50 skills every geek should have

by Ricky Melgares on November 7, 2008

Courtesy of Gizmodo

Courtesy of Gizmodo

After becoming a fervent user of del.ici.ious, I have been coming across some pretty interesting and cool sites that other people have bookmarked. The following is one of the many things I have come across. The list below is borrowed from a Gizmodo post which you can find in its original entirety at Gizmodo. Things from the list that aren’t checked either mean that I haven’t had any interest in doing it, haven’t gotten around to it, or am simply not admitting to having done them.

1. Install a hard drive in a laptop description of the photo
2. Perform a clean OS install on a machine with two OSes description of the photo
3. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone description of the photo
4. Jailbreak an iPhone description of the photo
5. Wire your house for Ethernet and Coax cable description of the photo
6. Use BitTorrent and RSS to automatically download new shows from trackers description of the photo
7. Use an A/V receiver to its fullest capability (every port is taken) description of the photo
8. Calibrate an HDTV without the manual description of the photo
9. Use a DSLR in full manual mode description of the photo
10. Hack the encryption and mooch your neighbor’s Wi-Fi
11. Solder cleanly enough to get around a circuit board
12. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point
13. Shove the guts of a modern game console into a retro game console
14. Design a webpage in HTML by hand that features a picture of your cat description of the photo
15. Use Photoshop to imperceptibly doctor a photo description of the photo
16. Abstain from buying extended warranties description of the photo
17. Know where to buy cheap cables and accessories description of the photo
18. Fix your parents’ computer over the phone without looking at a computer description of the photo
19. Enter the Konami code
20. Comment on Gizmodo from your phone
21. Type quickly using T9 texting
22. Program a universal remote description of the photo
23. Contribute code to the Linux kernel
24. Hide porn from your significant other
25. Avoid DRM on everything
26. Know how to back up your data to networked storage—and actually do it description of the photo
27. Watch TV shows on the internet for free description of the photo
28. Edit together digital video ripped from YouTube
29. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator description of the photo
30. Reset expired trial software by messing with the registry description of the photo
31. Hackintosh your PC description of the photo
32. Download pre-release movies from Usenet description of the photo
33. Hack the Wii to play homebrew games
34. Get around web content filters on public computers description of the photo
35. Get into a Windows computer if you forgot your password description of the photo
36. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered description of the photo
37. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network description of the photo
38. Build a fighting robot description of the photo
39. Write your own Firefox plugins
40. Navigate and reorganize the files on your computer in DOS
41. Get something on the front page of Digg
42. Get through to executive customer service description of the photo
43. Rip a CD to V0 quality MP3s
44. Rip a DVD to DivX description of the photo
45. Build your own computer from parts description of the photo
46. Swap out the hard drive in your DVR for a bigger one description of the photo
47. Get an NES cartridge working again by blowing in it description of the photo
48. Calibrate a 7.1 surround-sound system
49. Play downloaded games on a Nintendo DS
50. Talk about things that aren’t tech related

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