Geekery

Geek God – David Gemmell

Posted on 15. Dec, 2009 by Jake.

This may come as a bit of a shock to those of you who are fans of both Gemmell and this blog – but I’m not a fan. Nonetheless, such a large number of my geek compadres idolise the late fantasy author so much so that I am forced to declare him a Geek God. While detractors like me find his stuff a tad repetitive, a friend of mine and a rabid fan of Gemmell’s says “I don’t care if he writes the same story over and over again – it’s a great story.”

Gemmell (August 1, 1948 – July 28, 2006) wrote over thirty novels and has sold millions of copies worldwide. Interestingly, he grew up in a poor, urban area of London and his father left at an early age, which led to him being mercilessly teased as a child. However contrary to those who may think that due to his status as a Geek God David Gemmell must have been weedy, he was actually very tough and hardcore. Although he preferred reading books to physical activity his dad convinced him to take up boxing as a way of toughening up. It worked. Gemmell was expelled from school at the age of sixteen for organizing a gambling syndicate and was arrested several times while still under 20. He later became a construction worker and a bouncer at nightclubs, before his mum set him up an interview with a London newspaper. Apparently, Gemmell was hired despite having no experience because he was very arrogant during the job interview, which his future employers mistook for confidence. At any rate, this job started him on a journey as a writer, which would culminate in Gemmell having his first novel published at age 36.

Gemmell’s first and most successful book, called Legend, was published in 1984. Since then he churned them out, until his unexpected death from a heart attack in 2006. His books, as those who have read them will know, are heroic fantasy novels, usually with tons of violence and a super-macho hero who kicks ass and takes names throughout. Why do geeks love reading about men so far removed from their own world of desks and PCs? Whatever the reason, the amount of bona-fide geeks who have become obsessed with the worlds Gemmell created for you to escape to earn him his place in the pantheon of Geek Gods.

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Geek God – Steve Wozniak

Posted on 17. Nov, 2009 by Jake.

The original inventor at Apple HQ

A major oversite (geddit?) took place on this blog when I declared Steve Jobs a Geek God. Sure, the guy deserves some credit for turning Apple into the global mega-brand it is today. But the real geek genius, the inventor, is his partner Steve Wozniack.

Known affectionately as ‘The Woz’, ‘iWoz’ and the ‘Wonderful Wizard of Woz’, Wozniack is a geek’s geek – he was the one whose bedroom as a young man was filled with bizarre electronic devices of his own invention, who would invent cool gadgets just to impress his friends at parties and who had to be convinced by the more business-savvy Jobs that there may actually be a market for this ‘personal computer’ idea he’d been tinkering with. If The Woz would never have become a multimillionaire (back in 1980 when that was still a lot of money) without Jobs and his business sense, then the same goes the other way around – none of Apple’s true technological innovations could have taken place without the Wonderful Wizard of Woz.

The invention that made him famous was the first PC, the Apple 1. The machine sounds like a joke now – a  $25 microprocessor (MOS 6502) on a single-circuit board with 256 bytes of ROM, 4K or 8K bytes of RAM and a 40 character by 24-row display controller. The user was expected to supply the case, power supply, keyboard and display themselves. The Apple 1 was fairly expensive $666.66 (Wozniack says he has no idea of the supposedly satanic connotations of the number and just chose the price because he ‘likes repeating digits’). Apple 2 introduced innovations such as high res and the floppy disk drive. Wozniack designed all the software as well as the hardware for these early machines.

Since his early innovations iWoz has been quite low key. An aircraft accident gave him amnesia in 1981, and when he eventually returned to Apple in 1983 he was just employed as an engineer. He has been involved with pioneering useful things such as early GPS technology as well as the universal remote control. He still receives a paycheck from Apple (even though he stopped being a full-time employee in 1987) and is a shareholder in the company.

The Woz is a true geek icon, proving that with enough tech savvy you can be a success in life without an iota of business or dress sense. Respect.

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Geek God – Neil Gaiman

Posted on 06. Nov, 2009 by Jake.

Being a geek god shouldn’t just be reserved for those involved in the worlds of IT or technology or science. A true geek, contrary to the cliché, does not spend every waking hour on the computer. A true Geek also loves to read. And usually, Geeks love to read science fiction and fantasy and dark comedy and any truly brilliant writing which takes your mind to places it has never been before. Neil Gaiman is one of the few writers living today who can lay claim to having created work which encompasses elements of all the above.

Comic book geeks will know him mainly for the incredible Sandman series, a fantasy comic so layered and well-versed in myths and legends that it makes most other adult-oriented graphic novels look like Richie Rich. The series is based on the exploits of the endless, a group of mythical beings who existed since time did and who embody different natural forces of the universe, called Dream, Desire, Delerium, Despair, Destruction, and Destiny. Dream, or the Sandman, is the main character. The comic inspired one of the most respected writers who ever lived, Norman Mailer, to remark “along with all else, Sandman is a comic strip for intellectuals, and I say it’s about time.”

Those who prefer their books without pictures may know him for his novels, all of which have been heaped with critical praise. There was 1990’s ‘Good Omens’ a collaboration with the ultra-prolific king of fantasy-comedy , Terry Pratchett, followed by 2001’s ‘American Gods’, and 2005’s ‘Anansi Boys’. He has also written a bunch of books for kids, including his latest, ‘The Graveyard Book’, rated by some as his best yet, ‘The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish’, ‘Stardust’ and ‘Coraline’, both of which have become major films, the former staring Claire Daines and Robert De Niro and the latter a stop-frame animation.

Speaking of film, Gaiman has become increasingly involved as a screenwriter, co-writing the script for 2007’s ‘Beowulf’ with Roger Avery, and is currently working on a script based on Nicholson Baker’s novel ‘The Fermata’ alongside Robert Zemeckis. He also wrote ‘Neverwhere’, a ’90s BBC television series.

Gaiman has won so many awards that the idea of listing them all bores me. His extremely obsessive fans (such as me) and penchant for black clothes and leather often causes people to refer to him as the ‘rock star of the literary world’. But Gaiman’s too intelligent to be a rock star, so I declare him a Geek God instead.

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Geek God – Mark Shuttleworth

Posted on 20. Oct, 2009 by Jake.

Thanks to the Ubuntu declarations a few weeks back, this week I decided to go local and find you a homegrown example of a Geek God. It is perhaps a tad ironic that the most famous South African geek who springs to mind, Mark Shuttleworth, is actually based in London now, but I suppose, like Charlize Theron or Dave Matthews, we need to claim him as one of us, no matter how many years he spends out of the country. As a massively successful uber-geek he is an inspiration to South African geeks and, having made the transition from developer to filthy rich entrepreneur, he reminds us that there is no reason for us not to think big.

The man could not be described as an underachiever. He set up his first business, which specialised in Internet Security, in 1995, and had sold it for 3.5 billion by 1999. He has since helmed two similarly successful businesses, not to mention becoming the first African in Space, where he got to chat to Nelson Mandela via radio. And, believe it or not, he was born in Welkom. He has undoubtedly come a long way.

While he is now best known more for making a ton of money and visiting space, Shuttleworth’s geek credentials are formidable. As a student at UCT, in the early nineties, he was involved in setting up the varsity’s first residential internet connection at his res, Jan Smuts house. Proving he has skills over and above his obviously strong business sense, he was one of the developers of the Debian operating system. And, from 2001, he has championed the Open Source revolution, first through the Shuttleworth Foundation and then, in 2005, as the founder of the now internationally famous Ubuntu.

He seems like a good guy, too. His mission into space wasn’t a selfish one, and his time spent at The International Space Station included his participation in experiments relating to AIDS and stem-cell research. While he was in space, he found time to chat to Michelle Foster, a terminally ill 14 year old Cancer patient who has since passed away (she asked him to marry her, and he responded by politely changing the subject). And, proving he has a sense of humour, his title at Ubuntu, rather than CEO or director, is Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life.

Coming from Southern Africa, where the dictator who gets the most mentions in the news is far from benevolent, we need all the good PR we can get. So Shuttleworth is ours, even if he does insist on setting up camp in the land of grey weather and fish and chips.

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Geek God – Alexey Pajitnov

Posted on 29. Sep, 2009 by Jake.

While discussions on gaming can get heated, all gaming fanatics can agree on one thing – there is a test of every gamer’s basic skills which has nothing to do with how much RAM your machine has or how high res your screen is. Any gamer worth his salt should be able to pwn when it comes to the most legendarily simple-yet-complicated game of all time – Tetris – the ultimate puzzle game. So Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of Tetris, deserves a special place in the pantheon of geek gods.

Initially, his story had tragic overtones, making it all the more interesting. Pajitnov invented Tetris in 1985 in Russia, while working at a government organisation called the Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Because Russia was still under Communism, Pajitnov didn’t earn a cent for his invention, as everything he made was owned by the state. He distributed Tetris all around the USSR and other Eastern bloc countries for free.

So, Pajitnov ended up an alcoholic living in extreme poverty. Well, not really. Actually, he got co-opted by the Yanks, who brought him over to America in the early 90’s, where he started the Tetris Company and began earning royalties from his creation. By 1996 he was employed by Microsoft and making millions. So much for the tragedy.

But while Pajitnov didn’t achieve technological martyrdom, he did invent possibly the most successful game of all time. It has sold more than 70 million copies. Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue named Tetris the ‘Greatest Game of All Time’. And Tetris has a way of getting people to think about the big questions. In 1988 a thesis by John Brzustowski asked ‘Is it possible to play Tetris forever?’ (the thesis deduced that no, it isn’t). And, recently, research by neurologists Dr. Michael Crane and Dr. Richard Haier showed that playing Tetris improves your brain function, boosting one’s “critical thinking, reasoning, language and processing”.

That’s that then. Tetris makes you clever. So logic dictates that its inventor must be uber-clever. All hail the brilliance of Alexey Pajitnov.

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