Although I think people that go around tossing the word “nerd” and “geek” at people left and right are mostly ignorant or angry that they don’t know as much, I have no problem considering myself in that category.
I thrive on computer knowledge in any form. I love learning to program in whatever language, finding out how stuff works, and Linux is my operating system of choice, and freedom of information would be a great thing to have in this world.
So, am I alone here? Or do we have any other people here that love computers and technology, or maybe not love or just able to appreciate and understand them, or don’t but want to learn (I can help with that!)? I’d love to hear from you! A lonely nerd is a sad nerd, and you dont want that do you?
I’ve been a working computer geek (computer systems administrator also with a CCNA) for over 25 years, took some college classes in “Electronic Data Processing” in the 1960’s.
I have been building my own computers for about 12 years now, although that’s not much of an accomplishment. I love anything electronic. Had myself a Media Center PC, years before Microsoft ever had Windows MC Edition.
I also run a web design company and we specializes in database driven sites. I am not much of a programmer myself, but have an awesome one working for me. I do like to get into the coding and tinker around some though, and have a fair basic understanding of PHP.
Currently I’ve got the doubtful pleasure of learning ABAP (the programming language of SAP) - I’ll probably be a consultant soon… ABAP is without doubt the worst programming language ever…
Thats cool to hear that I am not alone. Mtnjim thats rad, 100% old school! Thats pretty sweet you can run a database company without really knowing how to program lol! I have never even heard of ABAP, so it probably does suck pretty hard.
School takes up way too much of my time, but I’m trying to master Linux so I can wash my hands clean of Microsoft for good. I’m learning Java in school, but I’m much rather be learning Python or C++, they are much better starting points for programming. If I had the money I could probably get my A+ certification and I’m close to Network+ and Security+, which will lead into CEH (Certified Ethical Haker). They wont really do my any good now because I haven’t even turned 18 yet, but if anything it somewhat appeases my thirst for knowledge. Ive also got a few web sites under development so I can practice HTML Javascript and CSS, but it all takes so much time! Of course PhP, Perl, SQL, C, and LISP are on the list too some time. Even better would be assembly + hex so I could work on real time debugging and application vulnerability testing
School + Homework + Teaching self computers + Social Life + Sports = me pulling my hair out
I would have loved to be around when computers were first coming out, that would have been a rush. The literal cutting edge, although not very cutting edge now must have been dam cool! My dad was like that, but he’s a lame-o-tron and he pretends to know more than he does. I have to fix his computer for him every day lol.
Just remember that in Assembly, you have to pop the registers in the inverse order that you pushed them.
Seriously, do you have a smart phone? If so, you’re holding in your hand more computing power than all of the computing power used to send man to the moon.
I’m not amazing at technology, but I’d consider myself to be very computer literate. And to those people who have built computers before, you shouldn’t feel accomplished until you can outbuild mine .
Oh yeah, don’t you guys just love how many people still call the case of a computer the cpu or processor? And how people say “I have 250GB of ram!” and “my CPU has a speed of 2.4 MB” <–LOL.
My favorite is when people point to my monitor and tell me I have a nice computer. And I love listening to the dell helpdesk funnies. These are my two all time favorites, in as best as I can remember themm form.
Close the door! End User: Hi, I seem to be having trouble getting my software to work. It says that it’s auto-run, but I don’t really know what that means.
Technician: Ok mam, I can help you. What you’re going to have to do is open up the drive bay, put the CD inside it, and close the door. Do that, then let me know what happens.
End User: Ok, there…now hold on a second. (hears the phone hit the table…few seconds later a door slams)… Ok, now what?
Technician: …
Where do I put my soda?
Caller*: “Hello. Is this tech support?”
Tech*: “Yes, it is. How may I help you?”
Caller*: “The cup holder on my PC is broken and I am within my warranty period. How do I go about getting it fixed?”
Tech*: “I’m sorry, but did you say a cup holder?”
Caller*: “Yes, it’s attached to the front of my computer.”
Tech*: “Did you receive this cup holder as part of a promotional item, maybe at a trade fair? How did you come by it? Can you describe it or does it have a brand name on it?”
Caller*: “It came with my computer, I don’t know anything about a promotional item. All it has on it is 6X.”
At this point the tech muted the call because he was laughing so hard that he couldn’t talk. The caller was using his CD-Rom load drawer as a cup holder and had snapped it off the drive!
I <3 end users. No offense to anyone that happens to fit either of those stories, not everyone knows how2speek computer, but in the event you are…thank you for making help desk enjoyable
I’ve had 2 creative mp3 players, the zen micro and the zen microphoto. They were both awesome and had above-average sound quality. The micro was nice, but the microphoto was really nice. The micro broke in about a year though, and it was my fault cause I plugged in my front usb ports wrong so I over volted my zen . My microphoto was stolen. My brother has a zen vision:M and it is a freaking beautiful beast. My other brother has a 16gb zen, and its awesome too. Compared to my other other brother’s ipod. . . well, we just laugh at him .
But you’d never know unless I opened up my mouth. I used to be a regular at SBox back in the day. I learned a lot about Google and it’s powers there .
You’re lucky you’re here at PT. It’s been several years since pheromone research really took off, but we’re still the pioneers in pheromone technology. I tell my friends back at SB that I’m hacking the more complicated computers and networks – the human brain and social groups. It’s a blast being here.
Thats a good way to look at it, being that “hacking” can be applied to more than just “pwnz0ring t4at n3wbs b0x.” It is the discovery of how anything works, and there is nothing more complex than the human body and brain…except maybe my Calculus homework..
Actually, ‘hacking’ is a term that best fits with messing with hardware. ‘Cracking’ bests fits with messing with code. But you know how the average american is. . . sigh.
When it comes to modifying software, I actually prefer the term hacking over cracking. Example: My Verizon Razor V3C. Verizon likes doing stupid things like blocking the vibrate then ring function, blocking copying music from a computer, limiting the speaker volume, and forcing high compression transmissions. If I told anyone I cracked my phone to restore those lost features, they would have looked at me funny, like you broke your phone? Hacking they understand.
Hacking is best applied to messing with hardware, and not only computers, but anything that works with technology, and not in a mischievous way, just for the sake of figuring it out. Unfortunately mark is right in that if I said I was hit by a cracker, every image possible would come into someones mind BUT what I actually meant (someone asked me how I got attacked by a nutcracker when I talked about it last x-mas ). Sadly, giving into the majority understanding only perpetuates a bad image for innocent people. Great movie, “Freedom Downtime.” Kevin Mitnick’s story, and offers great insight into ignorant America regarding “hackers” vs “crackers” and “phreakers.”
On a different note…anyone have any experience with Python? I’m considering looking into it as a starting point for real programming, not cut and paste programming like I am being taught in Java at school. Mainly because of it’s roots in C and my desire to learn Linux more completely, and be able to get one step closer to Assembly.
On another different note… I recently was asked to learn how to script in “4D” by a client of my dads, potential big $$$ if I get good fast. Its a database language natively SQL. Anyone heard of it/used it?
EDIT:
@ denec
Have you gotten 8.04 yet? I have tried several times but I keep getting an error during the download saying “The file could not be saved, because the source code could not be read.” Driving me off the wall, and the one copy that did finish is corrupted, the md5 sum didn’t match and it wont read after I boot from it = /
Rad. I am sadly being forced to use WinXP currently, just bought a new PC and my old Gibbon CD got fried, so I am installing fresh Ubuntu right now. I just got it downloaded now though, and I am SO ready to kick windows into traffic.
