You know you are a geek when...

[alexander]

You know you're a geek if your DOS prompt not only lists Time but says "Yes, Master?"

Actually i disagree with that, it doesn't take a geek to make your dos prompt say custom things, though on the "yes master" theme, you know you are a geek if you have a dual-booted MP3 player, for which you have both edited and cross-compiled the nonstandard firmware, also your MP3 player must greet you with "Welcome, Master" in both the manufacturer and your own custom firmwares :(

 

You know you are a geek when you have written an OS, just because you were bored....

 

You know you are a geek if you have reverse engineered a wireless router firmware to see what kind of a fuzz you can do against it to own the wireless card on the router.

 

You know you are a geek if you use your bluetooth headset as a head phone for listening music.

 

You know you are a geek if you have ever written to a developer of an open-source project with a request to open up a whole they "patched" because a project you wrote that made that piece of software work in really crazy and cool ways relied on the hole to operate.

 

You know you are a geek if you have troubleshot routing loops on a remote network, but its only cool if it was not your own remote network, you were not paid to do that, you have discovered that loop, and people behind the loop are supposed to be "networking gurus". (so basically if you've ever contacted someone else's ISP about a routing loop, showed them where the loop is, told them what their equipment was, what it was most likely configured to do and what IOS commands they need to run, you qualify under this one)

[Pyrotex]

You know you are a geek when you persuade your boss to let you teach "Structured Programming" to the entire programming department -- for Assembly language.

 

I did! :( In 1977.

[alexander]

You know you are a geek when you teach programming in no particular language. (now i havent taught a class, and i would like to, but i have taught 3-4 people programming without using a single line of real code, and they were all learning and practicing in different languages)

[Pyrotex]

You know you are a geek if you can read somebody else's APL, and understand what it does.

[alexander]

Similarly, you know you are a geek, when you edit someone elses program written in a language you have never seen before, wilst casually talking to them and working on fixing something on their system, just kind of a reflex action of fixing random code open in a window, written for a proprietary micro-controller of an AV system, and in your modifications you streamline their code and reduce the final product's memory print...

 

You know you are a geek when you edit someone's doctorate paper, when you don't have any degree...

 

You know you are a geek when you help to work on a security book for gov-t agencies that will require a gov-t clearance to buy... and you wont be able to buy it (which sucks, its a killer book on high security lock exploits, with info on, for example, how to open a Medeco Biaxial in like minutes...)

[enorbet2]

This thread is interesting on several levels since the posts reflect

1) What one has done

2) What one wishes one had done

3) It would be really cool if...

- or simply -

4) comedy, often ironic, occaissionally over-the-top, frequently slightly self-deprecating even while somehow proud

- but always -

extremely revealing. Great thread for such a science oriented social forum... Kudos.

 

Responses -

 

---Quote---

You know you're a geek if your DOS prompt not only lists Time but says "Yes, Master?"

---End Quote---

<Actually i disagree with that, it doesn't take a geek to make your dos prompt say custom things, though on the "yes master" theme, you know you are a ><geek if you have a dual-booted MP3 player, for which you have both edited and cross-compiled the nonstandard firmware, also your MP3 player must greet ><you with "Welcome, Master" in both the manufacturer and your own custom firmwares :confused: >

 

IMHO being a geek doesn't necessarily mean the exercise or activity must be difficult as often they are frivolous. If, like Rube Goldberg, you think up and draw overly complicated, fanciful serial mechanical devices for comedy sake you're probably a geek. If you actually build one, assuming it is physically possible, you might be an obsessive-compulsive geek, or simply deluded. Since nobody ever saw my DOS prompt but me, it wasn't about the knowing how but rather a statement of purpose, a continual means through end to means loop. BTW I have hot-swapped bios chips, modded bios firmware with "modbin" and installed modifiable open source replacement firmware on routers but don't know how to build firmware. What did you use? Are you that proficient in Assembly?

 

<You know you are a geek when you have written an OS, just because you were bored....>

 

Do real geeks ever get bored? There's far more books to read than time in one lifespan, and that's just books!

 

<You know you are a geek if you have reverse engineered a wireless router firmware to see what kind of a fuzz you can do against it to own the wireless card <on the router.>

 

If you reverse-engineer and therefore have the source code, don't you then make the rules?

 

<You know you are a geek if you use your bluetooth headset as a head phone for listening music.>

 

While that is a bit computer geeky, it violates audiophile geekdom since the bandwidth is insufficient for the increase in convenience to make up for the ugly loss in dynamic range and frequency response, so a draw at best, IMHO.

 

<You know you are a geek if you have ever written to a developer of an open-source project with a request to open up a whole they "patched" because a <project you wrote that made that piece of software work in really crazy and cool ways relied on the hole to operate.>

 

Since it was Open Source, why did you require the original authors to maintain the hole?

 

<You know you are a geek if you have troubleshot routing loops on a remote network, but its only cool if it was not your own remote network, you were not <paid to do that, you have discovered that loop, and people behind the loop are supposed to be "networking gurus". (so basically if you've ever contacted <someone else's ISP about a routing loop, showed them where the loop is, told them what their equipment was, what it was most likely configured to do and <what IOS commands they need to run, you qualify under this one) >

 

This is truly geeky but also dangerous in that I know people who were raided, had equipment confiscated, and were jailed over such activity, though one *was* a bank. It wasn't because of the intrusion but because of the gloating notification. A hacker geek should never socially engineer oneself into trouble. You needn't explain how you did this even though there are downloadable tools for just that, even those considerably more powerful and nefarious than Nessus.

 

You might be a geek if you've ever wondered how your apartment/condo/dorm might be improved by Geoffrey's Tubes.

 

I hope this thread continues, especially if it's funny more than a parsing contest.

[Pyrotex]

You may be a geek if you actually added Jeffrey's Tubes to your bedroom, then removed them after observing that the residual time dilation caused by the antimatter confinement field was eating into your sleep time.

 

:confused:

[enorbet2]

You may be a geek if you actually added Jeffrey's Tubes to your bedroom, then removed them after observing that the residual time dilation caused by the antimatter confinement field was eating into your sleep time.

 

:)

 

Now THAT's funny!:D even if it does describe the fantasy direction Voyager took sans Gene Roddenberry (we are not worthy!) after TNG and only marginally mended with ST:Enterprise which reminds me

 

You might be a geek if you think T'Pol is substantially hotter than Jolene Blalock

 

Jimmy

[freeztar]

You might be a geek if you think T'Pol is substantially hotter than Jolene Blalock

 

LOL

 

Well, yes, T'pol is not bad on the eyes. Yet, I've always had a thing for Deanna Troi. Yeah...Call me oldschool. :)

[alexander]

Just on that first part of your post, enor, everything i have posted in this thread, i have either done, or one of my close friends who are also a geek have done (yes, the security book, wifi fuzzing, OS, file system, doctorate, dual-booted mp3 player, mysql cancelling support, all happened)

 

<You know you are a geek when you have written an OS, just because you were bored....>

 

Do real geeks ever get bored? There's far more books to read than time in one lifespan, and that's just books!

most though i shouldn't say most, many geeks don't read books, they read wikipedia, and geeks get bored all the time

 

If you reverse-engineer and therefore have the source code, don't you then make the rules?

if you have reverse engineered, you may or may not have the full source, but you do have a good idea of what it is doing, especially in something as complex as a wireless router. You don't make the rules because the purpose was not to put out a firmware that runs on the device, then i could have just gotten the code for a ton of open-source firmwares for that particular router, and just made my own, the goal was to find fuzzing vulnerabilities of the firmware, something that allows you to own the box from the hardware layer.

 

While that is a bit computer geeky, it violates audiophile geekdom since the bandwidth is insufficient for the increase in convenience to make up for the ugly loss in dynamic range and frequency response, so a draw at best, IMHO.

never said it was geeky, being an audiophile, sound quality sucks, but when you have done the work to take a standard bluetooth headset and pipe music into it, you start experimenting with multiple class 1 bluetooth dongles and the nearly always unprotected bluetooth headsets... we'll just say it totally makes your week when you are driving down the highway, and one of the cards connects to a Volvo v70's internal audio system and starts playing a sound clip from a german porno movie to a 75 year-old grandma behind the wheel in stand-still rush hour with her windows down.... But it proves the point, bluetooth is most of the time, not secure...

 

Since it was Open Source, why did you require the original authors to maintain the hole?

My friend eventually found a work-around for which he is currently finishing up the code. It wouldn't be that bad if the hole was just patched with a couple of functions, but he patched it in a whole module re-write, and last thing my friend wanted to do was to maintain the 10-12k lines more of some hardcore code... so he wrote to the code maintainer... work smarter, not harder :)

 

This is truly geeky but also dangerous

Being a security person, i know, but i didnt do any pen-testing while i was there, i just found a loop in their network, then ran a careful nmap scan to get an idea of IOS version and a couple of other things, looked up the manual, compiled a 4 page letter to the ISP and sent it in... they had it fixed 3 hours later... though you know, they never said thanks...

 

and i could not leave you without another "you know you are a geek" line

 

You know you are a geek when you have developed, fixed and help the community with the interface code of an open-source shopping cart project so much, that devs ask you when they have questions about some parts of that interface code.

[alexander]

by the way i'm ok with assembly, i know, well i have coded in 4: 8085, x86, TI and a derivative of MIPS, but really, after 20 or so programming languages, you can figure things out pretty quickly when it comes to, really, any code.

[enorbet2]

Thanks for the reply Alexander, some cool stuff there. I do have to comment on one minor point though...

 

most though i shouldn't say most, many geeks don't read books, they read wikipedia, and geeks get bored all the time

 

Since most of my original post on this thread included things I've done as well including slide rule and abacus (which likely reveals as much about my age as my proclivities) and given my Mensa cred I'm pretty certain I'm a geek in most circles and yes, I too spend a lot of time in wikipedia and viewing educational video clips. However if what you say is true of younger geeks I am saddened and a bit worried. While wikipedia has a self-correcting component not really possible in print, it is still a condesnsation, not entirely unlike Reader's Digest.

 

I've read numerous wikis about Cosmology, Physics and Quantum Theory as well as String and M Theory but this fall I read Greene's Elegant Universe and all three of Lee Smolin's books on Quantum Gravity, Physics, and String Theory and I can tell you wiki can't touch the original and complete.

 

Most older scientists learned German and Latin just to read journals and articles in the original, not trusting interpretation. It'd be a grave shame if such practices cease and we end up with no original thought, everything merely a consensus.

 

I don't get bored because I'm hyper. It matters little if nothing is going on outside me. There's always plenty of noise inside me to filter out and ponder.. and then there's music.

 

 

Being a security person, i know, but i didnt do any pen-testing while i was there, i just found a loop in their network, then ran a careful nmap scan to get an idea of IOS version and a couple of other things, looked up the manual, compiled a 4 page letter to the ISP and sent it in... they had it fixed 3 hours later... though you know, they never said thanks...

 

That is so typical. They'd rather cover it up than admit a hole. They should've offered you a reward or a job!

 

Stay sharp

Jimmy

[alexander]

I actually find that i dont have time to sit and enjoy the book to the extent i would like to enjoy one, so i dont read them to not disrespect the authors... i have a 1984 issue of encyclopedia of britannica on my shelves, i have a ton of computer books, i have a fair amout of other literature too though, my sister has 2 shelves full of random books that she reads, generally some sort of fiction/love/wicca stuff, and that leaves only 3 other book shelves of other books, in genres of naturalist diaries, historical diaries, books on some russian history (in their original language), cook books and all the other nonfiction stuff i have accumulated over the years.

 

But with the amount of hobbies i have i really have no time for books, i mean when i'm not working, and not working on catching up on various other computer stuff i am in, i do photo, i DJ, i do magic (more of street, close up, impromptu type of deal), i fly fish, i do streetbike freestyle, i game, though rarely, i am interested in locks, so i pick some, i take some apart, that leaves very little time for hanging out with friends, i do so very rarely, other then the guys i ride with, uuh, this leaves time for some meditation, or just sitting there and thinking and not a hell of a lot of time for anything else (oh also i watch a lot of CSI and critique a lot of it)

 

i am sure i am missing other things... oh like i like to tinker with electronics, i brew (mead, beer, wine), i am very picky about coffee, i cook

 

just trying to portray that some geeks are just involved in too many things, and don't read books, dont feel bad for them, well, us, but like a good piece of music (and i listen to so much different music, its not even funny), i dont want to ruin what the creator of the book wanted me to feel by, like with music, listening to it in an elevator... Seriously, you will never appreciate Shostakovitch's 5th symphony if you were listening to it in an elevator, and that would be very disappointing, not that it's an easy piece of music to understand to begin with...

[sanctus]

Alex and enorbet: it would be cool, I think, if you move this dicussion to another thread, cause here the posts kind of have to start with You know you are a geek when... :-)

 

I guess I should say now You know you are ageek maniac if you are sad at this thread having posts not starting as it should in your view...

[Boerseun]

...merely looking at a building, you can tell exactly which version of an architectural design package was used by the developers, by identifying design elements which are all supplied by the software as "Design Wizards".

 

It also shows how sh*t-lazy most architects have become lately.

[alexander]

Hey, i've added a new "you know you are a geek" line with every one of my posts...

 

You know you are a geek when you wonder how the ancient people charged their laptops before electricity was discovered and harnessed :doh:

[Pyrotex]

U no U R a G33K when you have just finished writing, testing and documenting 1200 lines of Excel VBA code in 5 days.

 

I am awesome. :)