The Journey to Hacker
Jan. 4th, 2005 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nemorathwaldReason #1. The ability to get good things done.
The internet is a world I spend a lot of time in. I'll say to a friend "this page of our organization needs to say this instead of that" and they'll direct me to somebody who is a gatekeeper when I'd rather just have the power to Do It. I found out recently from Blasted Bill and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
phecda that unless the cable company objects, a private consumer could actually host a web site in one's own home on a perfectly normal computer. My cousin iamgeek revealed to me that a "web server" is a piece of software, not hardware. It even comes bundled with Linux!
Not that it does me any good, yet. All too often (such as when I got a paid LJ account and looked at the features) I read jargon like CGI and Apache and PHP which, until yesterday, I assumed to be a special type of computer hardware only available to ISPs. No longer will I slink away in defeat at their mere mention. Not even when the so-called "Beginner's" Guide/Overview to Python contains gibberish like "object-oriented" and "regular expression" in its first few sentences. There's gotta be a class I can take, but how do I choose which one to take when programming, using a UNIX command-line interface, and web administration, all seem to blur together? Where does one of them end and another begin?
Reason #2. Friends.
So there are several problems that learning how to program will eventually solve, someday. But I want to be a hacker, at least an initiate, because wherever all the coolest and most interesting activities are going on, one half is cool and interesting and the other half is unintelligible. This is a sign that I have no earthly business not being a hacker.
The internet is a world I spend a lot of time in. I'll say to a friend "this page of our organization needs to say this instead of that" and they'll direct me to somebody who is a gatekeeper when I'd rather just have the power to Do It. I found out recently from Blasted Bill and
phecda that unless the cable company objects, a private consumer could actually host a web site in one's own home on a perfectly normal computer. My cousin iamgeek revealed to me that a "web server" is a piece of software, not hardware. It even comes bundled with Linux!Not that it does me any good, yet. All too often (such as when I got a paid LJ account and looked at the features) I read jargon like CGI and Apache and PHP which, until yesterday, I assumed to be a special type of computer hardware only available to ISPs. No longer will I slink away in defeat at their mere mention. Not even when the so-called "Beginner's" Guide/Overview to Python contains gibberish like "object-oriented" and "regular expression" in its first few sentences. There's gotta be a class I can take, but how do I choose which one to take when programming, using a UNIX command-line interface, and web administration, all seem to blur together? Where does one of them end and another begin?
Reason #2. Friends.
So there are several problems that learning how to program will eventually solve, someday. But I want to be a hacker, at least an initiate, because wherever all the coolest and most interesting activities are going on, one half is cool and interesting and the other half is unintelligible. This is a sign that I have no earthly business not being a hacker.
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Re: Open at page one...
Date: 2005-01-05 04:29 pm (UTC)It looks like the best ratio of results to time expenditure will be to learn web servers. Programming, by contrast, is very discouraging, since:
#1 It would take years before I become able to work on a project that's even marginally beyond useless.
#2 Even if I make it that far, it's all been done decades ago.
#3 Even if it weren't, I have no idea what projects I would ever want to accomplish with it.
So I will probably never be a hacker, but at least I'll be something close.
P.S. Then again, if you count coding new game plugins in the Zillions language, (which I just found out is a form of LISP, whatever that is) as a form of hacking -- then never mind what I just said.
Re: Open at page one...
Date: 2005-01-05 04:50 pm (UTC)As for LISP, believe it or not LISP predates FORTRAN and COBOL, but has been the darling or programmers for many years. Other variants of LISP are SCHEME and MONK. GNUemacs uses LISP as an extension language, so it doesn't suprise me it being used to write gaming modules.
The old joke regading LISP, is that a computer science student is sitting in front of the terminal trying to comprehend why his LISP program won't run. The professor looks over the students shoulder, and seeing the problem, picks up the LISP language manual and whacks the student on the head, at which point the student acheives enlightenment...