Terminal Geek!

I was just reading my daily RSS news feeds on iGoogle, and came across this link on Gizmodo. Thinking there’d be nothing in there that applied to me, I was SHOCKED to discover that I’m actually so geeky it could be terminal… damn…

Here’s the survey (credit to Gizmodo as the source), and my answers – read ’em quick people, I may spontaneously bin it out of embarassment!!

1. Install a hard drive in a laptop (too many times to count)
2. Perform a clean OS install on a machine with two OSes (bonus points – I maxed out at 5 OSes on a single laptop)
3. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone (on someone elses!)
4. Jailbreak an iPhone (on someone elses!)
5. Wire your house for Ethernet and Coax cable (done)
6. Use BitTorrent and RSS to automatically download new shows from trackers (done, then ran out of disk)
7. Use an A/V receiver to its fullest capability (every port is taken) (done)
8. Calibrate an HDTV without the manual (done)
9. Use a DSLR in full manual mode (there are other options?)
10. Hack the encryption and mooch your neighbour’s Wi-Fi (done)
11. Solder cleanly enough to get around a circuit board (done, I own 3 soldering irons)
12. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point (done)
13. Shove the guts of a modern game console into a retro game console (done, twice)
14. Design a webpage in HTML by hand that features a picture of your cat (done, except I featured a moose, and I was drunk)
15. Use Photoshop to imperceptibly doctor a photo (errr, duh!)
16. Abstain from buying extended warranties (done)
17. Know where to buy cheap cables and accessories (just ask me!)
18. Fix your parents’ computer over the phone without looking at a computer (sometimes daily)
19. Enter the Konami code (done, I’m old skool…)
20. Comment on Gizmodo from your phone (lolz, did that the other day!)
21. Type quickly using T9 texting (every day)
22. Program a universal remote (3 of the annoying buggers)
23. Contribute code to the Linux kernel (nope, although I have laughed at some of it…)
24. Hide porn from your significant other (no comment)
25. Avoid DRM on everything (Avoid? DRM will never get me!!)
26. Know how to back up your data to networked storage—and actually do it (installed and running)
27. Watch TV shows on the internet for free (of course)
28. Edit together digital video ripped from YouTube (done)
29. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator (MAME FTW)
30. Reset expired trial software by messing with the registry (Reset? Ha, fix it so it never expires!!)
31. Hackintosh your PC (sure, but it was too slow to be fun)
32. Download pre-release movies from Usenet (yup – annoying when it finishes and you discover they are in Spanish)
33. Hack the Wii to play homebrew games (nope, only coz I don’t own a Wii)
34. Get around web content filters on public computers (:lmao: Too easy…)
35. Get into a Windows computer if you forgot your password (waaay too many times)
36. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered (I own thermite and a Red Button disk… ’nuff said)
37. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network (Too easy)
38. Build a fighting robot (Bonus points – it was Lego)
39. Write your own Firefox plugins (nope, 1/2 points since I had to change one…)
40. Navigate and reorganise the files on your computer in DOS (easy done)
41. Get something on the front page of Digg (Never… hmmmm)
42. Get through to executive customer service (Bonus points – at Telstra’s network engineering core!!)
43. Rip a CD to V0 quality MP3s (Sure, and watch your disk space plummet – can you REALLY tell the difference?)
44. Rip a DVD to DivX (Sure, and the other formats)
45. Build your own computer from parts (Bonus points – into a bar fridge, and as an Atomic MPC Hot Box entrant!)
46. Swap out the hard drive in your DVR for a bigger one (very easy)
47. Get an NES cartridge working again by blowing in it (Lolz, yup)
48. Calibrate a 7.1 surround-sound system (Yup – worse, calibrate dual 32-channel EQ band PA…)
49. Play downloaded games on a Nintendo DS (on someone elses..)
50. Talk about things that aren’t tech related (this is a toughie…)

So what’s the count? 46/50 for me – I’m DOOMED!! But it gets worse (I can’t believe I’m admitting to all this) – answering these questions reminded me of more geeky things in my life…

51. I know the history behind AYBAB2U
52. I know where the whole l33t Sp3@k thing came from
53. I did it for the gold coins
54. It is definitely dark, there could well be a grue, I’d better take the door to the west
55. Amiga Workbench chips can be successfully piggy-backed
56. Got #?
57. Southord FTW
58. WEP isn’t (and neither is WPA if you up with security news)
59. You CAN build an iPhone/Touch charger using 70c in resistors, a soldering iron, and balls of steel!!
60. USB keys can be encased in clear resin without harm

zOMG, I could keep going… I’m happy to take comments, but only if they are geeky admissions on your own part!!! Unleash your inner geek, and join me as we remotely take over the world (we’re too feeble to do it physically!!)