This is my first WebCAM site. Well...Let me rephrase that...This is my first EVER Web Site. It doesn't have many bells and whistles yet, but I'm working on it. I'm learning HTML and JAVA as I go along, so be patient.
I've always been rather technically/mechanically minded and interested in new technologies, preferring the OBJECTIVE over the SUBJECTIVE. I have a rather extensive computer background, but was never really interested in any type of web design as I found it to be, quite frankly, boring. I found network layout and design to be MUCH more interesting and intellectually stimulating since it was fun for me to make computers "talk" to each other. I really enjoy setting up hardware, and creating something by making the sum of the parts into a meaningful whole by the software set up afterwards.
I've also designed programmable logic control systems for industrial plastic blow-molding machines (both the hardware layout and "user interface" as well as the software that made it all work). Now THAT was a project! I'm happy to report that my systems are still up and running 24/5 after many years with no hiccups. This was all during one of my "past lives..."
I first learned about computers in college, and was doing chat and Email LONG before they were "cool," or even called by those names, for that matter. Back then there wasn't much along the lines of courses and instruction, let alone the Windows interface and the mouse, so I am mostly self-taught (as are most of my computer geek friends). I did my share of programming and hacking back then. Back then, us "hackers" didn't try to invade systems to destroy them. We didn't sit around writing viruses and malicious computer code. We broke into (if you can really call it that -- there really wasn't any security to speak of) different systems just to poke around. It was more of a CONQUEST thing than anything else. That, and finding out what we could LEARN in/about the other system we were invading. It was a lot of fun, and we all spent MANY hours in the computer center, perpetually in trouble with the various SYS ADMINs .
<RANT>
The "Hacker Kiddies" today just don't "get it," nor does the news media. Hacking isn't about DESTRUCTION. Hacking is about LEARNING. Until the mainstream news media stops glorifying these so-called "hackers," there will be an endless stream of pimply faced thirteen year olds armed with cable modems trying to force their way (unsuccessfully) into my box. I aM aN eLiTe HaCkEr. Yeah, right. Sure you are. Grow up...
Why, back when I was your age,
we had to walk all the way to the TV to change the channels...
</RANT>
I took my first computer course during the FIRST semester that my college installed interactive terminals and making punch cards obsolete, so I think my timing was pretty good. My good friend Butch wasn't as lucky to escape those dang cards (Hi Butch..:) ). We had a Digital Equipment VAX 11/780 running VMS, which was a state of the art machine for it's day. It was the one the Soviets (remember them?) were always trying to get their hands on, and periodically there would be a story on the news about how the Feds would seize one in a crate in Argentina or somewhere else while it was in transit.
I used to do professional computer consulting (on both the network server and workstation side of things) but no longer do, as I got sick of being treated like the Maytag Repairman. There is nothing worse than trying to do a computer job for a client that tries very hard to RUSH you out the door because you are being paid by the hour. I can't (and won't) work that way anymore.
Nowadays I have some friends that I "help out" with their networks, working for future "favors" in the "favor bag." I am much more comfortable with this type of arrangement. Sometimes the project that I "help out" on ends up being quite complicated and time consuming. I've set up more workstations than I can count, and I wish I had a nickel for every time I've seen the Windows 98 and Windows NT bootup splash screens, actually the DOS bootup prompt too, for that matter..:)
Anyway, enough of this drivel. After all, I'm just Cookie's "Human."