You Know You're an Apple Fan Boy When…

8) You’ve looked up 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino CA in Google Earth – extra points if you’ve actually driven there just to see Apple HQ in person.

Wanting to see the mother ship is perfectly understandable for an Apple fan, and Google provides some easy ways to do it. The Apple campus has been home to many historic firsts, after all.

And no one can fault you for stopping by just to look if you’re already in or driving by Silicon Valley. However, if you start planning a special trip with your airline miles solely to see Apple HQ with your own eyes, at least make certain to plan some other vacation activities for the trip (or risk being branded as one of the truly big-time Apple fans).

9) You’ve participated in a Mac vs. Windows flame war on a tech news site, blog, forum, or email list.

With the exception of religion and politics, nothing seems to excite debate and visceral fighting in a discussion forum the way Mac vs. Windows debates do.

We’ve all read an anti-Mac comment (I wouldn’t be surprised if there end up being a few at the end of this article) and we’ve all probably wanted to inform the commenter with more accurate facts.

But, once the argument degenerates into name-calling or personal attack and any factual discussion flies out the window, it’s time to be the bigger person and walk away.

10) You’ve created a Hackintosh.

A Hackintosh has become a common term for a PC that has had Mac OS X installed on it. Although this process violates Apple’s end user license agreement for Mac OS X (and therefore shouldn’t be condoned), many fans have undertaken the process with tools like OSx86 and modified boot loaders.

But, if you’ve done this, it certainly gives you both geek and fan boy credit. Lately, the big Hackintosh challenge has been installing Mac OS X on a netbook – so serious extra fan points if you’ve opted to not wait to see if Apple is eventually going to release a Mac netbook and taken matters into your own hands.

11) You watched Dancing with the Stars this year just because Woz was a contestant.

Woz may not have lasted through the entire season of Dancing with the Stars this season, but despite low judges’ scores, the Woz fan base kept him in the competition further than many viewers would’ve predicted.

If you were part of the audience for the show solely for Woz, there’s a big chance you’re a big fan of Apple and Woz and not ballroom dancing (particularly if you cast the maximum number of votes for Woz and Karina Smirnoff each week and have since stopped watching).

And you get extra points if you watched Kathy Griffin’s My Life on the D-List last year just because she and Woz were allegedly dating.