Building a better geek code
Jorn Barger
I've always found the geek code implementation [1] a little geeky, but
in principle I like the idea, so I finally got around to testing it out
via my own rating:
d-- s+:++ a+ C+++ UL P+ E+@ W+++ N+++ K+++ M+ PS+++
PE-- Y+ t--- X+ tv++>- b+++ DI>+ e+ h+ r- y++>+++
From a human-factors standpoint, the big problem with this is the OLAs,
which might better be fleshed out as:
dress--
height+
weight++
age+ [many of these still require the key at [1]]
computers+++
UnixLinux
Perl+
Emacs+@
WWW+++
Netnews+++
Kibo+++
Mac+
Pol-Society+++
Pol-Economics--
cypherpunks+
Star Trek---
Xfiles+
tv++>-
books+++
Dilbert>+
education+
housing+
relationships-
male++>+++
A lot of this is still not self-explanatory, though, and worse it's
_really_ geeky in its priorities... so I wonder what set of keywords
could be used that would be both self-explanatory and genuinely
descriptive?
The idea would be to break down the media's kneejerk stereotypes, and
treat each issue as an independent variable:
Clinton---
USA----
capitalism----
equality+++
sexuality+++
drugs++
Internet++++
Microsoft---
academia---
censorship-
crypto+
choice++ [opposite being: abortion--]
conspiracy++
gossip++
PC-
grooming--
design+++
And in fact, an easier way to show these is probably to sort them by
rating (adding special categories freely):
++++ Internet, James Joyce
+++ computers, books, equality, sexuality, design, William Blake
++ drugs, choice, conspiracy, gossip, Ana Voog
+ Mac, crypto, Paglia, Christianity
? tv, gizmos
- censorship, PC
-- grooming
--- Star Trek, Clinton, Microsoft, academia
---- USA, capitalism, Waco
Anybody willing to see this (and raise me)?
j
[1] <URL:http://www.geekcode.com/>
--
I EDIT THE NET: <URL:http://www.mcs.net/~jorn/html/weblogs/weblog.html>
"The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery.
People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood." --Freeman Dyson
tejas
Jorn Barger wrote:
Have you ever thought of getting away from 'puters for a few years?
--
TBSa...@richmond.infi.net (also te...@infi.net)
'Do the boogie woogie in the South American way'
Hank Snow THE RHUMBA BOOGIE
Jorn Barger
tejas <tbsa...@richmond.infi.net> wrote:
> Have you ever thought of getting away from 'puters for a few years?
Why... am I making you feel inadequate?
Jorn Barger
I said:
> tejas <tbsa...@richmond.infi.net> wrote:
> > Have you ever thought of getting away from 'puters for a few years?
> Why... am I making you feel inadequate?
What I shoulda said:
> Before you can try to raise me, you have to see me first.
Richard Harter
jo...@mcs.com (Jorn Barger) wrote:
>tejas <tbsa...@richmond.infi.net> wrote:
>> Have you ever thought of getting away from 'puters for a few years?
>Why... am I making you feel inadequate?
It'll take a better man than you to make me feel inadequate. Unfortunately I am
that better man.
Richard Harter, c...@tiac.net, The Concord Research Institute
URL = http://www.tiac.net/users/cri, phone = 1-978-369-3911
Dear Josephine: I will be arriving home in three days.
Don't bathe. - Napoleon
Lee Goddard
On Sat, 4 Apr 1998 12:09:20 -0500 jo...@mcs.com (Jorn Barger) posted article
<1d6ykx6.e3...@jorn.pr.mcs.net> to rec.arts.books:
A lot of this is still not self-explanatory, though, and worse it's
Just a point before you play your hand where the Derringers live: Unix, Perl
should have a triple plus rating, the Web merely a plus - otherwise we're going
to have many more geeks than actually exist.
But I'll raise your James Joyce to a Virginia Woolf, and your passé Christianity
for Buddhism.
tejas
Richard Harter wrote:
>
> jo...@mcs.com (Jorn Barger) wrote:
>
> >tejas <tbsa...@richmond.infi.net> wrote:
> >> Have you ever thought of getting away from 'puters for a few years?
>
> >Why... am I making you feel inadequate?
>
> It'll take a better man than you to make me feel inadequate. Unfortunately I am
> that better man.
Thank you for fielding that question. I was off scouting for the
Prancing Nit-Wits in Lower Slobbovia. We've got some good material
over there.
I need no help from USENET to feel inadequate. Watching my son "The
Babe Magnet" do his thang does quite well, thank you very much.
But I think a year or two away from work on computers (not to mention
work in general) is a thing to strive for.
ObVerse:
"We'll hang the jerk who invented work,
In the Big Rock Candy Mountain.."
tejas
Jorn Barger wrote:
>
> tejas <tbsa...@richmond.infi.net> wrote:
> > Have you ever thought of getting away from 'puters for a few years?
>
> Why... am I making you feel inadequate?
I don't "feel" anything. I'm more inadequate than you could ever
hope to be.
Fiona Webster
Jorn Barger writes:
> I've always found the geek code implementation [1] a little geeky, but
> in principle I like the idea, so I finally got around to testing it out
What do you do for a living, anyway, Jorn? I'm just asking: you
have an amazing amount of time on your hands. I'm envious.
--Fiona
Jorn Barger
Fiona writes, in a message that's propagated as poorly as most netnews
these days:
> What do you do for a living, anyway, Jorn? I'm just asking: you
> have an amazing amount of time on your hands. I'm envious.
So, rearrange your life!
The notion of having time on your hands is entirely foreign to me,
suggesting disconnection from the arduous demands of the Muse. Happily,
my time has been booked solid for as long as I can remember.
Robert Graves wrote historical novels to pay the bills... I haven't
found anything quite so congenial, but a very little web consulting goes
a long way if you live simply.
My geek code apparently struck people as inconsequential-- but what
clearer summary of history could there be, than a map of how people's
enthusiasms have clustered and shifted across time? (Doesn't anyone
else shrug at the king-list approach to history, wondering what _issues_
were behind each change of power?)
On the other hand, I can hardly blame people for being timid, when the
only rewards for being plainspoken are _cheap shots_.
grrr...
j
Lee Goddard
On Tue, 7 Apr 1998 08:01:49 -0500 jo...@mcs.com (Jorn Barger) posted article
<1d73urc.tlm...@jorn.pr.mcs.net> to rec.arts.books:
Fiona writes, in a message that's propagated as poorly as most netnews
these days:
> What do you do for a living, anyway, Jorn? I'm just asking: you
> have an amazing amount of time on your hands. I'm envious.
So, rearrange your life!
The notion of having time on your hands is entirely foreign to me,
suggesting disconnection from the arduous demands of the Muse. Happily,
my time has been booked solid for as long as I can remember.
Robert Graves wrote historical novels to pay the bills... I haven't
found anything quite so congenial, but a very little web consulting goes
a long way if you live simply.
My geek code apparently struck people as inconsequential-- but what
clearer summary of history could there be, than a map of how people's
enthusiasms have clustered and shifted across time? (Doesn't anyone
else shrug at the king-list approach to history, wondering what _issues_
were behind each change of power?)
On the other hand, I can hardly blame people for being timid, when the
only rewards for being plainspoken are _cheap shots_.
The Geek Code was great, but it I've not the time to go into it now - busy
looking for intros to web consulty work in the UK... Maybe rab isn't the best
place for such stuff, though: have you tried the a/i groups, or alt.pomo?
Christian Claiborn
jo...@mcs.com (Jorn Barger) writes:
> A lot of this is still not self-explanatory, though, and worse it's
> _really_ geeky in its priorities... so I wonder what set of keywords
> could be used that would be both self-explanatory and genuinely
> descriptive?
Your prospective code is missing an indicator for ASCII art prowess.
The Geek Code has always reminded me of those little books of acronyms
that they give to Masons in order to help them study. "W N-O H T W
S?" My dad used to keep his inside his leather apron to study when
work at the psychology practice got slow.
Triangulating,
christian
ObBook: THE EYE IN THE PYRAMID
--
Christian Longshore Claiborn - c...@cie.cendant.com - 650-294-5004
Jorn Barger
Christian Claiborn <c...@cie.cendant.com> wrote:
> "W N-O H T W S?"
Guessing/half-remembering:
Will no-one help the widow's son?
Ted Samsel
In rec.arts.books Jorn Barger <jo...@mcs.com> wrote:
: Fiona writes, in a message that's propagated as poorly as most netnews
: these days:
: > What do you do for a living, anyway, Jorn? I'm just asking: you
: > have an amazing amount of time on your hands. I'm envious.
: So, rearrange your life!
Oh, indeed, Marse Jorn. I'll sell my chirren into white slavery,
ditch the note on the house, not take my blood pressure meds and go
barefoot all year around in my gen-yew-whine hair shirt. Thank you,
cheeses!
ObBook: HOW TO AVOID PROBATE
--
Ted Samsel....tejas@infi.net (or tbsa...@richmond.infi.net)
"do the boogie woogie in the South American way"
Rhumba Boogie- Hank Snow (1955)