[geeks] What desk toy or "tchotchke" says "geek" to you?

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Sat, 25 Mar 2006 @ 14:34 -0600, Michael Parson said:

> I have a Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems mug and mousepad.  It's a little
> obscure, only a few have recognized it.

Heh...

That reminds me of a day at work some years back, in better times.

My office (shared) was being invaded by several people I didn't like very
much, and they were trying to be friendly, which made it even worse. They were
clueless, and unfortunately, largely charting the course for the project I was
coding.

One of the dimmer of them tried to start small-talk: "Hey, one of your desks
is higher than the other!" She grinned and seemed pleased with herself. I was
wondering when the pain would end, and how anyone could be that stupid.

At this point I could no longer suppress smartass comments, so I said: "I
wanted one higher than the other so as to create a two level effect, with a
little path running down the middle, to keep people out."

Before long there were calls of "Ni!", "Ping!", and "Ecky, ecky, ecky..." from
the other geeks nearby.

I thought it was hilarious. The "product knowledge team" did not, except for
those who were just confused.

I can remember several times over the years that chain reactions like that
happened at work, or when I would hear of a coworker smarting off to a
suit-pest with some obscure reference that I recognzed.

I have noticed over the years that a lot of computer people, particularly
those with a background in computer science, seem to have the same set of
interests, or some closely related.

Dr. Who, Monty Python, Tolkien, greek/norse mythology, the ancient world, 
and things like that.

I have theories, but none that seem to quite explain it.

It's not a new thing either: if you read about the history of computers, it
has been there from the early days.


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The grieving lords take ship.  With these
our very souls pass overseas." -- Exile]