50 Skills Every Real Geek Should Have

Maximum PC ^ | Monday, December 8, 2008 | The Maximum PC Staff

[Momaw Nadon]

Name These Connectors!

Run All Your Essential Apps on a USB Stick

Straighten the Pins on an Older CPU

Know the 13 Basic HTML Tags

Get Through to Executive Customer Service

Beat Quake in Under an Hour

Build a Hackintosh

Watch TV Shows on the Internet (Legally!)

Get Around the Content Filter on Public Computers

Recite pi to 23 Decimal Places

Replace the Controller Board on a Hard Drive

Benchmark Your Computer

Decorate Your Room Using Only Printer Paper

Securely Erase Your Data So it Can't be Recovered

Get into a Windows Computer if you Forgot Your Password

Hide Porn from Your Significant Other

Explain What E=MC^2 Means to a Liberal Arts Major

Abstain from Buying Extended Warranties

Use Photoshop or GIMP to Imperceptibly Doctor a Photo

Use a DSLR in Full Manual Mode

Mooch Your Neighbor's Wi-Fi

Protect your Wi-Fi

Create an Animated Spray in Valve Games

Set up a RAID

Calculate a Pitcher’s Earned Run Average

Run Two Operating Systems

Install a Hard Drive in a Laptop

Pull Off an Elaborate Prank

Rocket Jump Without Using a Macro

Wire Your Home with Ethernet Cable

Know the 6 Most Important Linux Commands

Rip Your CDs to FLAC

Stream Your Movies, Music, and Photos to Any TV in Your House

Install and Configure a Virtual Machine

Run Multiple Monitors Like a Pro

Hack Firmware on a Router

Pick a Lock

Differentiate Between Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb

Avoid DRM on everything

Download Flash Video and Bend it to Your Will

Get Around In DOS

Rip a DVD to h.264

Overclock Your PC and Tune Your BIOS

Use Remote Desktop

Debate the Relative Merits of an Imperial Star Destroyer vs. the USS Enterprise

Build Your Own Computer

[bert]

Symantics here but I have done many of the items on the list. My geek skills don't exist beyond DOS and windows so I have a handicap.

[knarf]

I am so friggin', dinosaur screwed.

I no longer even turn the damned thing on .. it's just always ... um .... there!

[zeebee]

He missed one: Install Windows on your Macintosh.

Heck, anyone can do that. But I can run Windows, OS X and OS 9 or 7 on mine- and all at the same time.

[jiggyboy]

Run All Your Essential Apps on a USB Stick

Oh you kids today...When I was your age, a 360K floppy was good enough to hold FDISK, DOS, MASM, LINK, EXE2BIN, and just enough left over for a line editor if you didn't want to use EDLIN.

[Billthedrill]

So who here has used a little punch on a 5 1/4-in diskette sleeve to turn it into a “high” density? Don’t lie to me. You know who you are.

[angkor]

More:

Build a bootable Linux USB stick.

Know the best way to zap a CD (microwave it, 5 seconds!)

Understand the early history of telephone phreaking
http://artofhacking.com/tap/tap/index.htm

[Richard Kimball]

Debate the Relative Merits of an Imperial Star Destroyer vs. the USS Enterprise

If Kirk's in charge, it's a half second battle and the Federation kicks @ss. Picard would surrender to a droid.

[FastCoyote]

Man, I get about an 80% on the above. Major Geekoid.

[tophat9000]

Have you ever played the "Star Trek" game on a PDP8 ...using a TTY terminal? ... now that Geek

[angkor]

>>>> Hey - I can do most of the things on that list and I was a liberal arts major! <<<<<<

Being a befuddled liberal arts major (with a BA in Liberal Arts no less), first I was a geek, and then I a got a degree in liberal arts.

[bert]

That was routine

[MediaMole]

There are only 10 types of geeks, those who understand binary and those who don’t.

[angkor]

>>>> Have you ever played the “Star Trek” game on a PDP8 ...using a TTY terminal? <<<<<<

Was it possible to play on a DECwriter, or am I crossing my memory banks?

[Tennessee_Bob]

[Tennessee_Bob]

Used to play it on a portable terminal - thermal printer - 110 baud acoustic coupler modem, connected to ARPANet. That, and Hunt the Wumpus and Adventure (predecessor of Zork).

And my 16 year old complains when bandrate drops.

[KarlInOhio]

Know the best way to zap a CD (microwave it, 5 seconds!)

And it's fun to watch too. The burnt in spark pattern will keep it from ever being used in a drive again, but if the CIA or NSA digs through your trash they'll still be able to get most of the data off of the disc by reading it with a microscope.

[Covenantor]

Well, I'm not saying I have one, but there might be a "notcher" in my electronics tool box.

Back when my Leading Edge Turbo was the only computer in the office, our new office manager stapled a routing slip to my SuperCalc3 update diskette and stamped it with one of these.

Leaving four deep impressions. She then capped this by dragging several jumbo paper clips from her magnetized holder to afix the envelope and cover letter.

The guy at CAI LHAO when I asked for a replacement to be mailed to my apt.

[angkor]

>>>>>> if the CIA or NSA digs through your trash they’ll still be able to get most of the data off of the disc by reading it with a microscope. <<<<<<<

Personally it’s only of academic interest.

However I think they may be “theoretically recoverable” but not actually recoverable in the real world.

[jr.ewing.78]

touché sir, touché!

[Political Junkie Too]

Decorate Your Room Using Only Printer Paper

I used to use these for a notepad during (and well after) college! Does that count?

-PJ