31 August,2009 07:29 AM IST | | Balaji Narasimhan
Many nerds who spend too much time glued to the computer screen may appreciate these cool books
Most people in the technical world don't like books too much because you can't search through them easily. In fact, techies have a line for this 'You can't grep dead trees'. Here, grep stands for 'Global Regular Expression Print', a UNIX command that searches for strings inside files.
But books have a great amount of value because they are convenient to carry around and easy to read anywhere. And while some books are meant only for geeks your non-geek friends wouldn't understand them any more than they can speak Swahili there are also a few books that you can use to prove to people that you are not just a geek. So, check them out!
Amazing stuff: If you want to figure out how to generate battery power from household items or transform an FM radio into a tower-to-air eavesdropping device, then this is the book for you.
(179 pages; $9.99; Rs 488)
Uber cool: Let's face it, we geeks don't give a damn to how we look. But it is still useful to know somethingu2014like, for example, how to create light-up buttons to sew onto any jacket.
(128 pages; $19.99; Rs 977)
Shock them into silence: Do your friends think that you only know how to sit in front of a computer? With this book, you can create crop circles and walk on hot coals, so buy it and make them see the real you!
(255 pages; $10.99; Rs 537)
Evil is in the air: This book will appeal to you if you have a sinister turn of mind. With this book, you can build a laser beam cutter, a body heat detector, a lightning bolt generator, and many other cool toys.
(302 pages; $19.99; Rs 977)
For the big boys only: Ever wondered how hackers defeat copy-protection mechanisms and how they steal data? Wondered how you can protect against them? This book will tell you and the included CD has free software to guard your PC.
(384 pages; $24.99; Rs 1,222)
