You know you are a geek when...

[alexander]

You know you are a geek if you have a Leatherman multi tool that instead of regular pliers, has a set of wire strippers (and you actually use them.... a lot)

[CraigD]

not a big rpn person

Though I don’t actually possess a handheld RPN calculator or handheld application for same, I count myself a big RPN person.

 

Back in 2000, I wrote a whole general-purpose programming language (technically, a virtual machine to run the language) that was completely stack based – that is, essentially nothing but an RPN calculator that didn’t irretrievably delete popped entries, allowing it to have an implied program counter. For practical purposes (eg: to allow input and output), it had operation modes and submodes, but was essentially capable of calculating anything from an initial state with a single operating mode.

 

It had only an intrinsic arbitrary precision integer calculator with the basic arithmetic operations (+ - * /), a logical NOT, several unusual stack operations, most of them variations on the usual POT and ROTATE that first popped a value then repeated the operation that number of times, a FIND operation (without which it would have resembled a typical UTM) that allowed entries to be used as program flow labels, and a relative GOTO operation (which, using multiplication and the logical NOT, could be made conditional).

 

At the time, I liked the thing because it offered a potential canonic programming language, about as sparse in built-in assumptions as possible. Later, I came to dislike that it assumed a stack entry could be of arbitrary size, and wrote one that operated purely bitwise. It had 2-5 bit opcodes and an explicitly addressable (bitwise, of course) program counter. Though still capable of general computing, even masked under a sort of assembly language, it was so difficult to read that even I have a hard time reading a program in it now.

 

Anybody that wants ‘em, I still got ‘em, specs, documentation, MUMPS implementations of their VMs, and examples of useful programs.

 

YKYAA (sad) G when you throw a seminar on a novel new virtual machine, and only you come :warped:

[Jay-qu]

You know you are a geek when you consider this an improvement to the poster :snow:

[alexander]

Craig, i'd actually like to start an RPN thread, so we can talk about it there, i can certainly see why we certain things should be changed to RPN.... (oh, can you tell if my conversion of that equation was right? fairly sure, i tested it, but i may have gotten something wrong...)

 

Jay, that is one heck of a beautiful poster, the girl definitely makes the fundemental physics equations look so much better ;)

 

You know you are a geek if you have ever hacked a wireless card to make it have an external antenna connector, and have it actually work.

 

You know you are a geek if you get a GPS, not because you are in a constant need to find directions, but because it would make your wardriving so much more fun :mad: (P.S. wardriving is NOT illegal)

 

You know you have a geeky mind if you, upon seeing the math in the poster above, are already researching what exactly some of the unknown (to me) equations are (sorrz, i love physics, but dont have anywhere the knowledge i'd like to have to just pick and know all the formulas on there).

 

You know you are a geek, if you can name the how many and which wifi channels do not interfere with each other, off the top of your head. (P.S. if you know and would like to post, please do so, but please don't post if you did searching of any kind...unless you could not find the answer)

 

You know you are a geek if you know or have used scapy.

 

You know you are a geek if you send encrypted messages over encrypted tunnels through anonymity networks (such as tor)

 

You know you are a geek if you configure a firewalls on every machine you have.

 

You know you are a geek if you have ever discussed the advantages of pf over iptables.

 

You know you are a geek if you know more command line arguments for nmap then last names of your friends.

[C1ay]

You know you are a geek if you configure a firewalls on every machine you have.

 

That reminded me:

 

You are a geek if you configure and maintain your own DNS server on all of your machines.

[alexander]

you know you are a geek if you know bind.

 

you know you are a geek if you use mutt, or have ever for any extended period of time used mutt.

[alexander]

You know you are a geek if this ever happens to you:

 

Sitting in my OS class yesterday, we had to do a quick presentation on file management in different OSes, it was a group project, and our group was stuck with MS-DOS. One of the criteria for the slides were what limitations pertaining to file size, naming, etc a particular OS had. DOS means that i had to do our research on the FAT filesystem, and specifficaly 3 major editions, FAT12, 16 and 32.

 

What would a normal person do to find such information? Most likely go to google, search for FAT filesystem, hit wikipedia and get their information from the article, right?

 

What did i do? I went to kernel.ord, downloaded a snapshot, untarred it, went into the code structures, found vfat.c, figured out that vfat.c was merely an API-like layer that converted file system calls to speciffic FAT files system calls, but it does so using msdos_fs.h library. So, i went into msdos_fs.h And looked at the global var definitions. Some of which outline the limitations of every revision of FAT, and got i literaly pasted in those variables and descriptors (mind you they deal with clusters of data vs any statically set data units (although clusters are very commonly used term, they are not generally the term used to explain FS limitations for the general public))....

[Pyrotex]

You know you are an old geek when you have fond memories of vi

[IDMclean]

SELECT geek_true 
FROM population_sample
WHERE thread_viewer = hypography_member
AND post_count > 1000;

 

boolean isGeek = true;

return isGeek;

[Symbology]

You know you are an old geek when you have fond memories of vi

 

I thought that was more an indication of masochism? :rolleyes:

 

(vi)(hapless-user)

[alexander]

omg... definite sign, just see the attatched image....

[alexander]

wait i have another one.... oh jeez

 

another picture, worth 1000 words (well actually a lot more.... like a whole book)

 

and you definitely know you are a geek if you read it during your physics class, because you are bored to death...

[LJP07]

You know when you are a geek when that time comes. :)

[Theory5]

hey, this thread is still going? nice

You know you are a geek when someone asks you a computer question and you know the correct answer. :-P

 

you know you are a geek when someone asks you a computer question and the next day you bring in a piece of hardware to help explain your answer!

[alexander]

You know you are a geek when someone asks you a computer question and you know the correct answer. :-P

 

I don't agree with that, you are not a geek if you just get asked a computer question and you know the answer, you may be a computer saavy person, and that constitutes no geekness.

 

A piece of hardware to explain your answer also does not have to constitute geekness, for example if i said that a hard state FW enhanced the secuirty of the system, well that it does, and i can bring one to demo and proove my point, and that still does not constitute geekness.

 

If you are explaining wireless, and can on the spot build a WiFi antenna signal booster from a sheet of paper and some aluminum foil, or you can off the top of your head recite all the specifications for a pringles can antenna, then you are a geek.

 

btw, its a 1 and 7/37 inch of gauge 10-12 solid copper wire, connected to an n-type chassie connector, positioned 2 and 1/16 inches from the back of a prongles can :hihi:

[Theory5]

I don't agree with that, you are not a geek if you just get asked a computer question and you know the answer, you may be a computer saavy person, and that constitutes no geekness.

 

A piece of hardware to explain your answer also does not have to constitute geekness, for example if i said that a hard state FW enhanced the secuirty of the system, well that it does, and i can bring one to demo and proove my point, and that still does not constitute geekness.

 

If you are explaining wireless, and can on the spot build a WiFi antenna signal booster from a sheet of paper and some aluminum foil, or you can off the top of your head recite all the specifications for a pringles can antenna, then you are a geek.

 

btw, its a 1 and 7/37 inch of gauge 10-12 solid copper wire, connected to an n-type chassie connector, positioned 2 and 1/16 inches from the back of a prongles can ;)

 

ah, thanks.

I was tired when I wrote that. :-)

And I shall have to try that.

SOrry but i dont have any other "you know you are a geek when" right now

[alexander]

no need to appologise, i am just saying that geekhood is a lot more then just simple computer saavyness :thumbs_up

 

try the cantenna? oh god, you will need to mod your wifi card, i have modded this one (refer to pictures one and two) which now is so much fun with kismac, (this one now has an rp-sma female connector, i have 3 rp-sma antenni (dlink ones), but whichever one you choose to add on make sure that you have that to your antenna connector cable.

 

How to build a tin can waveguide antenna - cantenna guide

 

you know you are a geek if you have ordered two class 1 bluetooth devices,

by different makers and made sure that both were supported by the linux kernel, and intend to use them both for your own personal needs (as in not sharing), as well as making sure that the external antenni connectors were not very hard to put in :phones: