Part one: knowledge and skills [computers] You know how to turn on the computer You can recall your computer's basic specifications on request You can use the Internet competently You know that computers use a thing called binary You can count in binary You can upgrade a computer's hardware You can build a PC from scratch You can set up a computer network You can program in BASIC The only programming language you know is BASIC You know at least one of these:
c c++ php java
Part two: knowledge and skills [science] You know what an atom is You know what a [biological] cell is You know the difference between current and voltage You understand relativity or quantum physics or both You could build a radio if you wanted to You HAVE built a radio and a transmitter You understand the theory of evolution well enough to counter illogical criticisms It's obvious to you how to calculate basic physical values such as speed or distance travelled
Part three: knowledge and skills [math(s)] You try not to laugh when someone says that they find ratios and percentages hard You can do calculus and you know it's easy You have memorised PI to 9 or more decimal places You can't multiply or divide by 10 instantly in your head You can do the above You can use standard form
Part four: lifestyle You have attended one or more LAN parties You have hosted a LAN party You understand 1337 5P34k You think leet speak is cool You have or have had a girlfriend/boyfriend She/he's a nerd too You own more than ten games You remember the good old days of Unreal Tournament and Quake You regularly play Dungeons and Dragons and/or RPGs You pay a subscription to a MMORPG You know of Monty Python You think the newer Star Wars all suck
Part five: nerd humour You get the binary joke (there are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't) You can make and understand maths and physics jokes You've seen Spaceballs You know who Weird Al Yankovic is You are adept at making puns You can make dirty jokes from UNIX commands
Part six: others Since not all nerds are computer or science nerds, here's somewhere for all the linguists, philosophers, politicians, etc to scrore some points on:
Linguists: You know the names of three language families You know the name of the main language spoken in almost every country You speak another language Number of languages you speak: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 or more You know the difference between a language and a dialect You know what an isolating and an agglutinative language is You find yourself mentally correcting people's grammar when you read something
Philosophy: You can name 5 western philosophers You can explain the difference between rationalism and empiricism You know how to argue for and against either point of view You know what 'cogito ergo sum' is and its significance You think an argument is a fight You know to use 'begs the question' correctly (look it up before ticking, unless you're certain)
Politics (most of these are from Tom, aka Tomzini): You know the difference between conservative and liberal You watch politics programmes sometimes You know what the correct definition of: democracy, republic, communist, socialist and facist are (and be honest) You know what discourse analysis is You can hapily discuss Absolute vs Relative gains You don't vote and you are of voting age
Javascript version by Simon Forsyth. Based on the original blog post at irnet
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