I'm so nerdy that I ...

[rlo]

This thread's to tell nerdy stories about yourself. I'll start.

I'm so nerdy that in Junior High School (age 12 or 13), a friend and I computed every local phone number (seven digits) that were perfect squares. Then we phoned all the numbers on the list and told whoever answered what the square root of their phone number was.

Most people couldn't have cared less. One guy was really happy about it. Made the whole thing worth it.

[Jack Saladin]

One guy was really happy about it. Made the whole thing worth it.

Ahh, the innocence of youth. Did he answer like "Wooooooahhhh, man, really?! That's AWESOME!"

The most outrageously nerdy thing I've done is sit around on the computer for far too long*. That's gotta count for something though. o.O

Edit: *It must be noted I do this every day.

[fjafjan]

I have the same nerdification as Saladin .. Nerdiest thing though?

Hmm, I dunno, correcting physics teacher(well, in high school, yet)?

Currently in the business of figuring out peoples code for the Photocopy machine, and then writing them on a piece of paper, copy that paper using the codes untull they are all exhausted, and placing them around school with the headline (up unull recently) functioning Photocopy Codes

Or is that more in the business of assholery? we are talking about codes like 123456 ...

[Peshmerga]

Nerdiest thing ever? Built my own computer and wired the house's LAN.

I also redirected the Cable into my room as well as placed a small innocent webcam outside my room looking into the living room.

Now I just have to program a motion sensor of some sort...

[Epoch]

well...

there was the time in high school that a friend and I spent two months (and some serious $) making one of his airsoft rifles into an M41A pulse rifle, like the one in Aliens.

the whole thing was functional, the grenade launcher even fired ping-pong balls...

or is that more of a geek thing?

[Peshmerga]

It's only a geek thing if jocks think its cool. I'm not a jock, but I think it's pretty damn cool.

[Epoch]

It's only a geek thing if jocks think its cool. I'm not a jock, but I think it's pretty damn cool.

yeah.

we were almost laughed out of an airsoft event though.

(LOL that's not a real gun LOL)

of course I was walking in with a mini-gun... so we cut the laughter short.

[kira]

In high school, we had block scheduling and were only required to take math for one semester each year.

I took math both semesters every year but my senior year (and during my that spare semester, I missed having math class).

[Verysillyman]

So, i'm not really nerdy, but last night I came out with some good nerdy statements. which i'll post later since I'm off ot the library now.

[xkcd]

I started a webcomic . . .

[Jack Saladin]

A webcomic about maths.

We have a winner.

[lirilia]

A webcomic about maths.

We have a winner.

Yeah, but is that nerdy nerdy or cool nerdy?

I personally lean toward the latter.

Or does it not matter in terms of overall nerdiness?

[myoumyouou]

that is cool nerdy,

i correct my physics and maths teachers alot, cuz they say stupid things, but i guess thats not so much nerdy as annoyin, no i lie, it is somewhat nerdy
but nerdiest thing ever would be... ummm... thats hard.

[Air Gear]

Oh, such a list...the things that reveal my geekiness best...thing is, none of them are entertaining.

My computer(s) have been crunching numbers on prime searching for something like 3 years now...

...oh yeah, a decent enough one...after 8 years without playing, I am now an active player in the movement to bring Quakeworld back to its rightful glory.

[Ephphatha]

...Do I get any points for teaching my TAFE teacher how to use a computer properly?

What if I told you he taught Cert II in Information Technology?

[Gelsamel]

...Do I get any points for teaching my TAFE teacher how to use a computer properly?

What if I told you he taught Cert II in Information Technology?

Every person I know who teaches Info Tech is never really -that- great at using computers. I donno about TAFE but that has been my experience so far (which is why I quit my VCE units of IT).

[rlo]

One guy was really happy about it. Made the whole thing worth it.

Ahh, the innocence of youth. Did he answer like "Wooooooahhhh, man, really?! That's AWESOME!

No... he was sort of stunned. He kept on saying "Thank you! Thank you!". He was clearly a math guy who had been told something he thought was cool about himself that he'd never known.

I could tell you some things that make this story even nerdier but maybe I'll save them for awhile.

[Ephphatha]

...Do I get any points for teaching my TAFE teacher how to use a computer properly?

What if I told you he taught Cert II in Information Technology?

Every person I know who teaches Info Tech is never really -that- great at using computers. I donno about TAFE but that has been my experience so far (which is why I quit my VCE units of IT).

There is only one way to redeem myself then.

I once made a keychain out of a stick of 72 pin SIMM RAM.

[Gelsamel]

...Do I get any points for teaching my TAFE teacher how to use a computer properly?

What if I told you he taught Cert II in Information Technology?

Every person I know who teaches Info Tech is never really -that- great at using computers. I donno about TAFE but that has been my experience so far (which is why I quit my VCE units of IT).

There is only one way to redeem myself then.

I once made a keychain out of a stick of 72 pin SIMM RAM.

Haha I didn't mean to lower the nerdiness of your achievement, I was just sharing my experience with IT teachers..

[ohki]

I recently bought a logic analyzer... the first thing that I did was hook it up to my PCs serial port, just to give it a test. It didn't come with a manual so it took me a bit to figure it out. I finally get it. I'm ... a bit too excited by this.

I grab my roomate drag him over and make him look at the waveform. He just stares at it. "What is that?" "It's an 'A', isn't that awesome?!?!" "Um.. ... yeaaah, awesome..."

Oh, anyone else tend to start counting things at 0 instead of 1?

[Karthe]

I don't know if this qualifies, but I built a blogging system...from scratch...in PHP...I was very bored over winter break and/or needed a diversion from school work during my senior year of high school. I don't know how many coders will start a big personal project just to test their ability to program, but that's why I made my online journalling system...turns out I'm not as bad as I thought I was

If you want to check it out, click the "WWW" button at the bottom of the post. I'm not going to post the link for fear of being marked as a spamz0r >.>

But yeah, there you go. Nerd-chique? You be the judge

[Shoofle]

I recently may have convinced my physics teacher that he was wrong all these years! Also, I correct my programming teacher all the time.

[Kate Sith]

A classmate and I drew an epic DBZ-esque combat comic, except instead of people, the characters were all molecules. Oxygen was the main villain. The (very) unwitting protagonist was the fictional element "Deanium", who cheerfully mucked about in the search for tasty Hydrogen atoms. Oxygen's vendetta against our happy hero began in what was called the "Deanide Saga (part one)", an unfortunate fus--er, bonding incident.

This was, of course, done while blowing off work in Chem class. good times.

none of these have ever made it to the web, mostly because I'm missing a lot of the original copy.

[SpitValve]

I recently may have convinced my physics teacher that he was wrong all these years!

I did a 1-semester long research paper disproving something my 1st year physics lecturer taught us...

[rlo]

Oh, anyone else tend to start counting things at 0 instead of 1?

No, but here's something related: instead of ranking things on a 1 to 10 scale, I use a 1 to 9 scale.

Think about it: if you use a 1 to 10 scale, and you want to say that something's smack in the middle, what ranking do you give it? A 5. But 5's not the middle: the middle would be 5.5.

But if you use a 1 to 9 scale, 5 is smack in the middle. Not only that, but 7 is midway between the middle and the highest, and 3 is midway between the lowest and the middle. And 2, 4, 6, and 8 fit nicely between those values.

In other words, the 1 to 9 scale lets you rank things accurately using only whole numbers. With the 1 to 10 scale, you either need to use fractions, otherwise your ranking system is somewhat off.

Now THAT is nerdy!!!

[Hix]

Heh, the 5 versus 5.5 discrepancy always bugs me, too, so I always insist on using a 0-10 scale. I find that the quick conversion between this scale and a percentage scale compensates for the lack of integer values for the "one quarter" and "three quarters" marks that can be found on the 1-9 scale.

[rlo]

Heh, the 5 versus 5.5 discrepancy always bugs me, too, so I always insist on using a 0-10 scale. I find that the quick conversion between this scale and a percentage scale compensates for the lack of integer values for the "one quarter" and "three quarters" marks that can be found on the 1-9 scale.

Hix, I hadn't realized that the 0-10 scale corresponds so nicely to percentages, and thanks for pointing that out. But you're wrong about the 1 to 9 scale: 25% corresponds exactly to a 3, and 75% is exactly 7.

Play with this using nine fingers and you'll see how clean it is! I suggest pointing your palms away from you with the pinkies on the left and right, and one thumb folded down while the other sticks up in the middle. That sticking-up-thumb is the 5.

[Hix]

I know, that's why I said that integer values for the one quarter and three quarters marks can be found on the 1-9 scale.

[shine_and_shing]

I learned Dvorak.

And I'm not even a computer/math/technology person, most of the time.
And I'm a girl.

YEAH SO I know that I don't have to be or not be any of those things to be ergonomically correct.
But I really think that's the only truly nerdy thing I've done, in this realm.

I mean, I've written Harry Potter smut (it's ridiculous. PM for the link if you want to see what I co-authored in 10th grade and made me almost fail algebra 2.), I'm in student government, I go to MUN conferences, I study obscure international relations stuff, and I like to make equations out of words.

[Zee Anything]

I don't really know if this counts, but I've always bugged my teachers/profs for book recomendations. I like reading books that relate to classes, but are not included in the subject material we cover.

I usually surprise them by how fast I read (Elegant Universe, for example, took me a week. Would have been quicker, but I didn't really like it.) So, does that count?

[rlo]

I learned Dvorak.

That's quite cool, actually. Was it hard to make the switchover? In retrospect, was it worth the effort?

I know, that's why I said that integer values for the one quarter and three quarters marks can be found on the 1-9 scale.

Oops. I'm so nerdy, I read stuff wrong!

[Gelsamel]

I'm so nerdy that I'm going to write a letter for KEO

[shardik]

I used to ask friends in boring classes (Florida Politics, Intro to Judaism) for large (15+ digit) numbers, then convert them to binary by hand.

One day, I decided to convert phone numbers into hex, then find out what color that equated with. I did all the conversion by hand, then looked up the hex code/color combo online.

My cell phone number was a light blue.

[rlo]

I'm so nerdy that I'm going to write a letter for KEO

Wow. How does one get a diamond to encase anything?

[Jack Saladin]

I have seen more realistic projects.

For one, how are 50,000 years + humans going to read all these messages? If we look at the possible outcomes of human civilization in 50,000 years:

A) We continue on technologically advancing, solve the energy crisis, beat global warming, etc, etc, eventually hit singularity. If this happens, we don't need the sattelite because all the messages are on the web anyway, which will still be accessable, or at least all the data from it accessable.

B) Human race is extinct. No need for sattelite.

C) Current civilizations destroyed, more primitive socieites around. Now, if you're some random tribes-man living in a camp and suddenly you've got a bunch of Chinise and English and whatever messages, well, it's not going to mean a hell of a lot to you. Not that they'll get those messages at all in the first place, considering they're all stored on DVDs.

Yes, DVDs. How are the people of the future supposed to get the messages off the DVDs? Well, they'll come with some symbolic instructions as how to make a DVD player. Symbolic instructions?! If someone gave me symbolic instructions how to make a DVD player, I couldn't do it, let alone some random dude in a cave.

And don't say "well, if it happens across a non-primitive society they'll be able to make the DVD reader", because they won't need the sattelite in the first place for aforementioned reasons. The only people who wouldn't already have the information on the sattelite, are the same people who won't be able to read it at all.

The human race underestimates its greatest invention yet - the internet. You don't need such primitive concepts like physical time capsules. If you really, really, really want a time capsule (which is more of a novelty "oh I can't wait for someone from the future to read my message" thing than anything with some functional merit), the just make a digital one.

Waste of a perfectly good diamond if you ask me.

[Kas]

This isn't terribly nerdy, but...

My friend and I used to have a running contest going to see who can make the longest words from the letters for elements on the periodic table, without using the same element twice.

I forget now what was the longest one we came up with, but I do remember we had a good laugh Polonium Radon.

It's...it's PoRn, if you couldn't tell.

[Jack Saladin]

This isn't terribly nerdy, but...

I don't know if you're allowed to say that if you follow it up with "we had a good laugh at <x elements>"

[Kas]

This isn't terribly nerdy, but...

I don't know if you're allowed to say that if you follow it up with "we had a good laugh at <x elements>"

Touché.

[hiddenmaniac]

I'm so nerdy that I read the xkcd forums for 5 months without contributing.

... I fall in love with any girl who speaks more than 2 languages. Especially if she made one of them up.

... I stay up until 2AM watching anime, cry myself to sleep (and enjoy it,) then dream about being eaten by dragons.

... I played DDR during the prom.

[Andy]

I did a programming assignment using only "cat" and file redirection -- all in one pass. (Granted, it was for a subject that I teach...)