Thoughts on geek
Geek is when you walk into the local electronics salvage place and look at their history isle and realize that you used to own a lot of that test equipment and those computers.
Geek is remembering that you started out with a Radio Shack Model 1, and realizing that you still have a couple Model III and IV’s in storage. It is also remembering one of the first true notebook computers was the Tandy Model 100 (and how to build the 300-baud modem cable for it.)
Geek is remembering seeing Wargames in the theater when it originally released and watching the number of BBS’s grown from a handful to hundreds in a span of a few months.
Geek is when your first modem was a 300-baud acoustical coupler you picked up cheap at the weekend swap meet.
Geek is remembering owning not only Radio Shack computers, but also Commodore Vic-20’s and C64’s. Building your first pc from parts in 1984. A turbo XT system with DUAL FLOPPIES! (and using wordstar on it.) Owning an Amiga (or wanting to), wanting to own an Apple, but not being able to afford one.
Geek is inheriting an old Basic-4 S100 system that you regret ever letting go of.
Geek is the memory of watching Burt Rutan’s people capture the X prize via streaming video on the net.
Geek is building spare pc’s out of discarded parts and systems and giving them to people that don’t have computers. Perhaps a life is changed, diverted to a better path, you never know.
Geek means driving your housemates crazy because you changed all the light switches to X10 controllers and are still working out the bugs.
Geek means remembering all the cool technology that has happened in the last 30 years, and looking forward to the cool technology that is coming. (who’d have believed of the Mac mini just a few years ago)
Outsourcing job market or not, it’s a good time to be a geek!