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Unless you believe that "being a geek" IS a disability.

It is.

Pardon me for pointing this out, but you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

I agree that many people apply a very narrow view of what is normal. However, to conjecture based soley upon this observations that the entire psychological community is full of crap (which is, in effect, what you are saying by suggesting that Asperger's is simply a label to describe a different type of normal) is just ignorant.

The important point here is that this is a well described syndrome that can be treated both with behavioral and pharmacological techniques. This site seems to be a pretty good reference to the condition.

Note: I am not a psychologist nor should my opinion be construed as advice. My wife, however, is a therapist who specializes in adolescent psychology, so I am not just making this up as I go.

Thanks; I had forgotten about discounts for Microsoft application software installed on a K-12 student's home computer. I wasn't aware of that offer.

it's hard to ignore the enormous base of support for MS Office.

I'm not ignoring it entirely. OOo can read and write Microsoft Office documents (doc, xls, ppt) at least as well as the next version of MS Office can. From the limited use I've had of MS Office and OOo, the UIs are so similar that skills learned in one would easily transfer to the other.

free certification programs for the disabled

Does a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome (a mild form of autism, sometimes called "geek disease") count as a disability?

This is because you are DELIBERATELY choosing the MISUNDERSTAND.

What makes you think it's deliberate?

You have never produced a single creative work in your life.

Prove it. I write for my web site.

Either that, or you're a fucking idiot.

I'm not exactly an idiot, but a psychologist once told me that I have Asperger syndrome.

You do not create

I would create, but I do not publish for fear of being sued for accidentally copying a copyrighted work.

Produce something.

What evidence do you have that I haven't?

Because you've squandered away all you ever had with this talk of "NDA" and the other bullshit

I mentioned the NDA because I thought that such an agreement was standard practice when showing an unpublished work to another party. Is this not the case? The part about running the song past people than one's agent came from page 78 of Songwriting FOR DUMMIES® by Peterik, Austin, and Bickford, published by Wiley in 2002; I was looking for confirmation.

Not literally, though... it was an article about children with Asperger's Syndrome. In that article I saw my entire life. I found more information online here:

http://www.asperger.org/asperger/asperger_as.htm

Considering what I've learned about it, it seems likely that a large percentage of Slashdot readers have it also.

What would I tell 12-year-old me?

You don't fit in because you aren't like your classmates. You can't interpret their expressions, so you don't respond correctly. You do talk too much; it's because you really don't know when you're boring people.

There is a game, Dungeons and Dragons, where you will learn how to fit in; don't wait any longer to ask Mom for it. The misfits you'll attract this way are like you, and you'll all learn for the first time what it's like to get along.

Don't waste time trying to figure out what other people are thinking... ask. No matter how hard you try you just can't do it any other way.

Girls will always be a problem for you, but the one you end up with you already know. Try hard to be nice to the ones who don't call you names now, and it'll pay off in the future.

Don't fall for a girl who's like you; the relationship will be easier, but when the day comes that you want children, heartache will be waiting.

You see, two people with Asperger's are much more likely to have an autistic child. Microsoft (you know, the evil empire) has enough autistic children among their employees to have special programs to help with their care.

It's always been hard. At least now I know what's different about me... if I had known all along I could have avoided at least some of the pain in my life.

I think that's some sort of behavioral dysfunction. I think that a lot of 'gifted' people suffer from Asperger's Syndrome in varying degrees. This makes it difficult for them to empathize with others, or see humor in situations that would require them to 'feel' what someone else would feel. They have a problem with determining motivations in others, and that would also kill many common types of jokes.

Yes. Asperger's to Hyperlexia seem to hit right in the spectrum where many computer geeks live. Check http://www.asperger.org/ and http://www.hyperlexia.org/. I think many 'uber-geeks' will recognize themselves in these sites.