Random self-appraisal
A lot of real geeks started out in the pre-internet telco world, doing things like blowing 
Captain Crunch whistles into telephones to acquire free long distance. My older brother was all into that--he worked for Bell Telephone--but my introduction to true techness (I don't count a few years in the Air Force working on aircraft instrument systems--that was glorified electrician work) came in 1984 when I first got my hands on an IBM PC-XT and started learning how to write code.
Writing code is bliss, even if it's just simple BASIC or batch scripts, but that's a whole nother story. My point is when guys at work talk about plugging a phone installer's butt set into any T-1 in the world and PWNning Verizon or AT&T's phone network it makes me feel like just another user. I have no cred and I'm getting too old to work for three days without sleep figuring out all the delicious possibilities, both licit and illicit, of some new device or protocol.
I did stuff like that 15 years ago learning linux. I used to think nothing of wasting an entire weekend installing Slackware on an old 386 just so I could open a shell and telnet to a citadel BBS. But none of that really interests me any more. These days I'd rather read a good book and fall asleep. I feel so old.
Captain Crunch whistles into telephones to acquire free long distance. My older brother was all into that--he worked for Bell Telephone--but my introduction to true techness (I don't count a few years in the Air Force working on aircraft instrument systems--that was glorified electrician work) came in 1984 when I first got my hands on an IBM PC-XT and started learning how to write code.
Writing code is bliss, even if it's just simple BASIC or batch scripts, but that's a whole nother story. My point is when guys at work talk about plugging a phone installer's butt set into any T-1 in the world and PWNning Verizon or AT&T's phone network it makes me feel like just another user. I have no cred and I'm getting too old to work for three days without sleep figuring out all the delicious possibilities, both licit and illicit, of some new device or protocol.
I did stuff like that 15 years ago learning linux. I used to think nothing of wasting an entire weekend installing Slackware on an old 386 just so I could open a shell and telnet to a citadel BBS. But none of that really interests me any more. These days I'd rather read a good book and fall asleep. I feel so old.