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Are There any Real Geeks/Nerds left

juliusaugustus

juliusaugustus

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 8, 2011
135
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I am the only one who has noticed this but their seems to be a lot of people interested in technology, but their seems to be very few people who are actually willing to tinker, try things out. I always see when people talk about technology they always talk about concepts, imagine, or ideas and I always think why don't these people try to make these ideas real. Instead of expecting technology to work perfectly take time to make it work because often technology doesn't "just work". I understand that not everyone has the intelligence but those who don't put that intelligence to work. Just some food for thought
 
I don't think geek is someone who innovates things. You need some serious cash to develop any hardware and make it commercially available. For most of us, that's simply impossible. Software is much easier but then again, you are mostly limited to existing platforms (OS X, Windows, iOS etc). Coding a whole new OS would take more than one man.
 
Hellhammer said:
I don't think geek is someone who innovates things. You need some serious cash to develop any hardware and make it commercially available. For most of us, that's simply impossible. Software is much easier but then again, you are mostly limited to existing platforms (OS X, Windows, iOS etc). Coding a whole new OS would take more than one man.
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Well it isn't necessarily making new hardware per say but pursuing interests in technology. Like learning how to use a soldering gun or learning how to program. So in my opinion being a geek involves not just being interested in something but pursuing that interest, or making technology work differently than it is supposed to, or using technology when it isn't necessarily perfect.
 
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Check out overclock.net, xtremesystems.org, overclockersclub.com, and hardforum.com to name a few. Still a fair amount of geeks around. And thank goodness for that. It keeps things interesting. I like overclock.net they are a friendly, helpful group. There are some real psychos at xtremesystems.org who overclock in competition and use liquid nitrogen for cooling! I highly recommend checking out the above named sites. There is a lot to be learned there.
 
juliusaugustus said:
I am the only one who has noticed this but their seems to be a lot of people interested in technology, but their seems to be very few people who are actually willing to tinker, try things out. I always see when people talk about technology they always talk about concepts, imagine, or ideas and I always think why don't these people try to make these ideas real. Instead of expecting technology to work perfectly take time to make it work because often technology doesn't "just work". I understand that not everyone has the intelligence but those who don't put that intelligence to work. Just some food for thought
Click to expand...

What's your sample size? 20 people that you know?

There are probably more geeks now than ever in the history of the world, and there will be more tomorrow.
 
Well thank you all for the responses. I am glad to see geeks are not an endangered species like I thought.

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jackc said:
What's your sample size? 20 people that you know?

There are probably more geeks now than ever in the history of the world, and there will be more tomorrow.
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Well I was generalizing a bit but it is definitely not just 20 people more like a few hundred people.
 
AppleScruff1 said:
Check out overclock.net, xtremesystems.org, overclockersclub.com, and hardforum.com
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I'd even say tomshardware.com as that site is very helpful. I had not built a desktop computer since early days - I'm talking intel 486 time. I used over clock.net and tomshardware.com help me with my build earlier this year.
 
maflynn said:
I'd even say tomshardware.com as that site is very helpful. I had not built a desktop computer since early days - I'm talking intel 486 time. I used over clock.net and tomshardware.com help me with my build earlier this year.
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I meant to include Tom's too. It's a good site. There is a lot to be learned at those sites that is good knowledge for Mac users too. I know that overclock.net has a Mac section. I also should mention notebookreview.com. There is a good group of people over there too, very helpful. They also have a Mac forum.
 
steve2112 said:
Check out Make magazine and the Maker Faires. Those folks come up with some amazing stuff. They cobble together all kinds of crazy projects with existing, mostly low-tech hardware.
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Latest issue of QST magazine mentions Make magazine and Maker Faires. QST is the magazine for the American Radio Relay League (amateur radio).
Six channels for wireless routers are in a ham band. Hams have reflashed older Linksys routers and are using them to create wireless ham radio networks to send data, graphics and voice. So there are some people who like to tinker with things.
http://wrt54g-tm.blogspot.com/2010/01/ham-radio-channels-in-wireless.html
 
There are geeks, as far as I can tell, they've migrated or gone into hiding.

Some of them are engineers and build / create things for a living, they tinker, but aren't allowed to talk about it anymore due to NDAs.

Other geeks, got caught up in the world of Anime / MMORPGs, and I have yet to observe their return.

;)
 
G4er? said:
Latest issue of QST magazine mentions Make magazine and Maker Faires. QST is the magazine for the American Radio Relay League (amateur radio).
Six channels for wireless routers are in a ham band. Hams have reflashed older Linksys routers and are using them to create wireless ham radio networks to send data, graphics and voice. So there are some people who like to tinker with things.
http://wrt54g-tm.blogspot.com/2010/01/ham-radio-channels-in-wireless.html
Click to expand...

I have several friends who are hams, and the stuff they can do amazes me. One friend lets his kids talk to the International Space Station, which I thought was really cool. Most of the hams I know also tinker in electronics (as in circuit board level) and networking.
 
juliusaugustus said:
I am the only one who has noticed this but their seems to be a lot of people interested in technology, but their seems to be very few people who are actually willing to tinker, try things out. I always see when people talk about technology they always talk about concepts, imagine, or ideas and I always think why don't these people try to make these ideas real. Instead of expecting technology to work perfectly take time to make it work because often technology doesn't "just work". I understand that not everyone has the intelligence but those who don't put that intelligence to work. Just some food for thought
Click to expand...

I bet you know almost nothing about networking! All you so called "geeks" are really ignorant about simple networking.
 
Software-wise, I think it's more difficult to tinker today than it used to be. My friends and I all wrote a lot of Apple ][ shareware software back in the day while in high school. It seemed easier to contribute something then than now. Then: assembly language or even BASIC, direct bitmap graphics addressing, simple. Now: event-driven, object oriented programming, a million Cocoa APIs to learn, plus way more competition (meaning so many more solutions to needs have already been written).
 
I still tinker, I was selling PIC microcontroller kits that I designed just a couple of years ago. Now I'm working on a HA controller with ZigBee.
Mongoose-mechatronics-robot-assembled-picture.jpg
 
I don't personally see the point in doing anything the long way when there is no advantage other than the experience of doing it that way. So in that sense I am not a nerd.

I am however entirely willing to tinker when I'm doing something unique, that simply would not be achievable otherwise, I'm also a sucker for repairing things, though I'm not sure I would were I better off fiscally.

It's for this reason there's currently a half built rep-rap sitting on my coffee table.

:D
 
I have a deep and burning desire to build scale-model plank-on-frame wooden sailing ships. Does this make me a nerd, a geek, or just a boring old guy?

Nevermind. I don't want to know.
 
Learning how to use a soldering gun takes few hours. Not hard.

smirk said:
Software-wise, I think it's more difficult to tinker today than it used to be. My friends and I all wrote a lot of Apple ][ shareware software back in the day while in high school. It seemed easier to contribute something then than now. Then: assembly language or even BASIC, direct bitmap graphics addressing, simple. Now: event-driven, object oriented programming, a million Cocoa APIs to learn, plus way more competition (meaning so many more solutions to needs have already been written).
Click to expand...

Ever heard of the App Store?

sigmadog said:
I have a deep and burning desire to build scale-model plank-on-frame wooden sailing ships. Does this make me a nerd, a geek, or just a boring old guy?

Nevermind. I don't want to know.
Click to expand...

Just don't build it in your basement:
http://www.geekologie.com/2011/05/man-builds-plane-in-basement-has-to-dig.php
 
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