5-17-96. WaPo: "The Code Of the Geeks." A longish lifestyles profile of Robert Hayden and his Geek Code -- "a series of letters usually found on the bottom of e-mail messages that, when deciphered, offer a snapshot of the user's geekiness." It's a way for geeks to scope out one another. But Hayden says it's a part of his effort to take the eek out of geek -- to turn what's largely thought of as a negative stereotype into something positive. "Gates had an opportunity to be one and he gave it up. That happened when he decided that making money is more important than making good computer code. One geek trait is that you take pride in your work and it's my opinion that Microsoft hasn't produced a lot that's to be proud of." "In a nutshell, a nerd is somebody who lets technology run their life and a geek is a person who runs their life with technology." GEK_cod