So you say you’re a geek? Take our quiz to be sure.

So, you say you’re a geek. You’re proud of the title. You wear you geekiness as a badge of honor, eh? Well, before you slap that big “G” on your chest, take our little Geek-o-Meter quiz to find out where you really rate on the Geek Scale.

First, do you even know what a “geek” is?? Well, according to good old dictionary.com…it means a few different things. Now, let’s hope you aren’t trying to be number three. Ummm…gross.

geek   Slang.
–noun
1. a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp. one who is perceived to be overly intellectual.
2. a computer expert or enthusiast (a term of pride as self-reference, but often considered offensive when used by outsiders.)
3. a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken.

Now that we have that out of the way, on to the nuts and bolts of it. Are you or aren’t you a bona fide member of the Geek Club? How many of the following questions can you answer “yes” to? (without googling). And I didn’t even make these especially hard, so let’s see how you rate.

1. Do you know how to monitor network traffic?
You may be curious about who your girlfriend is chatting with, what your kids are downloading, or if the cheap neighbor decided to leech off your wi-fi. Knowing how to analyze network traffic is a handy little skill. If you don’t have it…this site might be able to help you out.

2. Do you know how to find a website IP address without web/command prompt access?
Ahh yes. We’ve probably all come across this at one time or another. School, work..whatever…trying to be all tricky-like and lock down the command prompt and block all the major IP search websites as well as the sites you usually want to get to. But any real geek can work around that. For the geeks in training..You want to do the following:

Get a new command prompt by opening Notepad and typing: command.com
Then, save as “cmd.bat”. Voila! You’ve got yourself a command prompt.
Now, open it and type, “ping http://www.website.com/” to get the IP address of that site.
Enter the IP into the browser and you are in.

3. Do you know how to hide a file behind a jpg?
Sure, everyone knows how to password protect a file. I think they teach that in preschool these days. And many times encrypting files or folders requires certain software that then shows up on your system. So, why not stick the file behind a shot of the family dog? Yeah…now you’ve got it. Or, if you don’t…read up on it here.

4. Do you know how to retrieve data off a crashed hard drive?
Like it or not, it happens. Do you take it to a “pro”, or are you the pro? If you need help in this area, here are some tips.

5. Do you know how to safely straighten the pins on an older CPU?
May sound goofy…but it can come in handy. The first, easiest way is to just take a credit card and run it through the rows of pins in each direction, which will realign lightly-bent pins. If that doesn’t work? Use the barrel of a mechanical pencil to sheath the pin and carefully bend it back up straight.

6. Do you know how to code HTML?
True geeks do it old school. None of this Dreamweaver crap. But, if you’ve “forgotten” some of the basics…here is a site that can give you a refresher.

7. Can you beat Quake in under one hour?
Sure, there are many newer games out there. But…for a classic…this is a winner. For some tips, check out some of the masters here and here.

8. Can you actually shoot a photo in full manual mode?
No, it doesn’t count when you turn the knob to “auto focus”. I mean…really use those little settings you paid all that money to have on your DSLR camera in the first place. If you have no idea what I am talking about when I say the word aperature…don’t say “yes” to this one. Maybe you should read up some.

9. Do you know how to get into a Windows computer after you forgot the password?
Since people seem to come across this a lot, you know, forgetting their own password for their computer. So, when it does, do you know how to get in anyway? Well, first up, of course you real geeks know if you haven’t changed the default setting on your Windows install (which of course a real geek would have), you might be able to log in by starting up in safe mode through an unprotected admin account. (Press F8 while the computer is booting to get into safe mode. If it works, change the other user’s passwords through your control panel and clicking on “User Accounts”).

If that doesn’t work, try a cracker like ophcrack loaded on a USB drive or bootable CD might be the ticket. Now again, this is for your own computer of course. Not someone else’s.

10. Do you know a “constructed” language?
For whatever reason…every card-carrying member of the Geek Club seems to be able to speak at least on fictional language. Which is yours? Adûnaic? Old Tongue? Klingon? Learn one if you haven’t already.

So, out of ten, how geeky were you? Geek in training or Geek President? But remember, a geek never stops forging ahead on his quest of geekdom…so stay at it.