Are you a techie?

[nice90sguy]

It looks to me that there are quite a few tech people on this forum, maybe a higher percentage than out in the wide world. Is that true, do you think?

Are you a techie?

(raises hand slowly)

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I was once.

I held all the popular certifications, but most have lapsed in the years since my retirement. A few of them are lifetime certs, such as the ones for teaching, but I don't even use those anymore. My wife has almost entirely ceased lending me out.

 

[ElectricBlue]

No. English Modern History double major, then project and contracts manager in the defence aerospace arena. Worked with engineers all my life, but I'm definitely not one.

 

[TxRad]

A degrees in Electrical Engineering, a degree in Petroleum Geology, and a Computer Science degree.

Techie? Not as much as I used to be but I build wooden boats for fun and profit.

 

[nice90sguy]

I build wooden boats for fun and profit.

Useful skill these days with climate change Planning to gather some animals for your ark?

 

[TxRad]

The only animals my boat carry are hunters and fishermen. Maybe a retriever or a basket of fish.

Useful skill these days with climate change Planning to gather some animals for your ark?

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

I noticed that too!
I'm in a stem field but beside knowing the very basic of sql R python etc to do my job I am absolutely terrible at techie stuff.

 

[AwkwardlySet]

I think I would call myself a lazy techie. I simply don't have the drive to keep up with the frenetic pace of technology in all its aspects. I do stay up to date with tech things I am interested in.

 

[OldFloridaGuy]

After hight school, 1963, I went tech school route - college was too expensive for the family. Enrolled in a school for electronics in Miami, and hopped a greyhound from Tampa to Miami. Did some full time school while working at night, plus some part time school while working full time. After graduation, I had several non techie jobs. Then in 1970, went to work for junior college system there, in media and tech support. 30 years at the college in miami with last 15 doing support for personal computers and networks, then five years in a college further north in florida as network and computer support. Yeah, techie fits me.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

I hate techies. I am one. It pays the bills. But I always wanted to be...

..a lumberjack!

 

[PennameWombat]

Since I’m writing an essay here…

I’ve looked through the CSS and HTML generated for the odd story here when some question or another came up on the Forum here. I remember the day a coworker and I looked over a description of HTML that was distributed online and even before the IETF took it up. Not that either of us did much beyond reading it.

I can also tell you why early LISP had the ‘CAR’ and ‘CDR’ operators (the names still exist in some dialects, the functionality is common).

But, the real question: Emacs or vi?

[It’s about this point when people seem to smile at me and back away slowly, making no sudden moves until they’re at the doorway… at which point they sprint. Not sure why…]

 

[SimonDoom]

Not at all. I've had a liberal arts focus since I was a child. English and history were always my favorite subjects. I've spent over 30 years in a non-tech profession, although I've had some exposure to the techie world through clients and friends.

I admire techie people, especially those with an engineering aptitude. My impression is that some people can look at a machine or piece of equipment and just "get it" better than others. I'm not one of those people. I get flummoxed by television remotes.

If I were to start things over and go into a scientific field it probably would be to do something like entomology, rather than a tech field. I've always had a fascination for insects.

 

[nice90sguy]

[It’s about this point when people seem to smile at me and back away slowly, making no sudden moves until they’re at the doorway… at which point they sprint. Not sure why

Probably because they use punched cards and think you're cheating using a text editor.

 

[nice90sguy]

I've always had a fascination for insects.

I've discovered many bugs in my tech work.

 

[ElectricBlue]

If I were to start things over and go into a scientific field it probably would be to do something like Ichthyology, rather than a tech field. I've always had a fascination for fish.

Just corrected that for you, Simon.

Haha, you thought it would be penguins.

 

[SimonDoom]

Just corrected that for you, Simon.

Haha, you thought it would be penguins.

I DO enjoy a tasty grilled salmon.
I am also a bird-watcher, however, so penguins fall more within my bailiwick than fish.

 

[Rob_Royale]

Yep. Electro-mechanical technician.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I began by learning BASIC on an Atari 800XL as a hobby. Then I learned the intricacies of PC-DOS as a hobby, with languages, COBOL, C, for a degree (late in life) and A86 & D86 (those last two just for fun.) (Who knows how to organize device drivers to make the best use of high memory, so you can run Windows 3.0 on a network desktop computer?)

I earned my certs in Novell Netware 3.11 and MCSE back in the 1990's just by reading the books and hands-on at work, then went on to fiber-channel networks and disk arrays, with Windows NT 3.5 (then NT 4.0) and Solaris servers. (The answer is "vi".)

Now, I only have the Surface Pro 7 tablet ... and eight other computers ... and the home file server, three routers, to play with ... unless I remote into my grandkids' computers a hundred miles away to check on their homework.

 

[jsmiam]

Hmm. I’m concerned. This feels like trying to give oneself a nickname. ;-)

I guess I’m like jack-jack, I’ve done several things in the computer industry

Also, shout out to @Zeb_Carter who has been a long term resident board techie.

 

[Bramblethorn]

But, the real question: Emacs or vi?

Must be about 20 years since I last used vi, but my fingers still remember Esc-ZZ.

 

[RejectReality]

I passed two years worth of textbooks within a couple of months back in high school and ended up delving into the manuals for the higher level functions I needed to code my game back in the late 80s. I bought my first computer in 1990. Taught myself a couple other advanced forms of BASIC thereafter, as well as HTML, j-script, ( edit forbidden word ) and PHP. Built a few of my PCs. Coded on some popular forum mods in the early 2ks.

I suppose you could say I'm a retired techie. I can't bring myself to code for anything nowadays. ( Including my own website, which is 90% offline due to the necessity to upgrade the base software I was using to run it. Already cheating rather than 100% writing my own code even then ) I went online and built my latest PC rather than touching the hardware myself. I can barely summon up the motivation to write in short spurts, let alone anything else.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I used to be a bit of one, but as so many friends and partners were techies it rapidly became more efficient for them to do the teching and me to apply other skills.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

You didn't put "other skills" in quotes.

 

[Mnkinkcpl]

Back in the 80's I was leaning that way but ended up going in mechanical direction instead. At that point I was proficient in basic, fortran, pascal and C++. Jump ahead a few years and I had to have a working knowledge of the hardware end of networking, switches, patch panels, ups's etc and most importantly network cabling.

At that time I was mostly doing alarm, fire alarm and suppression, and access control equipment with a lot of CCTV thrown in. I had to be able to converse with the design engineers about the hardware. It's been about 15 years since I sold that business and I'm way out of the loop now, and happy for it. I now realize how much of my free time I was spending just keeping up with new developments and researching new products.

 

[Dr_Strabismus]

In the 90's was the only non-white guy in my team, which was all guys. Now my son is working in a multiracial, multinational team with approx 50/50 male/female split. So that's got better since the good old days.