Geeks can be an unforgiving lot, particularly when it comes to geek cred. If you don’t meet certain standards, your fellow geeks will be quick to call you out. As someone who’s taken some flack for still owning a CRT TV, I can attest to that . . .

Jason Hiner, TechRepublic’s editor-in-chief, has compiled a list of 10 geek sins that will get your geek card revoked. You’ll need to click over to read the whole list, which is excellent, but here are my three favorites:

10. Admitting that you like iTunes Sure, it’s convenient for buying music and media in one place and syncing it to an iPod or iPhone, but iTunes has a draconian DRM system and it started out as one of the worst pieces of software ever built. And, it hasn’t gotten much better.

iTunes is indeed a nasty piece of cross-platform bloatware that’s in serious need of a total overhaul. But Hiner makes one mistake that many geeks do when trashing Apple’s media player. The music you buy from it is no longer shackled by Digital Rights Management software – Apple dropped that some time ago. Its video files, however, are still tied to your Apple ID account, and thus are DRM-encumbered. I don’t expect we’ll see that change any time soon.

6. Not knowing the name of the book that Blade Runner was based on Blade Runner is one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. If you’re a true geek, you’ve seen it multiple times. But, not only that, you also know that it’s based on Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” which is one of the best-titled stories in all of literature and an absolute classic in science fiction.

Blade Runner is indeed a touchstone of geek culture. And woe be unto those who don’t happen to think it’s a very good movie. I didn’t include it in my 2007 blog post, 15 geek movies to see before you die, and took a solid drubbing as a result. Sorry, fellow geeks, but I think it’s boring. (If it helps my cred at all, I do like the book!)

2. Taking something into Geek Squad to get fixed Best Buy’s Geek Squad has a few legitimate geeks on staff; however, too many of their technicians are completely clueless and can do more harm than good to your equipment. Besides, if you’re geek, just geek-up, open up the case, and fix it yourself. (Exception: It’s acceptable to go to the Geek Squad counter to exchange a DOA device that is still under warranty. Just don’t let us catch you asking for advice.)

Amen, brother. However, there are times – depending on your depth of knowledge and the equipment you have – that a repair may require the help of someone else. A geek can be forgiven for not owning an oscilloscope, for example. And replacing the cracked screen on an iPhone 4 is not something you should really try yourself. There’s no shame in seeking the powers of someone even geekier than you.

One item on Hiner’s list I must disagree with, and that’s his No.1 pick:

1. Buying a paper computer book at Barnes & Noble In 1999, if you wanted to quickly learn more about HTML or Exchange 5.5 or Apache or how to earn CCNA certification, you’d typically make a quick trip to your nearest book superstore like Barnes & Noble or Borders and comb through the huge selection of computer books. However, this is 2010. Any computer book you find at a bookstore is at least six months out of date. Almost everything you need to know is available on the web for free or in ebook format that you can quickly download to your laptop or tablet. Buying a dead-tree tome about a new technology is an immediate tip-off that your geek credentials are in question.

I think this one doesn’t ring true, and not just because I’ve written a few computer books. If you wander the cubicles of the development staff at the Mighty Houston Chronicle – a geeky bunch if there ever was one – you’ll find plenty of dead-tree tomes, dog-eared from heavy use. Sure, a lot of great information is online, but finding just what you want can be a hassle. If you need information on a particular technical subject on a regular basis, it may be easier to grab it from a book. And a book is just a better format, in general, if you want to teach yourself programming.

Read the rest of Hiner’s list, and tell us what you think of it in the comments. Are there items that shouldn’t be there? Or, what would you add to the list?