Computer geekdom

[Xon]

I am a computer geek. There are different kinds of geeks, and you know who they are: band geeks, football geeks (seem oxmoronical I know, but definitively applicable).

I have always had poor eyesight. I cannot play contact sports because my eyes could be injured (= retinal detachment). I wear contacts most of the time, so you wouldn't know. This, and the fact that I was either more socially advanced (or regressed, I may never know) and certainly smarter than everyone else set my destiny before me: I would be a geek.

Now the band passed me by. I did not get in band while I could have. I discovered computers in the seventh grade. In the 8th grade I found several friends, also interested in computers, but more so than me. Then my parents put me in a christian school (private) for no reason. Then they couldn't afford it and I went back. I was more or less uncool until 11th grade. So, yeah, I do social stuff, like go to dances and be in clubs, but I am still a geek. I will never been as socially in as the rest of the people in my school. My computer geek friends don't use their computers anymore. No one seems to care. This is the second half of my senior year, and I have plans. No one else seems to.

I imagine, ten years from now, most of the people in my school living off welfare checks or "fake" jobs.

I am a computer geek. I have written software. How do you expect to talk about things like compilers and image-cropping problems to "normal people"? You don't.

My taste in music ranges from electronica to classical to oldies rock. I can't stand Creed, and other "normal people" bands. How do you talk about anything else?

I am in the leagues of computer geekdom...who else is among us?

[Z]

I am a comp geek. I love computers, AI theroy, and stuff like that. I am trying (with little succes) to learn C++.

GAT d- a? C++++ L+ W++ w M PS+++ PE-
Y+ t+ 5++++ R++ tv b++ D+ G

[neem]

As much as I love computers and all, I never quite understood all the computer stuff that my uncle talks to me about (he's some major computer person, he teaches Cisco something or another and he headed this internet company for a while).

So does that make me a normal person?

And what do you mean by normal people bands?

[Xon]

Two people: users and developers.

Z and I are developers. Everyone else is a user. Users might now how to USE a computer very well, but they will never fully know how a computer or other piece of electronics for that matter WORKS. For most people that does not matter, and I understand that. Some developers of software don't realize that. They make their software too hard to use. Most people don't know how to set the clock on their VCR (or don't care, like me) because the VCR developers didn't get the fact that they are designing for users and not developers.

Bill Gates gave a conference in Las Vegas a few days ago where he was demonstrating one of Microsoft's new Media Center PC's. They were in the middle of something, and the blue screen of death came up during a game. There were guffaws and snickers throughout the audience. Bill had another appointment shortly after, on the Conan O'Brian show. Where Conan said to Bill, "So who runs Microsoft, anyway?"

Microsoft's intention is to replace your VCR/DVD players with this Media Center PC thing. If so, they still have some work to do making it useable for users.

Users are necessary because they buy stuff that developers make. Developers would be out of a job otherwise. So all these people who say, "Users don't matter" are stupid (at least in saying that).

I don't like Linkin Park or Green Day. Sorry. I do like Tool and System of a Down, but I can't play them at home. I listen to whatever's on the radio, but that's usually NPR news or the oldies' station. Anybody have a pop station that plays like the same song 30 times a day? We do, its 104.3 WZYP.

Normal people do what other normal people do blindly without doing their own thing. Those are normal people. Us geeks, be it golf, band, computer, or whatever, care about what we do because we enjoy it.

[Bartholomew Henzelli]

So, normal people, according to you, are the sheeps of fashion and popularity.
I am no such sheep. I am pure punk (hardcore, not that poser Good Charlotte shyte) who enjoys running around and laughing at things that make me laugh. Some people say my sense of humor is grotesque. I just happen to think an old lady flying off a bus is funny. I felt sorry for her, I really did. But the way she fell off that bus was hilarious. It's all in the motions. She looked like she was a bird flying towards a bank. It was hi-larious. I helped her up and helped her get to the doctor. She didn't seem to mind my laughing the whole way though...
I am also a communist. Very few people understand Communism. Those who do are usually intellectuals. Those who ridicule it with stupid arguments like "communism is dictatorship" (f-you mr. government teacher!) are usually idiots.
I am also gay. This, in itself, is not one of those "Oooh! I wanna change how I look so I'm gonna go goth" things, but being open about it in a rural farm high school takes guts. And I think I have a lot of guts.
I love computer geeks, especially self-proclaimed computer geeks. Some of my closest friends can go on for hours about this language and that language. I don't understand half of what they say, but I love hearing about it. The fact that what seems like a massively-complicated set of characters and strings of code can be interpreted as an electronic signal and produce fantastic results is fascinating to me.
But I am a self-proclaimed art geek, which confuses the hell out of my computer geek friends. Few computer geeks I know can do what I can do with a pen, pencil, marker, or brush.
It is only the sheep who are geeks. They flock together because they are afraid of the world. Let the "geeks" of computers, art, band, etc. disband as they are and conquer the world. Mwahahahahahaha!

Oh....wait....that had nothing to do with your Microsoft thing. I would like to say the following:
1) I can set my VCR. Woo! I just can't set my car's clock...
2) I can program loosely in BASIC and I've even thrown together a simple slide-show application in Binary.
3) I want to sue Microsoft for crimes against humanity.

[neem]

Hey, you know, I fully know how to use a computer, how a computer works, and a bunch of stuff about programming (maybe around the amount you do).

So your little thing about two kinds of people doesn't apply to me. Just cause I don't use my immense knowledge of computers to do stuff, doesn't mean that I'm a "user" that doesn't know how a computer works.

I just like using simplistic language. I probably could tell you in detail what my uncle does, but it's just easier to just put it simply.

And seriously, how can you not be able to program your VCR? I've been doing that since I was three (while thinking it was amusing to stick safety pins. I've got my first email address when I was like 6 or 7. And, I knew about the internet way before then. Sure, I was a strange kid, but hey, it was fun!

Btw, I love System of a Down and I'm not techinically allowed to listen to it... but I don't really care. I used to listen to NPR, but it's just easier for me to read the news online and enjoy good music at the same time.

Ok, so you didn't say if I was a "normal" person or not. Of couse, it's not possible to define normal. But seriously, no one is "normal." I've always been one to do my own thing and I wouldn't call myself a "geek" either cause I'm not particularly good at anything. You seem to like to categorize things.

[Bartholomew Henzelli]

Categorizing is wrong. Everyone is unique and special....except the stupid sheep who follow the fads and get a new wardrobe every week. Screw them. Stupid people shouldn't breed.

[neem]

I didn't think it was a South thing...

[neem]

Where exactly do you live?

[Bartholomew Henzelli]

Hey Xon, don't feel bad. I'm as far north in Yankee territory as one can get (Ohio....blasted Ohio weather) and that situation is still the norm for my area....farmer, construction worker, or machinist. Luckily, I'm getting a college education and fleeing. I hate my area. Horrid....

[timjr]

I've just PM'd you that info, Neem.

[neem]

I think that's just a small town thing.

[Z]

Well in my area the problem is that EVREYONE is getting a college education (MBAs and stuff like that). All the people I know are going to be psychologists and doctors, and lawyers (great more lawyers…) my experience is that NO ONE becomes machinists and stuff like that they all want to be become professionals. However we do nee machinists and similar professions we cant have all professionals…

Z

[neem]

Well, don't you go to a private school? That's probably why.

I think in my school there's a divide between the "smart" people (that's what they call themselves!) and what they call the "stupid" people. The "smart" people want to be doctors and lawyers and such and like 15 or so people I know are absolutely sure that they will get accepted into Ivy League colleges. Sadly for me, I have to be in all these "smart" people classes and I have to endure the torture of hearing them talk about obsessions over homework and how smart they think they are.

The "stupid" people are the ones who are going to be farmers (half of the small town I live in is farmers! Well, I think so...) and those other professions.

[Z]

I do go to a private school but all the kids I know who go to public schools in my area are just like that. (IT DRIVES ME NUTS!) We cant have 80,000 people with MBAs!