Geek: one who is deep into the intricacies of a discipline, study or physical objects. {e.g. “Computer geeks”} A geek usually makes his own world and socializes about his chosen study. Frequently the geek doesn’t care much about the opinions of others about his chosen love-object, leading to their becoming socially ostracized. But, “So what?” A geek participates in geek activities every day, and preferably at least once every hour. The word may derive from European languages where it means fool or crazy.
Fanboy: one who is unreasonably geeky, proud of and proseletyzing about a discipline, study or physical objects. {“Apple fanboy”} Flamewars frequently arise between fanboys and their opponents because of the depth (and unreasonability) of their beliefs surrounding their love-object. A fanboy participates in fanboy activities “as needed” which might be each day, or sometimes only once a month. The word fan is a shortening of the word fanatic.
Ham: one who is showoffingly self-involved in participation in a discipline, study or physical objects. {“Ham” on the stage; “Ham” radio} On the stage, a “ham” usually overdoes it, going beyond what is necessary — and usually because he just loves doing it and gets a charge from his love-object. A ham usually participates in ham activities “when they feel like it” and sometimes in ways that indicate they feel they are invisible, such as ham radio operators talking on the radio when walking down the street. (Umm…that begs the question of whether cellphone street-walker-talkers are ham radio operators.) The word is a shortening of the word amateur.
My life is a series of cycles. One of them in particular has the lyrics “Business; learning; business; learning; business; learning…” I spend a few years building a company or a product, I become successful at it (most of the times), I then leave and cycle back into something I want to “learn.” And that learning period becomes formative in determining what I can productively do in the next business cycle.
I have lots of clients who have great ideas, wonderful vision, and yet have a lot of trouble understanding why I keep asking them for more and more specificity before I sit down and write some HTML or code. I’m afraid they sometimes think I’m a dolt because I keep asking for more detail about exactly what they want me to do. They find it hard to understand why I can’t just take an idea and run with it. Why do I need a detailed specification?
This is a way geeky night for us engineers, and somewhat akin to the 1969 moon landing in many ways. I’m watching the Mars rover Curiosity landing right now (14 minutes delayed, of course, due to the speed of light). “Parachute deploy!” they say just now. And a minute or two later I’m watching as the JPL engineers report “Touchdown confirmed, we are safe on Mars … and … Now to see where Curiosity will take us.” The 
It has been my plan to make several trips into the Yosemite wilderness this summer in order to visit some places I’ve never seen before. Most tourists have seen Yosemite “Valley” and many have seen Tuolumne Meadows. Access to the wilderness areas is controlled by a “permitting” process that limits the number of people who may enter on a wilderness trailhead each day. There are a couple dozen trailheads, and they have quotas of one to two dozen camper-hikers per day per trailhead. Once you’re into the wilderness area, you can pretty much go where you desire, as long as you have the energy and the food.