tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post7662043817608880685..comments2023-10-10T05:07:13.577-07:00Comments on En Tequila Es Verdad: I'm Such a GeekDana Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00890312745525306991noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-48658675838434853712008-05-28T22:49:00.000-07:002008-05-28T22:49:00.000-07:00Woozle: I stand in awe. You are the master geek. ...Woozle: I stand in awe. You are the master geek. Your daughter's name: classic!Dana Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00890312745525306991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-23908690087989229602008-05-28T15:43:00.000-07:002008-05-28T15:43:00.000-07:00My books are almost all in boxes, and have been fo...My books are almost all in boxes, and have been for about 6 years. Not enough shelf space. Much sadness.<BR/><BR/>But in those boxes I have a complete collection of <I>Analog</I> magazine going back to 1967 (assuming none of them have gone missing; no way to check at the moment) and a few going back as far as the 1950s. I also have a pretty decent collection of <I>Galaxy</I>, and the first 4 issues of <I>Asimov's</I>.<BR/><BR/>I was a <I>Star Trek</I> fan before <I>Star Wars</I> made Hollywood take notice of SF. I was a <I>Dr. Who</I> fan before he was heard of in the US (saw him in England in 1973-4; the series ended with Pertwee regenerating into Baker, and then I had to wait about 8 years for the next episode).<BR/><BR/>(Note to Nicole: Isn't E.B. also the "White" in "Strunk & White"? Oh, wait, this is the 21st century, I can check Wikipedia. <I>*checks Wikipedia* *wins* *hopes this doesn't sound like one-upsmanship*</I>)<BR/><BR/>My first computer was a PDP-8/L in 1972. (Well... using the word "my" somewhat loosely: the first one I interacted with.) My second computer (same definition) was a <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tektronix_405x" REL="nofollow">Tektronix graphics computer</A> (it must have been a 4052, because I remember the write-thru mode) in 1975, the same model used in the 1970s <I>Battestar Galactica</I>. I used the pen-plotter to make pretty pictures based on discrete non-sequential sampling of sinusoidal functions (at the time, they were just "pretty pictures that sometimes look a little like snowflakes"). One of these days I'll find them again; I know they made it into this house...<BR/><BR/>My first paid job was in my mom's computer store (tech and shipping), and my first real job was programming in FORTRAN on a PDP/11-23.<BR/><BR/>I have two oscilloscopes in the basement. And a web server. With no chassis. And an original IBM PC with two full-height floppy drives. And lots of leftover electronic components I will probably never use but which I refuse to toss heartlessly into a landfill.<BR/><BR/>My home-assembled computer (the one I'm using now) is basically internal components screwed to a couple of pieces of wood. (I am of the "chassis covers interfere with upgrades" school.) It runs Linux.<BR/><BR/>My other computer (which goes through a KVM switch to the same monitor) runs Windows 98, because I've refused to give Microsoft any more of my mostly-nonexistent money ever since they committed Windows XP.<BR/><BR/>My other other computer is a laptop which I assembled out of parts from Ebay. It also runs Linux. It has a semi-complete collection of Discworld books on the hard drive, from which I read to my hypertwin every night.<BR/><BR/>...in a <I>Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy</I> narrator voice.<BR/><BR/>I eat dinner in front of my computer, usually while reading and sometimes while programming.<BR/><BR/>I have more friends online than IRL, although this wasn't true 5 years ago. (Yeah, okay, <I>now</I> I'm just showing off, right?)<BR/><BR/>And finally (cue dramatic finish music) mine offspring (who <A HREF="http://wiki.hypertwins.org/Why_we_have_kids" REL="nofollow">wasn't my idea</A> and sadly doesn't live here, but she's awesome nonetheless) is <A HREF="http://wiki.hypertwins.org/Anna_Nikola" REL="nofollow">named after</A> the quintessential mad scientist, Nikola Tesla.Woozlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17948248776908775080noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-28774319637402428222008-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:002008-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:00Nicole, Enfrique: We are total geeks.Good thing ge...Nicole, Enfrique: We are total geeks.<BR/><BR/>Good thing geeks rule! LOLDana Hunterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00890312745525306991noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-79407745287221062202008-05-27T19:15:00.000-07:002008-05-27T19:15:00.000-07:00Gah, the boardgame geek link got screwed up:http:/...Gah, the boardgame geek link got screwed up:<BR/><BR/>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/<BR/><BR/>(It's a repository of information on <I>thousands</I> of board games, card games and so on.)Efriquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08526031804261484547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-23053856367445540792008-05-27T19:11:00.000-07:002008-05-27T19:11:00.000-07:00My geekiness is all over the place.I guess I've be...My geekiness is all over the place.<BR/><BR/>I guess I've been a Speculative Fiction fan since I was 8 and pilfered one of the novels my Mum was reading for a long (6 hours or so) bus trip with my grandmother. In secondary school (yrs 7-12) I was reading several books a week, and at some stages when I had free time, a novel a day. Usually science fiction or fantasy of some form. I introduced my Mum to LotR - sort of paid her back for getting me into science fiction. We went to see Star Wars (yes, back in 1977) together.<BR/><BR/>These days I don't get time to do much fiction reading (I read a lot still, but it's mostly papers or nonfiction books), but I do at least manage to watch some stuff on TV. However, SF and related genres gets such short shrift these days I'm tending more toward just buying it on DVD. <BR/><BR/>I've been a <A HREF="www.boardgamegeek.com" REL="nofollow">boardgame geek</A> since, oh, I was about 11. <BR/><BR/>I've been a roleplaying geek since 1981 (I would have started earlier, but there were no opportunities where I was at the time). I still game semi-regularly with some friends I met more than 25 years ago. I still go to a roleplaying convention I helped start at about the same time.<BR/><BR/>As is already obvious, I'm a bit of a mathematics geek; one of my favourite esoteric bits of mathematics geekdom is <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomography" REL="nofollow">nomography</A>. I'm quite the fan of <A HREF="http://www.myreckonings.com/wordpress/2008/01/09/the-art-of-nomography-i-geometric-design" REL="nofollow">nomography</A>. <BR/><BR/>Another little mathematical sideline for me is tournament scheduling (specifically, for multiplayer board game tournaments); I've written software to do it, and it's a nifty area - I figured out a lot of stuff about it on my own, before I finally stumbled onto the name under which the relevant problem is known in the mathematical literature. (My software is used by a major hobby boardgame company to schedule their tournaments.)<BR/><BR/>Apart from those bits of esoterica, I'm a puzzle fan, particularly mathematical/logical ones. [That's rubbed off on my daughter - since before she was 5, she's been leaning over to tell me which numbers go where in Sudoku (and yeah, it's kinda freaky to have a little kid tell you how to do your puzzles).]<BR/><BR/>I'm lots of other kinds of geek besides, but that'll do, eh?Efriquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08526031804261484547noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6851578517872251953.post-55575992908632600582008-05-27T07:53:00.000-07:002008-05-27T07:53:00.000-07:00I don't know the source of your quote, but I, too,...I don't know the source of your quote, but I, too, am a geek.<BR/><BR/>I regularly check Fforde's website. I wanted to name our cat Pickwick. I'd love to name a daughter Thursday (or a son Friday).<BR/><BR/>I'd rather read Strunk & White than E. B. White. My summer reading consists of Gothic novels and literary theory.<BR/><BR/>I can diagram sentences and correct grammar on billboards at 70 mph.NPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01971083012537277697noreply@blogger.com