Get to know: The Techie Talk folks

[karbon14]

background: got playing with computers really a few years ago, quite a bit younger than most of the folk around here (and in work). dicked around in school, only things i enjoyed were physics and computing, did well in those, fucked up everything else. went to college, sat my HND, dicked around because it was mostly shite, didn't bother my arse and dropped out a couple of months before the end. did sales for evesham for a couple of years while at school/college.

now: working for dell buisness support. it's a skive, decent knowledge will get you everywhere and knowing where to look/who to ask for the other answers helps loads.

have no intentions of staying there for long, or in the computing industry at all really....

not much help comes from me that others can't provide.

[johnnie walker]

i would love to get more involved in the techie talk forum, it just seems that everytime a question is asked, its answered before i can answer. (which is a good thing) but anyway, my background:

started using pc's when i was 8. (weirdly enough an 8mhz processor comp, with a green screen, no hard drive and 2 5 1/4 inch floppy's)

ive been building pc's for the last 10 years or so (i started early). the last one being last weekend.

im a programmer, ive used c/c++ to death, also used javascript, c#, java, assembly, VB, php, sql, etc though not as much. (my main language's are c/c++)

oh and ubuntu kicks ass.

now im working for system admin in scottishpower (the telephony systems admin, not computing) dealing with call routing. so its in part (a very small part, i can only work with what i have) my fault if you cant get through to scottishpower.

EDIT: i may not be as active on techie talk as, well, everyone else here, but i do try and help whenever i can

[Zero]

1996-1998: BSc Computer Science, dropped out after second year.
1998-2000: Web developer with a small software company. ColdFusion, then ASP. Bit of Delphi too.
2000-2002: Web/database developer at a big web dev company in Edinburgh. ASP, SQL Server, bit of VB6. Then quit to do...
2002-present: BSc Physics degree. Nearly finished.

[Largest of Gregs]

Ill keep this short and sweet

Graduated with Multimedia technology degree
Set up web and brand development agency, ran for 3 years
Currently doing Microsoft scholarship
SQL server certified
soon to be certified in C#, asp, ado and some other shit

[Reno]

<-- Tosspot By Royal Appointment, though not hologrammatoic sadly [/Red Dwarf]

[DoNotResus]

started using pc's when i was 8. (weirdly enough an 8mhz processor comp, with a green screen, no hard drive and 2 5 1/4 inch floppy's)

ive been building pc's for the last 10 years or so (i started early). the last one being last weekend.

im a programmer, ive used c/c++ to death, also used javascript, c#, java, assembly, VB, php, sql, etc though not as much. (my main language's are c/c++)

oh and ubuntu kicks ass.

excuse me, but are you me?

[Witchhunter]

• broke my first computer after having it only 1 week
• first cpu I overclocked (attempted) was a pentium 133Mhz
• first real oc was a 500mhz AMD K7 (iirc)
• went on to do more overclocking for a few years
• got into watercooling and modding
• killed one graphics card, one motherboard and one cpu
• currently no longer watercooling or modding anything as I don't have time

• I've done an HND in graphic design and an HNC in sound engineering.
• During the HND I taught myself xhtml and css based web design
• just about everything I know is self taught
• I currently run a web design business in Aberdeen while I'm looking for a position in a design company.
• Probably more but I'm not that interesting that you need to know...

[johnnie walker]

excuse me, but are you me?

last i checked i wasnt

[DoNotResus]

last i checked i wasnt

thats a releif

[Ghostsuit]

I'm rarely in here but

Background: BSc in Business IT which basically means I know a little about most things but I'm skilled in bugger all . I've used computers since I got my first BBC B and got messed up in simple programs and also trying to work out why the last 1000 line game I'd just pluged in from Acorn computing never worked...I was hooked and I've been into computers since. I now run my own small web development company which jsut happened to spawn this place when I was bored one day.

Also worked on a Internet support call centre for a bit, think there's a few of the old guys here as well.

Now: Still running the company 5 years later and AN is becoming more and more a full time job. I rarely do any coding or design myself now as my times more taken up by boring business stuff. Kind of suits me as I'm not really a specialist in any coding etc but more of an ideas person.

On AN: I've a basic idea of PHP, MySql and most pc things in general. I'll help out when it's not been answered before I get to it but thats rare.

[GoddamnElectric]

I'll help out when it's not been answered before I get to it but thats rare.

I think this point, as mentioned by others as well, is a good indicator of the tech community - almost every question is resolved by the first couple of regulars to spot it whoever they may be

[Largest of Als]

I think this point, as mentioned by others as well, is a good indicator of the tech community - almost every question is resolved by the first couple of regulars to spot it whoever they may be

Also, notice it's rare for techie talk threads to get filled with shite and stupid arguments?

The supposed 'cool' kids/troublemakers avoid the geek forums


Al

[Witchhunter]

Also, notice it's rare for techie talk threads to get filled with shite and stupid arguments?

The supposed 'cool' kids/troublemakers avoid the geek forums


Al

So, Mac or Windows PC?

[GoddamnElectric]

Also, notice it's rare for techie talk threads to get filled with shite and stupid arguments?

The supposed 'cool' kids/troublemakers avoid the geek forums


Al

We dont take kindly to their types in here
Seriously though, while Jeff, Stew and myself have differing attitudes towards what constitutes delete-worthy material, I'd say the overall level of moderation in here is possibly the strictest on the whole forum. This mostly because we dont want to frighten stressed out users with broken PC's any further.

[sinister]

Hmmm... this might just get me some work so hope it doesn't turn out too much like a CV.

Background:

Started with a ZX81 way back in '81 and learning BASIC by debugging type in magazine listings. Then moved onto a BBC micro and picked up 6502 assembler while hacking games from tape to disc. Started playing with/modifying the hardware stuff around that time too. Even back then I would come home from the shop with a new game and load up the disassembler to examine the code/protection before even playing the game for the first time. Geek status was assured.

Did some computer stuff in school around '85' to '86 (the 1st year they introduced SCOTVEC programming qualifications) but there was no proper computer teacher in the school at that point so I had to go and argue with the head to let me work on this stuff and submit the projects on my own. Passed both modules at grade 1 much to the surprise of the teachers.

Then did an HND in computing from '87 to '90... total waste of time, everything I learned about hardware/programming in those 3 years could be written on a single A4 page. Around that time I got an Atari ST and got right into 68000 assembler and hacking games just like I'd done on the BBC. Hooked up with some of the software guys at the barras and ended up running 2 of the biggest cracking crews worldwide on the ST and hacking over 500 games. Good times!

In the mid 90's made an attempt to go legit with some other ST guys and we started development of a game on the Atari Jaguar console. Got it to a one level playable demo stage (which took well over a year 'cause there were absolutely ZERO code libraries or examples supplied by Atari so everything had to be done by hitting the hardware direct with our own code) but then Atari went bankrupt and pulled the plug on all game development. Our £10K dev. kits were worth about £10 overnight.

Around '98 a mate came back from the US with a DVD player and when it wouldn't play euro DVD's asked if I'd "have a look at it"... that started me off on about 5 years of developing dvd "mod chips" and DVD player firmware code hacks for region code switching. So I learned all about PIC microcontrollers and Fujitsu and Hitachi embedded control processors and development some of my own software/hardware tools to modify them, ending up with my code/mods being installed in tens of thousands of DVD players worldwide. More good times!


Now:

Only thing I've been doing software wise lately is developing a few car "tuning chips", giving an engine performance increase by modifying the car's ECU firmware code.

Really just holding out for HD-DVD/Blueray players to come out in the hope that I can go back to developing mods for them.


On here:

Have been playing with PC's since '87 and got seriously into building, repairing them from about '93 so have seen/fixed most problems... don't have that much experience with network stuff so I leave that to some of the guys who do.