“The geek shall inherit the earth, and history has proven this true. From the magnificent lightning storms of the eccentric Nikola Tesla to the time Charles Babbage cooked himself in an oven to ‘see what would happen,’ history is littered with nerds who made it big,” Crave at CNET writes.

Crave writes, “But who is the geekiest of them all? Is it Diogenes who lived in a barrel for most of his life, or is it John von Neumann, who was known to get arrested for reading scientific papers and driving at the same time? Will Steve Wozniak steal the top spot for inventing the Apple computer in a garage, or is Linus Torvalds the obvious winner? Crave’s votes are in and counted: here’s your definitive guide to the top ten nerds and geeks.”

The Top 10:
1. Nikola Tesla
2. Steve Wozniak: Wozniak co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs. While Jobs was the entrepreneur behind the company, Wozniak took on the challenge of literally soldering together the first Apple in Job’s garage. Woz apparently invented the Apple to impress friends at his computer club. He designed a floppy disc controller from scratch, met his wife on a Dial-a-Joke line he set up, and was the first person to buy a Segway PT.
3. Alan Turing
4. Bill Gates: Though not history’s most impressive nerd, Bill Gates has come to quintessentially represent our modern concept of geekdom. His bespectacled face and quirky mannerisms are famous across the world. Gates founded Microsoft in 1975, and through a series of ingenious — some say downright underhand — manoeuvres, Microsoft went on to make Gates the richest man on earth.
5. Charles Babbage
6. Diogenes
7. Heath Robinson
8. Linus Torvalds
9. John Von Neumann
10. Rob Malda

Full article here.