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Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#151

Post by pjmlp »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #137
pjmlp wrote: post #135

Tech, I got my introduction into computing with the Timex 2068, a Speccy clone, during the mid-80's, then followed up with a professional education during high school as computing technician, and finally ended up doing a degree in Informatics Engineering. Linux, my introduction to UNIX was via Xenix during high school, where a PC tower was shared among the whole class, and we had to prepare our UNIX exercises on MS-D…

How did DOS machines connect to the Unix box at that time? Or were they not connected, and you did it offline?

For those with money, they could use something like NetWare,

https://support.novell.com/techcenter/articles/ana19930406.h...

In our school it was a bit more low tech.

UNIX programming took place once a week, the teacher would bring in the UNIX (Xenix) tower from somewhere else, plug a keyboard and screen into it.

We would prepare our exercises in MS-DOS, only ensuring that it compiled (using stubs). There was hardly any testing possible, specially for exercises like UNIX IPC.

Then each group would take their turn at the tower, copy their prepared samples via a floppy, turn those stubs into proper calls, and finally testing that the application was actually able to run and if the exercise goal was met.

Naturally everyone having a turn pretty much depended on how well prepared everyone else was.

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#152

Post by oalae5niMiel7qu »

quantumsequoia wrote: post #133
searchableguy wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has the situation changed?

Yes it has. Sort of. These days, every high school has an overachiever clique. These students get great grades, but also run the various student clubs, have interesting hobbies, are into activism, are usually charismatic and good looking, etc. And they're usually popular and envied by people. This group isn't exactly the nerd clique of the 90s. Motivations of this group are driven by status-seeking, both among peers…

> Yes it has. Sort of. These days, every high school has an overachiever clique. These students get great grades, but also run the various student clubs, have interesting hobbies, are into activism, are usually charismatic and good looking, etc. And they're usually popular and envied by people.

That's not a change. That clique existed in 1990s high schools. They were known as "preps" back then, and were the opposite of "nerds". "Jocks" were preps who played sports.

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#153

Post by mixmastamyk »

pjmlp wrote: post #151
mixmastamyk wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did DOS machines connect to the Unix box at that time? Or were they not connected, and you did it offline?

For those with money, they could use something like NetWare, https://support.novell.com/techcenter/articles/ana19930406.h... In our school it was a bit more low tech. UNIX programming took place once a week, the teacher would bring in the UNIX (Xenix) tower from somewhere else, plug a keyboard and screen into it. We would prepare our exercises in MS-DOS, only ensuring that it compiled (using stubs). There was hardly…

Sounds fun. :D

I used to admin Netware as well. It didn't have any overlap with Unix at the time, however, and IPX vs. IP. Although they did add IP support and integrate SUSE later I remember, but did that make it back to their DOS client?

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#154

Post by BorisMelnik »

early 90s my dad brought home a 486 I think it was. I don't know how but I got my hands on a copy of Redhat Linux on floppy and tried (and tried, and tried) to install it. This is back when they literally made you build the entire kernel from source code. I was running gcc with all these flags had no clue what I was doing. Finally got it installed, I remember the day when I finally built X windows it was so amazing! I started networking PC's together in a LAN in my parents house.

We got a CD-ROM drive a few years later with Microsoft Encarta I remember it was like having the internet! Fast forward to BBS's. AOL, Prolog,

I spent 10-15 years out of the industry completely and finally got back into "tech" and building websites, installing VOIP systems (figuring that out), implementing backup systems for doctors, making intranets for small businesses, everything in between. Now I run a development house. Can't say the work I do is ground breaking, I tell people what I do is like the janitorial work of the internet: we do the work small businesses either don't want to do or don't know how to do. Not rich by any means but work for myself and make my own hours.

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#155

Post by Kosirich »

buro9 wrote: post #20

It was 1993 and I was homeless, living in a squat, working for bands by selling T-shirts at their gigs - I'd hitch hike to where they played to get paid £20 for the night before sleeping rough nearby. During this I collected names and addresses of their fans so that if the bands got new T-shirts there was the potential to contact the fans and let them know. One of the bands - Elastica - wanted to shoot a music video…

This should be in the top HN news article. Thank you for brightening my day after getting some shitty news.

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#156

Post by stevekemp »

When I got started programming it was in the 80s, with a ZX Spectrum as was very common in the UK.

I wrote about it here in more length:

https://blog.steve.fi/how_i_started_programming.html

But the short-version is that we bought the computer, which came with a casette-player for loading games from. The casette-player was broken, so I started entering BASIC programs from the manual.

Later I hacked games for extra-lives, because I wasn't a good game-player, and that eventually lead to me becoming a programmer - assembly and C, then later scripting languages and more high-level work.

Once programming for money became less interesting I switched to doing it for fun, and evolved into a sysadmin (and nowadays I get called "devops engineer" which is a horrible title, but a lovely niche).

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#157

Post by openfuture »

simplism wrote: post #58
openfuture wrote: post #37

I got a thinkpad when I was 10 years old, found my first use for it when world of warcraft was released a few weeks later. Recovering from World of Warcraft addiction at age 12 (having spent the time fully immersed all day every day) caused me to read B.F. Skinner's research. I was quite shocked reading about the Skinner boxes and felt empathy for the mice after having been trapped in one myself. By coincidence I wen…

Question: do you still play games? If so, how much? I absolutely love gaming, but I can really lose myself in it, and also sometimes think about what I could do if I would spend these hours on for example learning (I'm a web dev). Sometimes I think about quitting gaming entirely and spending that time on programming projects/learning entirely for fun. At the same time I like gaming, but I have a hard time not getting…

Not really no, I am kind of fed up with electronics tbh.

I still LOVE games though and I think in terms of them all the time. However I prefer physical games with good design, there's something about having a small enough statespace that it fits in your head but a vast enough posibility space to encourage replay that tickles me.

Nowadays I want to design some games but I want to do a lot of things, so we'll see what happens...

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#158

Post by axetheone »

buro9 wrote: post #20

It was 1993 and I was homeless, living in a squat, working for bands by selling T-shirts at their gigs - I'd hitch hike to where they played to get paid £20 for the night before sleeping rough nearby. During this I collected names and addresses of their fans so that if the bands got new T-shirts there was the potential to contact the fans and let them know. One of the bands - Elastica - wanted to shoot a music video…

This one of the best stories/things I've ever read here in Hacker News and I don't say this lightly. Really amazing and inspiring story! :D

Re: Ask HN: How did you get started in tech and/or Linux?

#160

Post by nullandvoid »

simplism wrote: post #142
nullandvoid wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Similar experience for me, played all through my teens and early twenties. Something has clicked in the last year, that I want to spend my time more productively What's worked for me has been using a blocker. For example "cold turkey" I'm using ATM. I normally set blocks of 1 month or so, then end up binging a gaming weekend when it becomes unblocked, then go again Seems to be working pretty well. Considering just se…

That's awesome! I really like the idea of setting blocks, and still playing once in a while. Tried playing less before, but never succeeded for long. Just not playing at all will probably suit me better. Especially when I know I will be able to at the end of the block. Starting with it from now! Thanks for sharing :)

Glad it's helped, good luck on your journey to reclaiming some extra hours back!
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