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

[Momaw Nadon]

FYI and discussion

[AFreeBird]

Wow, I can do most of those, some I could do, but wouldn’t, like decorating a room with printouts, not really up on my Pi to 23 places though, I’ll have to work on that.

[Momaw Nadon]

Ping!

[GOP Poet]

cool list.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Terminator 2 Complete Collector's Set Proves Technology Is Man's Downfall

By Mark Wilson, 11:00 AM on Mon Mar 23 2009, 12,839 views

 

Terminator 2 is a great film. But the Terminator 2 Complete Collector's Set must be the most obnoxious DVD bundle I've ever seen—the epitome of movie studio greed wrapped in one environmentally devastating package.

You know how T2 has been released on DVD a bunch of times, and then it came to Blu-ray, and then a new Blu-ray edition was announced? Well all these kicks in the balls to early adopting fans will now be bundled into one big set. For about $120, you get:

• Terminator 2 Skynet Edition Blu-ray
• Terminator 2 Extreme Edition DVD
• Terminator 2 Ultimate Edition DVD
• Terminator 2 Digital Copy

The collection, which will be released May 19th, features 6 discs and promises to include every T2 special feature ever—along with a 14-inch terminator endoskull that lights up and makes noises. And if you listen closely, really closely, you can hear that shiny metal head advertising the next Terminator 2 Ultimate Complete Collector's Set Extreme Edition. [Amazon via /film]

Read More: DVD, Terminator 2 Complete Collector's Set, terminator 2, Lionsgate, terminator, Blu-Ray, Home Theater, Movies, T2

[ChetNavVet]

Good news folks, I must not be a real geek.

...Silver lining and all..

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

Doh! Skills. I read that as ‘skulls’ LOL!

[Vaquero]

[PeterPrinciple]

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein

[Omedalus]

Should I be more ashamed of how much stuff I can't do, or how much stuff I can? :)

[Sundog]

I had pi beyond 23 digits before there were hand held calculators.

He missed one: Install Windows on your Macintosh.

[angkor]

Most of them, sure. Some, no thanks.

How about streaming South Park reruns directly from http://www.southparkstudios.com/ to your big screen HDTV?

Or Netflix on Roku with fiber optic audio?

Do those count?

[TexasRepublic]

Wannabe’s dream in BASIC. Geeks dream in binary.

[Momaw Nadon]

Do those count?

Absolutely!

Feel free to add as many as you want!

[tacticalogic]

From and command prompt, dial a Hayes modem, and send/receive email.

[Yardstick]

My geek fu is pretty weak — I can do about three of these things.

[meadsjn]

You can get Pi to 30 decimal places in 10 seconds using Win Calculator.

Using scarce memory resources is a wasteful Neanderthal trait (or a TX Aggie trait, same same). That's what happens when the CPU is deficient.

[Desdemona]

It’s official - I am NOT a geek.

[Boucheau]

Don’t feel bad. I own a computer consulting company and I haven’t done at least 25% of these things.

I do like Maximum PC - subscriber for like ten years, or so.

[jr.ewing.78]

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

I ran Cat-5e throughout my house when the walls were open during a remodel a few years ago and I think that was one of the best improvements we made.

And now I really want to build the Hackintosh now!