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Old 21st November 2008
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TerryP TerryP is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: USofA
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I consider myself a hobbyist as far as this poll is concerned, but would very much like to work with computers in what you would deem a "professional" capacity. For me, a job is what you do to pay bills, but a career is what you do because you want to do it, and getting paid in the process, is icing on the cake.


I've been using computers since I was a very small child, and gradually grew to love tinkering with them in the 2000s. The only education I have had, is a church pastor who explained something about scrollbars to me shortly after the change from MS-DOS to Windows 98; everything else I've generally learned because I wanted to learn it. What most people call "Computer Science"; how networks work; how systems are engineered; mathematics that makes me think. why is that?; how OS kernels work; how this line of code goes from bytes of key presses on a keyboard, to machine code; the physics that work in the world around me; what makes the lightbulb in the fridge turn on... all fascinate me, there are so many things in those realms that I appreciate. I gneerally write myself off as a geek, nothing more.


Quote:
Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.

I study what I love, I write code because of a passion for working with it; I learned how to use Unix like systems, because I fell in love with the design of it; TCP/IP Networks were always a mystery, what in the universe is this modem setup-thing driving at with these questions? Had to find and go exploring afterwards, rather then just do as I was told by the ISP; got a computer that I could screw with, so no one could complain if I broke it... took her apart, put her back together again, and learned as much as I could in the process about what made her tick (the box ran perfectly, as soon as I remembered to plug the keyboard back in xD).


It is a possibility that I may never have my cake and get to eat it too, but I sure as f*** will eat it!


If I wasn't self driven to learn this stuff, and didn't enjoy working with it for such large parts of my daily life -> I could never fathom seeking a carreer based on computers. Instead I would start building my body for the PT, and probably head towards the Police Department or the United States military, depending on just what I could live with at the end of my days... but I would very much like to work in computing, eventually.



If anyone is a Battletech fan, think of a mercenary companies techs joy at salvaging good equipment -> You'll see the smile on my face at finding PC parts or new tools to play with lol. Some people are full of music, others might be found writing books, me? In front of a computer or out trying to understand why it works.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJ View Post
And there is not much time left simply to play with computers.
I don't know about for you DrJ, but to me... I would call that a tragedy :\.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Oko View Post
Only people whom I really need are OpenBSD developers who are codding OS for me. I wonder what would happen if they piss me off I would probably have to brash up my C programing language skills, shut up, and do some hacking of my own.
Haha, I bet you would :-P
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