General Discussions

**dansgalaxy** · 02:51 PM

This is something i am wondering partly becasue i want to know how modest some peopel are and i just wanna see!

so how good are you?..

i out my self as a mer computer geek...

Dan

**Christopher** · 01-05-2007, 04:41 PM

I would say I'm a mere geek as well.

I know my stuff, but I am still awed at the knowledge some of my friends possess. My lack of understanding becomes most apparent when the conversation turns to managing servers

**KML9870** · 01-05-2007, 05:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chroder

My lack of understanding becomes most apparent when the conversation turns to managing servers

Me too. Software I know extremely well. My new job is on-site network administrator & Exec Admin Asst, we have an outside consultant that I can call on when I don't know the answer and because of that I'm learning a lot more about managing servers and network administration that I knew three weeks ago. Hopefully by this time next year I will be able to take the "on-site" off of my title.

**Mystic Rose** · 01-05-2007, 06:26 PM

Yep geek here as well - not that I would admit it to some people LOL

**katzhooper** · 01-05-2007, 06:45 PM

If I vote on how I see myself I will be the print guy but everyone else sees me as some sort of omnipresent when it comes to the use of a keyboard and mouse!

Can I opt out?

**dansgalaxy** · 01-05-2007, 06:58 PM

im looking at this now thinking wait a minute, why am i putting the same thing as (at a guess, feel free to correct...) medium-highly paid Computer consultants...

anyway i would say i know alot. My biggest problem is i know i know alot. if you know what i mean? [hudge nudge wink wink... look at my signiture...

]

Dan

**princess06** · 01-06-2007, 11:28 AM

a computer geek as well

**KML9870** · 01-06-2007, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dansgalaxy

im looking at this now thinking wait a minute, why am i putting the same thing as (at a guess, feel free to correct...) medium-highly paid Computer consultants...

anyway i would say i know alot. My biggest problem is i know i know alot. if you know what i mean? [hudge nudge wink wink... look at my signiture...

]

Dan

For your age I'm sure you do know quite a lot, but personally I have found the more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn. You have an advantage that you were born in a time that computers were standard. Both my son & daughter have had computers for a very long time and they don't remember a time that I didn't have one. For their ages (daughter is 12 and son is 16) they know quite a lot too, but not as much as I do and I know there is a lot more to learn. That's one of the reasons I like playing with computers --- there is always something more to know.

**ADAM Web Design** · 01-06-2007, 03:55 PM

GOD...I have to be, for some of the crazy stuff I find myself doing.

No one could possibly know everything, as chroder suggested, but I know enough that I can teach neophytes how to avoid blowing themselves and their computers up.

Plus...well...I'm friggin' cool.

**dansgalaxy** · 01-06-2007, 04:42 PM

Okay, im gonna jump out and roughky out line the coputer/internet orientaed stuff i know and someone tell me how they would rank me...

I have built my pc, i know what each piec of hardware in a computer does and how to physically install it.
I would say i can learn to use most software enough to do most of what i want it to do within 5 minutes. okay 10 max...

I would say i know xhtml ata transitional standard. and sometimes a strict standard but usually theres always one function i want o use which strict doesnt allow...

i know basic css.

i know fairly basic php. [if's elses, echo, all forms of comments, == that sorta thing, and the rough syntax of php.

I can wire a plug, okay i know it sounds really stupid but i was shocked how many people DONT! i have know how to wire a plug (and have been wiring plugs) since i was like 10!

okay i can see im just talking now... O also i have XAMPP so im also understanding servers ALOT better. and if i could i could probally set up a fully functional server. (admittedly it would prob be crap but it would work. lol

I can easying configure routers and stuff like that, any idea name somein i wanna see if i can do it!

lol... really should have stopped talking by now shouldn't i?...

Dan

**sandbox** · 01-07-2007, 06:28 PM

Mini God me, You don't have to know everything to be a god you just need enough money to pay someone else to do what you can't.

P.S you have to be in league with satan to want to do anything with a server!

**Christopher** · 01-07-2007, 08:25 PM

Dan, I think there are many 'computer geeks' (for lack of a better term) in todays tech-oriented world that probably have the same amount of knowledge you do, even in the same age group.

That isn't to say that the knowledge is in any way insufficient, but I think there is a plateau where attaining (and retaining, for that matter) it is easier. And there are levels where the knowledge 'means' different things. There is a difference between us knowing about computers because we work with them and knowing about computers after years of study.

For example, we can all say we know some basic math and if we have completed high school we might also understand more complex concepts. But there is a big jump between that and say, a physicist. I know how to use Photoshop fairly well, but I don't compare to someone like Bert Monroy. I know how to set up a network, configure a router, hack up Apache and PHP etc. but just "knowing how" isn't enough if I were to seek a job in the hosting industry for example.

Anyway, let me get to my point

Your tone makes you sound very proud of your knowledge in this field. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but it's best to be prepared too. What you or I consider to be 'computer god' might not be what Linus Torvalds considers to be a 'computer god'. If I look back even 3 years when I was a mere 15 years old, I thought I knew quite a bit too. I would have considered myself a 'computer geek' back then as much as I consider myself a 'computer geek' now, even though the knowledge I've gained in that short time is too much to fill an encyclopedia with (or so it seems). Imagine what else I'll learn in another 5 years? 15? The same goes for everyone.

So I am always cautious when this kind of question comes around. What we don't know is just as important as what we do know.

**DaveMo~** · 01-08-2007, 01:06 PM

I don't know anything; I just keep asking Chris and Kandi!

Dave

**Malcolm** · 01-08-2007, 01:13 PM

I see you posted your thread one minute after mine and already you have plenty of views and visits?

**Mooofasa** · 01-08-2007, 04:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ADAM Web Design

but I know enough that I can teach neophytes how to avoid blowing themselves and their computers up.

Only experts can do that, not neophytes :P

I'm not going to categorise myself. Not because I think I am better than anyone, but because I believe knowledge isn't a form of measurement.

**dansgalaxy** · 01-08-2007, 04:17 PM

okay i see your point chris, taken on board, i have to admit i see my self (for may age group, of which i know at least) knowledgable shall we say with IT, i would like to think i was in the top 15 for general it knowledge in my school of 1300, i know of people which have adminitorative access to the school network, (which im still tring to figure out, any ideas how to access all network folders? without a admin password? or how to find out a admin password, when floppy and disc drives are access denied? i would use a floppy disc i have which gives all users o the fun if only the floppys were accessable... hehe lmao...) where as i can only get access to minor things which are shal we say "hidden" from students. lol i really wouldnt know...

okay completely off subject...
soon im going to have to choose whatt i want for work expirance.. and im not sure what sort of place i would like to do it.
can anyone advise what sort of things i could think about? i would like to work in some sort of IT place obviously lol, swindon has many types of IT places so i supose my options are open i just dont know what to choose, please advise it would be much apprieciated.

dan

**KML9870** · 11:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveMo~

I don't know anything; I just keep asking Chris and Kandi!

Dave

If you ask me and I can't figure it out....I ask Chris (one of those people I can learn from). If Chris doesn't know --- uh oh, we're in trouble! I have had problems I couldn't figure out and asked Chris's help, who then solved my problem. In this case, age isn't particularly relevant - as Chris is half my age (exactly

).

slightly off topic ---

So --- who do we ask when Chris doesn't know??????

back on topic ---

Dan - I didn't mean to belittle what you know. My son is your age and you do know quite a bit more than he does. My point was that I would find it very difficult to label myself anything more than a Computer Geek because there's always something I don't know and have to ask help from someone who is more knowledgeable than myself.

**dansgalaxy** · 01-09-2007, 11:42 AM

i know i completely agree with you. when i first started to get into webby stuff i though learn html and i learnt very basic hrml and then the more i did it the more i realsed there was more to it, and i learnt more advanced html, and the wow whats css?... learnt some of that, ooh so thats javascript etc lets see how that works....

And now im like PHP lets try that i want it! lol so now im learning php,
then who knows...

maybe somin more a server? lol

dan

**ibbo** · 01-10-2007, 09:50 AM

I went for geek because I no longer touch windows. It would have been God had I done so.

I can manage servers (providing they are NIX) be they clusters or stand alone or load balancers or temp routers. Its all good stuff and its all been done before.

I'm a dab hand with my screw driver and my solderin iron but nothing can compete with my ability to coax a machine into my way of thinking through my right foot and dictionary of abuse (a fuse or two helps aswell)

.

But then I am the sys admin which makes me a God anyway.

Now to flip my automate everything button and take myself rock climbing.

ibbo

**dansgalaxy** · 01-10-2007, 01:55 PM

Sounds cool, lol i tend to be the same acept when i kick it i tend to start swearing blue usually becasue (what to me at least!)i spent alot of money on my computer and usually the thing which isnt workin too lol.
Can i ask how old you are, out of interest.

dan