > Wow. _Nerds_ are _unpopular_. A couple of friends in college used to define me as a geek, saying I was one step above a nerd because I had a “minimum level of social acceptability.” Then again, someone else used to call me The Dork From New York, so go figure. Geek, here. Crazy into word origins, 1st comp was a Timex Sinclair also, second was an Atari 600XL, loads of AD&D & Paranoia, Gamma World, etc in my past. Perennial sores on my tongue from biting it whenever I hear anyone saying “backslash” when they really mean “forward slash.” Whenever I meet someone new, I pledge to myself “This time, I’m going to make myself out to be cool,” but then I fuck it up by doing something stupid like _talking_. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/25 "2005-02-22T15:48:39Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > Excuse the hijack, but until today I have never heard the term ‘wiki’ and now I’ve seen it three times in the past four hours. > > What’s a wiki? [Here’s a brief explanation.](http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki) ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/26 "2005-02-22T16:06:17Z")
I worked for five years in a comic book store. I’ve played with Gary Gygax and died three times in one session. I’ve soldered 16k RAM on top of 16k RAM to make a 32k RAM TI/99. Not a joke, it works. I can even explain how. I’ve programmed in assembler on … 6800, X86, NeXt… and whatever that damn old VMS box was. Four CPU families. I can discourse for hours on evolutionary theory, anime, and science fiction. I _appear_ in three RPGs and one or two comic books. Several webcomic authors know me by tag. Statesman once said I was right. Sam Chupp told me the Demon Pizza story about two years before Wraith was published. I turned a Datsun 510 into a convertable with a full stereo system operating. Admittedly, it had some chassis sway after that… One of my earliest memories is examining a paperclip, untwisting it, inserting one end into an electrical socket. Then carefully inserting the other end. The burn is still on the carpet to this day. I can explain in detail several different versions of FTL travel, and which of them will not work. I can also explain at least one version of FTL communication that could work, one version of time travel that would probably work, and at least two forms of nigh-limitless energy that are currently either too dangerous to try or completely impractical. I used to be an amateur magician. I used to be a semi-pro Magic The Gathering player. I beat several world champions. I also lost to them. Though I repeatedly beat one’s degenerate deck with a standard white weenie. I know what happens if you start playing The Wall and synch it to Wizard of Oz. I know what the third -gry word is. I like pie. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mermaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@The\_Mermaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mermaid)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/27 "2005-02-22T16:50:17Z")
> [@essvee](#): > > KellyM, you get my vote for geek with the biggest penis. That was a cheap shot. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/28 "2005-02-22T17:25:50Z")
I enjoy being a database developer. Okay, that alone should make sure I’m in the top three. I have more comic books than a small comic book store. Over 7,000 at last count. There are some folks on this board that can top that number, but not many. I own more distinct RPG system books than anyone I know. Also, every official D&D 3.0 and 3.5 book yet released. (Except the two that came out Friday, which I will buy tomorrow.) It takes me two hours to fill out the Previews Comic Catalog order form that my local shop provides me, along with a free copy of the catalog. I once made a list of 500 or so movies compiled from several sources and over the course of the next three years, watched them all. At one point during my college career, I was playing in roleplaying sessions 6 times a week. Now I’m down to two, but expect to be going back to three in the near future. I’ve attended the Origins Gaming Convention in Columbus Ohio since 1998, with one absence. (2000 - had a summer job). I’ve never gamed with Gary Gygax, but I met Richard Garfield while he was demoing games for Wizards of the Coast; I met Ken St. Andre, creator of Tunnels and Trolls, twice - both times he was running T&T demos at Origins. I had a Monty-Python Theme Deck of Magic the Gathering cards. I know the words to Weird Al’s song catalog. And I also can drop quotes from Super Troopers into everyday, casual conversation. “You boys like Mex-i-co?” ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/29 "2005-02-22T17:34:36Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > I’ve never gamed with Gary Gygax, but I met Richard Garfield while he was demoing games for Wizards of the Coast; I met Ken St. Andre, creator of Tunnels and Trolls, twice - both times he was running T&T demos at Origins. I met Richard Garfield during a Magic: the Gathering pre-release tournament back in the late 1990s, we discussed the sadness that is the failure of the Cyberpunk ccg, Netrunner. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/30 "2005-02-22T17:51:10Z")
> [@essvee](#): > > I think SolGrundy and Miller win, just because they are so geeky that even though they have an S.O., which many many geeks do not, they were too busy being geeky to have sex. Having an S.O. doesn’t necessarily mean you’re having sex. (trust me on this) I am a DBA, I work with Oracle and Progress. For fun I play with [Firebird.](http://firebird.sourceforge.net/) I use SQL, MQL, TCL, Perl, Java and JavaScript. I **built** my first computer in 1967, I was in the 4th grade it was an analog computer kit from Edmunds Scientific. I designed and built a Z80 based computer from scratch with a friend of mine in 1978-79. and later a M68K based for myself. I am comfortable in binary, Hex and assembly language. I have a small Folding@Home farm and fold for team 33 [[H]ard|OCP](http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=33) I’m currently ranked 246th of 5000+ on the team. I’ve played MTG and partied with most of the first addition artists and have a large collection of Alpha and Beta cards and a couple pieces of original card art. My current hobbies/addictions include: [ul] [li][Geocaching](http://www.geocaching.com)[/li][li][Rocketry](http://www.rocketryonline.com/)[/li][li][APRS](http://nwaprs.org/)[/li][li][EverQuest](http://www.everquest.com) (not much lately)[/li][li]Modding (computer cases)[/li][li]BEAM Robotics[/li][li]Astronomy[/li][li]StarTrek in all of its incarnations (not Voyager so much) and CSI.[/li][li]I’ll stop now, it just gets worse… [/li][/ul] I’m also working on a long distance (secure) wireless network so I can geek at high speed in the barn. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/31 "2005-02-22T18:17:20Z")
> [@VenusProbe](#): > > I am a DBA, I work with Oracle and Progress. Slight aside, but do you find, as I do, that Progress is a frustrating POS? We have an application on site that I administrate, and it uses Progress as a back-end, and it’s annoying as hell. ---
**Author:** ![VenusProbe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/e495f1/32.png) [@VenusProbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VenusProbe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/32 "2005-02-22T19:38:15Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > Slight aside, but do you find, as I do, that Progress is a frustrating POS? > > We have an application on site that I administrate, and it uses Progress as a back-end, and it’s annoying as hell. I’m very lucky that I don’t have to do much with progress, thank Og. I have a counterpart on the dark side that does most of it. I just test and debug his code most of the time. Everytime I have to work with it my boss puts his headphones on and cranks up the volume so he can’t hear me cursing. What were they thinking?! ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/33 "2005-02-22T19:41:04Z")
Venus wins! Venus wins! Well, except for maybe that doper that might have been the guy who put a - instead of a + in that space probe. ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/34 "2005-02-22T19:56:21Z")
> [@VenusProbe](#): > > I’m very lucky that I don’t have to do much with progress, thank Og. I have a counterpart on the dark side that does most of it. I just test and debug his code most of the time. Everytime I have to work with it my boss puts his headphones on and cranks up the volume so he can’t hear me cursing. What were they thinking?! “Heh heh. If we compile this, and sell it cheap, you just know that companies all over the world will force developers to have to deal with it… Muhuhahaha!” Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/35 "2005-02-22T21:55:31Z")
```php -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.1 GCS d- s-:+ a C++>--$ US$ 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------ ``` ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/36 "2005-02-23T05:18:10Z")
> [@The Mermaid](#): > > That was a cheap shot. Um, if there is something I don’t know about here, I apologize. I was referring to the chest-thumping tone of Kelly’s post. And Venusprobe, I don’t have to trust you. I’ve been married for 14 years, so I know all about having an S.O. and not having sex, thanks very much. Lighthearted, is what I was trying to be. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/37 "2005-02-23T07:40:08Z")
[QUOTE=Draelin] And you can quote _Super Troopers_ in everyday conversation. That makes you both a geek _and_ a dork. Will you marry me?[/QUOTE I’m going to Vegas this weekend, wanna come? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/38 "2005-02-23T08:21:23Z")
> [@catsix](#): > > I designed a CPU and didn’t get paid for it. I deeply envy you. I design ISAs in my head and I mentally debate the trade-offs between constant-width opcodes and variable-width ones. I program emulated PDP-11s in machine code and emulated VAXen in assembly, all the while marveling over how much their ISAs rule and Intel’s ISAs suck. I have even downloaded [tkgate](http://www.tkgate.org/), but I only use it as a logic toy since I don’t have the expertise to build anything useful with the components. (Plus, puzzling over Verilog is fun. :)) Point is, I suppose, I can program finished chips and play with trivial components and even fantasize about new chips, but creating a CPU is beyond me. > [@ESabbath](#): > > I’ve programmed in assembler on … 6800, X86, NeXt… and whatever that damn old VMS box was. The VMS box was a VAX, and the NeXT was based on the Motorola 68000 (distinct from the 6800). Anyway, I am not a gaming geek or an anime geek or a comics geek. I’m a Unix geek. I think graphical interfaces are merely glosses over the top of more powerful command lines and should never be allowed to get in the way of an experienced shell hackers. I have installed more window managers than I can keep track of, and I have special affections for [ratpoison](http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/) and [Ion](http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/). I learn new programming languages for fun, and I commonly get into a language simply because of the aesthetics. Smalltalk, for example, doesn’t need to be practical: It’s one of the most beautiful languages ever developed. Same with [Joy](http://www.latrobe.edu.au/philosophy/phimvt/joy.html). INTERCAL, on the other hand, is no worse than you deserve. I will willingly subject myself to SCP on an emulated System/3 because it’s so much different from anything else I could be using at the time. Plus, like banging your head against a concrete piling, it feels so good when you stop. As a brief example, here is how you list the contents of a directory under SCP: ```auto // LOAD $LABEL,F1 // RUN // DISPLAY UNIT-R1,LABEL-VTOC // END ``` Interactive? Yes, but only grudgingly. IBM machines are _batch-oriented_ dammit, and even if you don’t use punch cards you’ll damned well use punch card syntax. Sysgenning and playing with ITS on an emulated PDP-10 is an enjoyable evening. And running OpenBSD on an emulated VAX is pure bliss. On a related note, DDT has nothing to do with insects: It kills _bugs_. There is no editor but Emacs, and rms is its prophet. There is no editor but Emacs, and rms is its prophet. There is no editor but Emacs, and rms is its prophet. My Linux laptop has longer uptimes than your Windows server. And, thanks to caffeine, so do I. 😉 _The Practice of Programming_ by Kernighan and Pike outranks all of the fiction bestsellers at Waldenbooks, and Volume 4 of Knuth will end world hunger and turn all of SCO’s lawyers into tsetse flies. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/39 "2005-02-23T08:24:19Z")
> [@Daithi Lacha](#): > > [Here’s a brief explanation.](http://wiki.org/wiki.cgi?WhatIsWiki) Thank you. I’m still baffled, but with a greater sense of direction. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2005, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229/40 "2005-02-23T09:21:45Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Well, except for maybe that doper that might have been the guy who put a - instead of a + in that space probe. It wasn’t me! I swear it wasn’t me!! FTGeekR, I’m an astrophysicist who programs in FORTRAN and Perl, writes _everything_ in TeX, I built my own computer, but that’s about it. I’m not really that geeky it seems. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geekier-than-thou/291229.md?page=3)