Being a geek no longer holds the stigma it once did. In fact, it can be downright cool to be a geek these days. But not all geeks are created equal. The Socially Acceptable Geek Subgenre Scale is a handy showcase of just where various types of geeks fall in the social hierarchy. And if you’re offended because you find yourself near the bottom of the scale, just remember: there’s no shame in being passionate about something unpopular as long as no one knows about it. And if you really hate clicking through the gallery, click here to see all of them on one long page.

A professor recently declared “nerd” and “geek” derogatory words, to “be avoided.” I agree it should be avoided—but for different reasons. It was pretty surprising to read Dr. David Anderegg’s comments in the New York Times yesterday . Dr.

If the details on this shirt don’t represent at least some of what you’re interested in, I don’t know what you’re doing here. [ Threadless via The Daily What ]

What you’re watching is “JRefleX93″ playing Mr. Crowley in Guitar Hero on expert. With his elbow. While he does this, there are going to be two Rubik’s Cubes entering the frame.

John Hodgman , now perhaps best known as the PC in the “I’m a Mac” ads, spoke at the Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner about nerds, Trekkies, and President Obama’s favorite ” name-brand smartphone [he] shall not name, for contractual reasons.” In this video you will learn of our President’s enthusiasm for comic books, see a photo of him imitating a statue of Superman, and watch him flash the Vulcan sign. Indeed, John Hodgman. It is an exciting time to be a nerd. [ Collegehumor , Thanks Julian! ] Watch John Hodgman Roasts Obama and more funny videos on CollegeHumor

Joel@Boingboing’s new site, Dork Yearbook , is up. I submitted a photo of myself , and Woz just submitted one I haven’t seen before: It’s a photo of a banner that he, Steve Jobs and Allan Baum were going to unfurl off a roof during graduation or something. If you look closely, you can see the word SwabJob on the bottom, which was mashed up out of the initials SW, AB and “Jobs”. They got caught before the prank went down, and I think, later it was revealed that Jobs was bragging about the prank to someone, which lead to them getting caught. Anyhow, the site is fun. If you’ve got geeky childhood photos of you, please send em over to [ dorkyearbook.com.

This is just begging for a duet with this guy and his Tesla coil. [ YouTube via BBG ]

Spoilers Ahead! After long weeks of dancing his heart out, propped up on his busted up legs by only his resolve, courage and legions of SMS-voting geeks, Steve “ThunderToes” Wozniac is booted from Dancing With the Stars. For some, he was hard to watch dancing. OK, maybe for most. But not to me. To me he was a giant (but rapidly decreasing in weight, mind you) bundle of circuit board, segway riding, love bouncing around with the enthusiasm of a child on two barely-functioning legs. The man who could out design professional mainframe builders in his early teens found dancing impossible, but here he was trying, bucking what fate handed him (genius, riches) for what nearly everyone else took for granted (having fewer than two left feet)

In our Hackintosh guide , we called our OS X-powered Dell Mini 9 the ultimate Mac netbook. We were wrong. This Hackintoshed Dell Mini 9 , autographed by one Steve “Quick Step” Wozniak, is the actual pinnacle. Matthew Smith caught Woz doing some press for Dancing With the Stars. He writes: I showed him my Dell Mini 9 with OS X Leopard installed on it (and an Apple sticker sloppily applied over the Dell logo.

Or they lie a lot more than any other geek. This chart shows the percentage of virgins by major at Wellesley. I always knew there was a reason I liked art chicks. [ Forwardon via Geekologie ]