What got you guys into understanding computers beyond the levels of the typical normie
I'll start by saying, I am that normie I use windows 10 and the deepest thing I understand at my computer is that I can close a program quicker in task manager vs waiting for the not responding popup to give up. I have never even opened the side panel
I've never learned about other operating systems, any programming languages or how a computer really works at all. >when did you first discover a deep interest in computers? >were you a "normie" in regards to computing for a long time? >when did you first discover computing (and perhaps programming), was it purely for fun or did you intentionally get into it for better career prospects?
and finally >do you think it's a redflag that, because I haven't gotten into it out of my own curiosity, that means it's probably not for me and I shouldn't even bother?
I want to understand computers more, because even I'm getting sick of how little control I have over this shit now, I can't even right click half the things anymore, it feels like a toy. I want to get smarter to be in control again, but I don't know where to even begin
I expect that many of you are older than me and got into computers way back when you had to actually know how they worked for them to work at all but that isn't the case anymore, these days a 5 year old with no understanding whatsoever can use a computer, they just can't use it at any level below the surface
I want to get below that surface but I don't know where to start, it's all foreign to me
Luke Adams
Games.
Jonathan Reyes
I think a good way to explain how to get into it would be to list your development surrounding computers ie >got first computer >discovered you could do this with it >wanted to see if it was possible to do this other thing >research it >discover there is alot to do with computers and it's learnable >study computing at school or whatever
I dunno, something like that what got you into it? because whatever it is, either I didn't do it or it didn't interest me at the time and now here I am 10 years later and I still don't know anything about computers while everyone around me knows them inside and out. And the whole world has very quickly become entirely about computers, I feel illiterate in the modern world
Julian Martin
simply wanting to accomplish things efficiently, the problems came from normal computer usage. like i had a bunch of pictures with random filenames, and date taken either in EXIF (metadata) or modify time. I wanted to rename all of them to ISO 8601 date as name, then folder them by year. We're talking about 70k photos here. Same thing for converting my music for listening on phone, automatically of course. I never understood how normies got over these problems. Do they manually fix such problems? (yes I know nowadays there are software like Google Photos and Spotify that makes these easier, but a decade back what did they do?)
Parker Reed
What do you mean by games? coding a game? how did you get into that?
Adam Jones
pretty much how it worked for me. >started playing gaymes >computer to slow >learned about hardware >build first own pc
years later >friend had that cool website >wanted one >learned about HTML >build first website
months later >wanted to create a small application for gaming >"how do I make websites interactive?" >learned PHP
and so on
Jack Cruz
mhm, I imagined it would be something like that
a need to do something, and through searching for solutions you discovered an interest in the whole field of programming/computing/etc
I guess I hadn't ran into such problems, I just played runescape and watched youtube videos, so I never learned anything
Samuel Parker
Well I must ask where can one start out? The sticky seems to be designed for people who already have their foot in the door Is there a guide that's even more basic than that? not as basic as a guide for 70 year olds, but basic just beyond the normie level if that makes any sense
Xavier Cox
a guide in understanding how computers work I mean things like how operating systems work, what all the shit in system32 means and the other stuff in task manager, what all the network/IP lingo means
Mason Morris
>>when did you first discover a deep interest in computers? when I was like 5 and old PC games where rad, then when I was 10 and got an old laptop to play them again. >>were you a "normie" in regards to computing for a long time? Somewhat. >>when did you first discover computing (and perhaps programming), was it purely for fun or did you intentionally get into it for better career prospects? Sounds gay but minecraft modding got me into programming a bit. Never made anything worthwhile and fell into a dark age where I relearned the same concepts over and over again because I was retarded. >>do you think it's a redflag that, because I haven't gotten into it out of my own curiosity, that means it's probably not for me and I shouldn't even bother? No and yes. I dislike people who get into computing purely from a financial and career standpoint, but otherwise I dont personally care.
>where to even begin it all depends on what you want to do.
Dylan Collins
minecraft modding, ah I remember back in Roblex, that game ran on lua script or something, I never understood it and didn't get far with it, it never really clicked to me that that was programming
Nolan Murphy
well, I guess because I'm a zoom zoom an grew up with an old computer with a CRT monitor and XP installed, played nothing but AoE2 on it, although as a child I was very bad. also was just cool to browse the internet, but in honesty, I have little to no memory of what I did on the internet back then in elementary school we had computers too, and I would sort of explore some things and became very familiar and fluent with using one, but nothing beyond basic shit a lot of what got me into learning it on a deeper level was pretty much just games >I use windows 10 and the deepest thing I understand at my computer is that I can close a program quicker in task manager vs waiting for the not responding popup well, that's not even necessarily true, sounds like you just have a computer that is probably bloated and whatever you've installed has made it inefficient as fuck, or it's hardware is weak. to be fair, that's not entirely on you, modern developers are pigs and windows 10 is a resource hog, software has been riding on the back of hardware all these years and it's a problem that is difficult to solve thanks to microsoft and other proprietary software hmm, when it comes to this stuff there's a variety of topics you can know everything about and specialize in, and most people understand roughly how everything works (programmers and people who work with software will at least understand how hardware works, even if they don't fully understand all the nuances) as far as I know, there's no cohesive simple introduction to just being a tech literate though, I guess I could answer questions if you want to know about hardware and stuff like memory
Jack Campbell
Wanted to get past the school's block on Youtube. 12 years later im graduating with a degree in computer science. I was lucky enough to go to a high school that encouraged students to pursue open-ended projects. Started coding by making flash games following shitty Newgrounds tutorials. Now I make HTML5 games following shitty framework documentation. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Kevin Cooper
yes, a lot of people get into programming with things that don't feel like programming. like Batch scripting, modding random games, or hell even minecraft redstone (it's actually turing complete therefore equalient to any programming language)
Jayden Johnson
>tfw struggled to understand simple redstone door back in 2012, now people are making complex farms with timing and shit just fuck my shit up senpai
>complex farms haha thats not even much i made a 8 bit cpu in it
Elijah Fisher
Only guide you need is this man right here . Little extra advice learn linear algebra and relational algebra.
Asher Hughes
I think I'm just being lazy I could ask you about things like hardware and memory, but now that I think about, I could probably google them too and while mostof them will be too complex, I'm sure to find more basic stuff by just exploring these words and what they mean also yeah, my computer is really weak, I don't download much but I have heard that windows is just overall bloaty from the start I vaguley remember trying to get past a youtube block but the most I ever figured out was putting an S after HTTP, and then they fixed that and I had graduated before learning anymore I know that wasn't really understanding anything at all, I've had some Jow Forums anons discovered proxies through the youtube-at-school problem
I should mention that I have very poor maths skills as well From looking at guides, it says that linear algebra should be learned after calculus, I don't even anderstand basic algebra because I forgot all of it after I left school
Bentley Russell
My father and older brother are both engineers, so I was raised in a pretty nerdy family that encouraged me to learn and tinker with technology. Later on I decided that my math skills aren't good enough to pursue engineering or computer science, but I'm doing quite well double majoring in finance and business analytics.
>when did you first discover a deep interest in computers? 6-8 years old, mainly due to the influence from my older brother who was also very interested in computers >were you a "normie" in regards to computing for a long time? Depends what you consider normie to be. Personally, even though I was more tech literate than a normalfag I wouldn't say I stopped being "normie" until I began browsing Jow Forums. This board can push you to learn many new things and try out new software, especially Linux distros.
>do you think it's a redflag that, because I haven't gotten into it out of my own curiosity, that means it's probably not for me and I shouldn't even bother? Again, it depends what you're looking for. I don't think I'd use the term "red flag", but I would advise you to be cautious of pursuing a career in tech if you don't have a genuine interest. People watch Mr. Robot and hear about the high salaries and they're immediately starstruck, but for 90% of people who go into CS for these reasons they end up in one of two situations: 1. Their brain just isn't wired for it, and they don't perform well in school and can't get good internships and ultimately will never be making a ton of money like they'd hoped to be. 2. Turns out they are capable of learning the subject, but they don't enjoy it and become burnt out in a few years and hate their job.
Joseph Green
my mom thought my shitty slideshow version of snake I wrote on my TI-83 was fun
>I should mention that I have very poor maths skills as well >From looking at guides, it says that linear algebra should be learned after calculus, I don't even anderstand basic algebra because I forgot all of it after I left school probably lost case then. programming is literally built out of mathematics
Brody Wilson
what do you mean your maths skills aren't good enough? as says, and I am already aware of. understtanding computers requires extensive maths knowledge, I have been trying to develop my maths skills but I'm starting from the ground up Is there any way to tell whether you can or cannot do maths(and therefore computers and programming)?
Blake Hill
My dad was into computers so I was always surrounded by them. When he got me my first one to have all to myself he build it with me explaining what everything was and what it did. I also remember my first linux experience when he brought home a copy of Red Hat 7 (RHL, not RHEL).
Brandon Ramirez
Obviously he didn't mean coding games. It's what got me into computers too, just playing video games and having to deal with it all day.
Leo Rogers
/fglt/ got me into free software and the dangers of proprietary software, which made me learn lots of things, primary to protect myself, but then i fell in love with GNU/Linux and programming
Thanks Jow Forums
Hudson King
>Is there any way to tell whether you can or cannot do maths(and therefore computers and programming)? Are you in university? If you are, then look at what the math requirements are for a computer science student. Generally they have to take at least up until calc II, but in some schools they have to go to III or IV. I would recommend trying out calc I and seeing how you perform in it to gauge whether or not you're going at math.
Anthony Morgan
I will admit, I am drawn to computers and programming because I want to make more money
I want to live a financially secure life that is secure within the modern age, I think it's safe to say that in 20-30 years time, understanding computers will be just as important as being able to read and write.
I hope that, through exploring this field I will find I actually like it, I've heard many of stories of people who have been pushed into a life they didn't like, like the military or some trade, but they grew to love. I hope the same can be said about this
Camden Davis
oh, you mean pc games? and how they crash and require more fiddling around with than console games? not bashing pc games but I never had a good enough computer to play any, and the playstation never really crashed, the few pc games I have played few far more technical than any console
Logan Morris
>>when did you first discover a deep interest in computers?
Probably when I got my first computer in 2004. I'd played with my dad's computer for years but in 2004 I managed to buy one all for myself. It came with a shitty graphics card, and I wanted a better one to play the games I wanted. So I had to learn how to change the graphics card and that led to learning to modify every part of the hardware.
>>were you a "normie" in regards to computing for a long time?
Being a computing normie is relative. Back when I was modding my computer in the 2000s I was using Windows, and because I knew some stuff about Windows and modding I thought of others as normies. These days I use Linux so I think of myself back then as a normie. I moved to Linux because I didn't like how Windows was changing post Windows 8.
>>when did you first discover computing (and perhaps programming), was it purely for fun or did you intentionally get into it for better career prospects?
I grew up with them in the '80s. My dad was really into computers and had an Atari ST, so I used to play games on it in the '80s a lot. Also my brother was an expert in Unix - none of his coding knowledge rubbed off on me though, I just wanted to play games. Learning about computers puts me in a very positive place, it's almost like being a kid again and going back to the '80s.
>>do you think it's a redflag that, because I haven't gotten into it out of my own curiosity, that means it's probably not for me and I shouldn't even bother?
Not at all, anyone can discover any interest at any time in their life. The fact that you've started this thread shows you have ample interest. As long as you're willing, you'll get somewhere.
Linear Algebra should be learned before calculus. Probably should be the very next thing you learn.
Jordan Lee
I've looked more into maths than computing, my plan is to develop my maths skills and hope that it increases my thinking abilities and will make learning basic computer stuff easier (even if it's not maths related, just problem solving type stuff)
If I have it right, I should learn maths more or less in the same order you learn it in highschool, I'm basically at the level of a 12 year old, going through basic khan academy algebra tutorials
Levi Roberts
generally it's just logics, algorithms, graph theory, formal languages and automotons, etc.. so not terribly complex things. but you can walk into other math branches very easily. Want to make a mod for a 3d game? have fun learning linear algebra just to rotate some stuff in 3d.
Luis Martin
yeah exactly, constantly having to deal with issues, learning to do things faster (ctrl c for example), etc. at some point you get into computers. just like how many get into cars once they have one
Adam Brooks
Try applying what you're learning in math by graphing it and so forth while you're learning too.
Ryder Adams
you don't have to be a programmer to understand computers better, nor do you have to be good at math you can just learn about basic stuff and how to become more tech literate, what software is generally the best, how to tweak and debloat your system and the basic ideas behind each piece of hardware in fact, I'd recommend if your hardware is old enough to go to windows 7 instead of 10 so your computer doesn't run like shit
Jeremiah Ross
that makes alot of sense
It seems I've narrowly dodged all opportunities to develop an interst in computers as a kid, just be coincidence I just happned to be started with a modern computer that a child can use just happened to game on a console, not a computer just happened to never have a need to do anything the computer couldn't already do easily
I'll keep trying to learn maths, I try to do it a little bit everyday but I've got a long way to go I guess diving through wikipedia for random articles on things like DNS, IP, operating system, linux, etc should help enlighten the path for me a bit
Could you guys share some more things you consider to be red flags, things like >only being in it for the money >having no sense of curiosity >maybe sucking at math in school things that lead people down a path they shouldn't go down are there many people that go to uni for computer science and drop out with thousands in debt because they'd fucked up hard and didn't enjoy it?
Aiden Smith
graphing it? what do you mean by that? do you mean I should graph my efforts in maths, like how many hours a day I'm doing? or do you mean I should learn about the maths concepts around graphs?
Henry Sullivan
Find how to plot a vector in javascript. When you're learning about math, try to learn how to represent the concept visually, then try to replicate that yourself. "What I cannot create I do not understand"
Brayden Cook
OP you shouldn't get into programming you sound really dumb, I recommend you go to instead and become a plumber
Adrian Johnson
How diverse is Jow Forums? I see all the different generals ranging from programming games to audio stuff to web dev to putting computers together and probably a load of other stuff
do all of you understand all of this and just have your preferences? or do you have no competent knowledge in most of it but study only the one you like?
is it possible to understand all facets of programming or do people generally only know about a very niche area?
Angel Butler
I was born in '93 and my parents and older brother already had a computer. Actually several. They even used dial-up. I don't think I even got "into it", I just grew up with it.
Brandon Thomas
A cpu is really just a test of your knowledge of basic logic gates and the ability to assemble a functioning computer with it. Modern redstone is more about memorizing or discovering the behaviors and web of interactions of the new redstone components, sometimes with non-redstone blocks too, plus the usage of update orders and zero ticking to improve designs. These techniques are way more advanced than quasi connectivity, which players used to bitch about how complex they made redstoning become just a few years prior. Advanced redstoning is about discovering the innate quirks of the game code itself and how to exploit them to your advantage, and can be best compared to quantum mechanics in modern physics.
Grayson Perez
so I'm at a loss for example terms can someone who's very familiar with security programming also be very familiar with audio tech, and also be familiar with circuit boards? how much should one person generally be expected to know? and are there certain things that absolutely everyone should know? Is there a tree of computer knowledge or something? something like this
wew wtf happened to minecraft, last time i played in 2014 it wasnt this complex
Chase Lee
Then you became transexual
Logan Hughes
i think a considerable amount of people here have or are doing degrees in CS / CE / EE, which pretty much carries lot of mathematics and sometimes physics. Of course lot less than someone with a math degree, but way over the average "normie"
Joseph Watson
>What got you guys into understanding computers beyond the levels of the typical normie When I was about 10, VirtualPlaces got me interested in graphic design through doing avatar painting contests with Paint Shop Pro, and that along with AOL chatrooms and seeing people using "progs" in the chat got me into programming with Visual Basic, and so on and so forth. Good times...
(me) >advanced redstoning One nice example would be pearl cannons, which propel you tens of thousands of blocks away in about 5 seconds. To achieve this, you need to be able to fire hundreds of tnt at enderpearls both at a very precise location (using obscure and novel tricks to align the pearls), then figure out the chunkloading for all the chunks affected (permaloaders to keep chunks loaded perfectly for 100% of ticks, and only entity load the chunks where the pearl actually appears in, which happens to not be every chunk in the trajectory of the pearl). There's also the increasingly complex methods to break bedrock (modern techniques mostly use headless pistons) as mojang continues to patch them out of the game, and RNG manipulation where you load hundreds of chunks in a specific order after an autosave to get the seed that gives you perfect rng. The original technical minecrafters, guys from the so called jl2579's server suggested slimeblocks to mojang, then mojang added observers as an alternative for removing QC (which they didn't end up doing), which caused a resurgence in the dying survival technical community
Chase Lopez
>What got you guys into understanding computers beyond the levels of the typical normie 12 year old me asked my father how to computers could talk to each other over network He couldn't explain it to a detail I was satisfied with ... 17 years later I still wanted to know, so I started university to find out
Grayson Bennett
This. The same mentality for most of the people who got into the nuts and bolts were interested enough to try something and researched until they could do it. Computers may be easier to use, but information and books on any comp subject is easy to come by. That and lots of good easy to understand forums. Grab a comp you don't mind breaking and normie-be-gone
Elijah Murphy
>searched observer wtf i wish i had this
Josiah Watson
Just some other questions I have on my mind that I can't figure out how to word into a polite way so I'll just dump them here regarding computers and programming:
>Does coding pay alot of money? or is it just a government push? Are all jobs worth a shit about computers these days? (I have no family or friends so I have no idea how the modern world really operates)
>Is it in demand because it's hard and nobody is good enough or because not enough people are doing it (becuase they haven't chosen to do it)?
>Is it possible to get into or do you geniunely have to have the big brain?
>is failing maths in highschool a red flag that one does not have innate math ability? or does the school system just suck?
>Is it the kind of field that is an acquired taste or do you need to have the passion from the start?
>are there many people that got into it for the money but soon found they enjoyed it and now find themselves in a good financial position and doing what they enjoy?
>Will it become less lucrative as more and more people get into it?
>Will it be necessary to learn programming in the future to have any job whatsoever? just as it is necessary to learn to read and write to get any job whatsoever (whereas it was a high level skill hundreds of years ago)?
>Are there alot of people that foolishly get into it only for the money and then end up jobless and in debt? or they get a job but hate it and never produce good work and so never make more than 20k a year or something small like that
>how much do you code everyday for fun or for study? like how many hours?
>What is fun about programming? and what kind of skills are key to do well in it? (things like problem solving, maths skills, patience, etc)
>from the ground up(12 year old level math and no computer knowledge), assuming a basic study schedule of a few hours a day from recommended resources, how long would it take to reach the average Jow Forums users understanding?
Benjamin Green
one more I hit the character limit
>are there any red flags to look out for that indicate that one will absolutely not enjoy it? (ie. don't even want to own a computer, would rather work on a farm, hate the sight of computers)
Christopher Harris
Also I must apologise for asking so many questions, I'm a brainlet to this stuff I thank you for being so kind to answering as many as you have
Ayden Jones
are internet free IQ tests legit? and is IQ even legit to knowing if you have potential to be good enough at maths to get a good job in programming?
David White
i googled mini scripts and program that did exactly that looking for file renamers.
Benjamin Allen
I'm a bit of an outliner since I don't care about technology that much nor programming, and see myself caring less and less about it but oh well.
We were poor and got our first PC in 04 or so; (think I was 9 or 10) so it was a total magic box for me, I wanted to find out what it can do. Having a neighbour who took shit from the trash and made it work and sold it for pennies gave more options to experiment too. One of my earliest memories with computers was deleting a lot of files inside the Windows folder back in 3.1 or something (fuck the bloat), and then having the thing fail to start up.
Obviously being poor also meant that if there was a problem, you either had to hire some guy you know for 20 bucks to reinstall the whole thing … or try to do it yourself, and since XP wasn't as easy as 10 to install, I had to learn about different filesystems and shit like that.
Later gayming happened, which meant optimising the shitbox. After that pirating, which meant dealing with downloading album.exe from Bearshare. Then I wanted to buy my own, and when your finances are limited, building the parts and overclocking is the best call, hence had to learn that too. Knowing all the basic shit also helped to make a decent pocket money helping other tech illiterates. Another aspect of gayming was modding; which meant learning about engines, rendering, small changes in plaintext, and so on.
At my first real job (online bookstore), they were Jews who used Ubuntu, so more learning, and during the breaks I talked a to the admins or simply observed their spergy Windows vs Linux discussions, learned about virtual networks/computers, encryption and so on.
>do you think it's a redflag that, because I haven't gotten into it out of my own curiosity, that means it's probably not for me and I shouldn't even bother? My friend started to study computer science because she couldn't be assed to move to the university which had dentistry, and aced that shit. It's never too late.
Nathan Hill
Was poor growing up. Friends had PCs. Got a pile of antiquated beauty for $12 from a business that went under. Couldn't play wow with friends. Proceed to upgrade it. The experience sparked a genuine curiosity about computers in general. Eventually started building "Gaming" computers for friends. Dropped a couple thousand dollars on a good PC for myself that was mainly a learning platform. Then I took a big boy dive into Ganoo/Linux and now use it as a daily driver on everything.
PC was too bad for games so I started theming. I think that's where it started for me.
Aiden Adams
shameless self bump
Benjamin Harris
circa 2005 had a bunch of old computers laying around that my uncles had used before. I wanted to play that world of warcraft game so I got each computer working and researched what made each one faster or slower than the others. I ended up with a pentium 3 @ 1ghz, 1.5gb of SDRAM, and a 64mb ATI video card and an 80gb IDE drive and was able to play the game great. Ever since then I just loved putting them together, though I don't play video games anymore, I have a list of clients that bring me lots of shit computers to rip apart and fix. Hearing the fans turn on and seeing the monitor turn on gets me hard every time.
Sebastian Gutierrez
Fuck, I'm jelly. Only had a single core Athlon with 256mb and Radeon 7000 for WoW during that time, and man, playing with 20 fps wasn't cool.
Isaac Evans
Making games and mods run in shitty ms-dos and windows environments in the 90s before UX became a thing. I also thought I wanted to make video games until I saw how shitty the industry is to developers.
Now I work 30hr weeks making boring finance software but the pay is good and my coworkers are competent.
Grayson Gutierrez
same!
did you ever use The Palace? avatar palace?
thanks for the screenshot, saved. miss those times a lot.
Parker Thomas
wolfenstein 3d warcraft starcraft
Adam Torres
Well, I wanted to make games. Desperately. I started with sploder.com Then, with Game Maker 8 That led to Python (about 7 years ago) , which led to C. which led to a whole host of other things.
