With 8 million plus people, and being an urban megapolis, there's a ton of attractions in New York which might appeal specifically to geeks and nerds who'd rather prefer to twitter even when the people they're twittering to are sitting next to them.

So with that in mind, here's a list if things to do if you're a geek and happen to be in the Big Apple.

Photo by ten safe frogs via flickr (creative commons). Geek vacations in New York would be incomplete without a visit to the Hayden Planetarium (www.haydenplanetarium.org/) at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, located at the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024; (212) 769-5100

The Planetarium has a nifty Zeiss Mark IX star projector which converts the dome into a cosmic tour of over 9100 stars, not to mention the surface of any object in the solar system. Plus there's stuff which'll make any budding scientist start frothing at the mouth - Stuff like cosmic collisions, a simulation of the Big Bang birth of the Universe, and a stroll through 13 billion years of cosmic evolution.

Sure you can go to the MET or MoMA or the Guggenheim or any one of the handful of museums in NYC. But how many will allow you to cart away framed butterflies and beetles, fossils, seashells, skulls and skeletons, medical models, and tribal art? Not many, I suspect, unless you want to spend some time at Riker's.

Point is, as you can see in the picture, The Evolution Store (www.evolutionnyc.com/) in the SoHo art district, located at 120 Spring Street New York, NY 10012; (800) 952-3195, is a place where every geek worth his salt in New York has spent some time, and bought some of the weird stuff. Photo copyrights - The Evolution Store, NYC.

I would have loved to add Robot Village to this list, but they're going to close the retail store at the end of this month, so I don't see much point in devoting space to it.

So let's move on to Forbidden Planet, a fantasy land for alternative hobbies, such as graphic novels, comic books, role-playing games, manga and anime, and a wide selection of collectible figurines and statues and toys.Located at 13th St and Broadway, at 840 Broadway New York, NY 10003; (212) 473-1576.

If you're interested in comincs and toys, then here's a list of NYC comic stores and here's one for toys.

And, of course, there's the Apple Retail Stores - The one in SoHo, one on Fifth Ave, and one on West 14th Street. Oh, and one on Staten Island too, in case you were pretending to be a regular tourist and found yourself on the Staten Island Ferry. The Apple Store, FYI, is the geek version of Bloombingdale's. Geek shopaholics are advised to stay away, or get ready to face the guilt of shopping for things you had no need for.

And lastly, if you're looking for geeky accomodations which will make you want to call home and tell Mama that you're moving out of her basement, then there's plenty of hotels in New York which are extremely geek friendly.

Consider checking into the Tribeca Grand or the Gansevoort. The Tribeca Grand has an iStudio suite which is a veritable mini-Apple store all by itself. The Gansevoort has won kudos for its Wii setup.