So what subject or mechanical object turns you from a normal person into a nerdy type, who loves talking about his favourite thing, bit like Clarkson or May.

Me its trains and buses,

Mechanical Pencils and OK Computer…

boats&bikes

Would normally be bikes but on here i’m out nerded by quite a few people.

Probably photography, though I’m nowhere near as nerdy as some.

Fuel consumption on my cars/bikes. Super-geek level. 🙂

Mountain bikes,Landrovers.

🙂

Pretty much anything mechanical or electronic/electrical. However I have a distinct love of robots and automotive engineering. I’ll happily discuss vision algorithms or engine tuning ALL night long. I do it all day in work too 😀

Tilley lamps, 1928-1970 or so

Bikes. Badminton shots. Films. Certain bands (Coheed and Cambria mainly). Sometimes maths, but usually just to take the piss out of people forget to +c when integrating or something.

It was boat rating and performance factors (optimisation) but fell out of love with racing yachts due to costs and cliques at clubs.

Tournament Ski Boats

<scans thread>

Detecting high levels of geek

“creative things” like photoshop, video editing, motion graphics/3d animation and that sort of thing.

Not really that nerdy about bikes but can bodge/fix most things if I have a good set of instructions to follow or if it’s self explanatory.

Ventilation and airway management…

Satellite Communications…..

Project Mercury.

Bengali Vaisnavism from C16th onwards. And bikes…..

Mtbs and land rovers for me

for you Beaker.

Nice…

Bikes & rocks/ earth science.

broadcast camera cranes.. Grad filters/Matte Boxes and now HD broadcast cameras being 2 days into a 3 day HD course..

Music.

I understand music. It gets right on my tits when people who have no clue about it believe their opinion to be just as valid. 🙂

The fact that a certain little ditty makes you tap your feet or cream your panties because you want to do dirty things with the singer doesn’t mean you have the slightest clue about the competency of the musicians involved.

Cameras, motorcycles, LEDs.

Beer making, moderate geekery.

fighter aircraft, radio controlled stuff, bikes and rock music!

Maps and navigation here. Love poring over old maps especially.
Fascinated by older ways of navigation too – I’d love to have a play with a sextant, I know bugger all about astronomy though so probably fail miserably.

Bikes, Boats. Weirdly good at knowing where places are too.

Filemaker Pro databases (pretty obscure, I know). Cameras (but like Grum, easily out-geeked). Scottish rock climbing (up to about 2005-ish).

[EDIT] Maps too. Love maps.
.
.
.

No-one put in a claim for pornography yet? Disappointed…

Programming of autocad and cad standards.

Sadly, guns. Rifles in particular. But that’s a professional interest, and I am out-geeked by several people in my club.

Serial Killers. I find them fascinating.

If I did Master Mind I’d choose the Life and Legend of Jack the Ripper.

Professionally :- Rosemount 1151 pressure transmitters and similar. But mainlly 1151’s.

Personally :- Microsoft Zune

It comes and goes. At various points in history it’s been bikes, outdoor gear, computers and cameras.

errrr, renewable energy heating systems 😳
And out in the real world of the blind where I am the one-eyed king: bikes

Professionally, high pressure gate valves up to 20K psi, and compressed air filtration

Personally, Traction Engines

Kevj, wouldn’t mind digging a bit deeper into Autocad.

I learnt a fair bit in configuring and modifying Delcam software at my last place, was hoping to do the same at my new one but haven’t yet had the opportunity to sit and tinker with it.

Any recommended reading you can point me towards? Lisp, Vb etc.

Righty..

Boats (incl dinghies and racing only)
Bikes (but only like talking about them to bikees, like you lot)
Windsurfing & Kitesurfing (niche I know, but hey)
Art (modern and pre Raphaelite, mainly religious early 14C)
Churches.. (make your own minds up)

Bikebouy.. show us some of your favourite religious early 14C paintings please. And tell us why you like the pic, and the rather specific period..

Professionally – metrology

Personally – bugs