Posted on 03/23/2009 3:51:21 PM PDT by Momaw Nadon
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
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
Calculate a Pitchers 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
Differentiate Between Dr. Pepper and Mr. Pibb
Avoid DRM on everything
Download Flash Video and Bend it to Your Will
Get Around In DOS
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
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.
I no longer even turn the damned thing on .. it's just always ... um .... there!
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.
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.
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.
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
If Kirk's in charge, it's a half second battle and the Federation kicks @ss. Picard would surrender to a droid.
Man, I get about an 80% on the above. Major Geekoid.
>>>> 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.
That was routine
There are only 10 types of geeks, those who understand binary and those who don’t.
>>>> 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?
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.
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.
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.
>>>>>> 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.
touché sir, touché!
I used to use these for a notepad during (and well after) college! Does that count?
-PJ
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