THE WORLD IS MY CANVAS!!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

THE DIFFERENCE

For a long while i have contemplated whether or not i am a computer geek. It's a known fact that a lot of people and those who claim to be my friends but only seem to seek me whenever they need help approach me for help on all computer related or electronical technical mumbo jumbo whenever the're confounded. I on my part try to help as much as i can but it pisses me off whenever i get labelled by the term, computer nerd or geek. Then during my recent absence during which unknowingly proved to be another test of faith for me(more on that in the next post). I thought long and hard whether or not they were telling the truth about me and if i truly was a geek or a nerd when all along i was trying to just be aware of every new i.t related issue, device, technique, etc because it always pays to be aware no matter what aspect in our life it may be.

Then my computer died briefly and due to financial issues, i wasn't able to get it fixed until much later, During which i also had no access to the television and my world consisted only of books and newspapers and a lot of travelling and communicating with friends, family etc.

First thing i noticed was that i didn't seem to be afflicted greatly by the loss of the internet at my fingertips. Make no mistake, i would be if it was a permanent situation but during the short tenure, i not only realised that i still communicated normally and successfully with the people i was with, i wasn't like a closet computer freak with no social life. I still maintained more than just a spectacular presence amongst friends and other people i'd meet. A real geek would perhaps rue meeting or socialising in the first place.

Secondly, i noticed that while with the internet it's easier to scour and get the information i want, it was also possible to get information though it would take awhile longer through other means. I'm not going to discredit the internet here as there are things that i could possibly never get through other means coming from a place like singapore but at least 80 percent of information i received through other means for example, communication between people and if the person seems to be a narrow minded prick, at least you can then work backwards and try to understand why he/she seems to be that way and try to realise the issues that have held them hostage to their way of thinking. Point of what im trying to stress here is this, that someone who is a true visionary and no doubt a real thinker will never resort to any means to help him/her in the quest for the truth...sure the internet is a more than helpful tool and i'd choose it anytime over talking to a narrow minded prick but a true thinker will make the best of any given situation and use it to his/her advantage, if put in a situation with a prick, he/she would try to understand what or why the prick's being a prick and understand once again, the bigger picture of things.

Finally, the most important point i wish to bring across to you, my dear dedicated reader follows:

I finally had the financial resources to get my computer fixed at sim lim square, and once again during the whole process while it was still getting fixed, i wondered whether that place itself was a geek haven, for a while now i've constantly joked amongst my friends that it is a place for computer nerds and geeks and i myself was proud to be amongst them, but the truth couldn't be farther than that. While i was waiting i decided to get some burgers at the burger king outlet nearby and whilst i was there, right across my table sat a group of fantasy gamers of some obscure fantasy game and they were describing issues one would normally discuss in a fantasy game such as damage points, spells, mana etc...what amazed me was that throughout the entire conversation that transpired none of them seemed to change the subject of the conversation to anything else even related to what they were speaking which is unnatural if you truly observe how a normal conversation between friends carries on....it just was all about the evil goblins, level kings, spells etc ... you get the picture..
Now i consider myself a gamer but only when the game is of a truly high benchmark, all the games i've played somewhat relate to me and my interests in the quest for the truth as well....in starcontrol2 which some would consider the greatest epic spacebattle, i had to negotiate and choose when to fight and make decisions at crucial times to determine the fate of the galaxy's survival against the warmonger alien species who would stop at nothing to keep the galaxy in fear (sound familliar?) or in half-life 2, i played gordon freeman who rescues humanity from the clutches of an alien race known as the brood who have enslaved humanity and prevented them from reproducing and the game's environment paints a bleak futuristic setting (is it really that far fetched?) as for the other games i play such as wipeout and need for speed, it's simply cause im a speed freak as well as winning eleven because i love playing soccer so damn much but you'd never catch me playing apparent award winning titles such as "the sims" where you get to live a human life and pretty much do everything you'd do in the real world nor would i content myself with games where i'd have to build my stats by destroying creatures or amassing skills just to show off new tricks and abilities ...i prefer games with interesting plots and where the challenge is there..... anyways back to my revelation..

As i sat there and evesdropped on their conversation, it became clear to me that with the advent of the internet, there were 2 distinct categories of computer users... Under the first group which i will label as "cattle" are your basic office application users, programmers, stupid game gamers like the above mentioned who live in a fantasy world and become shut off to realworld issues etc, idiots who use computers but at the hint of the first difficulty will immediately call for help rather than try to solve it themselves, idiots who use the internet for all the wrong reasons such as mirc for meeting young girls, friendster to boost their insecure egos etc, the list under the first group would pretty much not be exhausted if i don't stop typing but it's what's in the second group that holds the revelation... under the second group are: radical programmers, hackers, code crackers, knowledge seekers, pretty much basically the very same people whom in real life wouldn't be put into the sheep category...

Firstly, to all programmers who maybe read what i've just said and are offended... ask yourselves .. do you find your solutions by thinking out of the box or even thinking at all or does your mind simply refer to another solution you once did previously which in anycase was only coded because you recalled that you did that during your high school computer lessons etc ... there is not real thinking involved in what you do anymore ... radical programmers on the other hand do the actual thinking process ... they work their minds nonstop till they come up with the proper algorithm or solution and when they have it .. they code it in 5 minutes and won't spend hours debugging simply because they have thought out the entire solution and are only left with coding it...

The internet is and has been for the past few years the most powerful tool for knowledge seeking next to the human brain... It has united people with similar interests in forums, given knowledge freely if the user knows how to surf for information properly ... ALSO .. the internet is a major bitch slap to the music and movie industries that were content on draining our pockets previously, now while they are still making their money releasing shitty musical and movie content to the cattle, the hackers, code crackers etc are making it possible for the people who know how to access the information properly ... how to download musical albums, movies in a fucking crisp and clear format onto their computer ..popular view would state that it's nothing more than piracy, but ask yourselves .. if you listened to a musical album and it was great, wouldn't you still buy the damn cd? i would.. cause it's value for my money but in the same way .. i would never buy something that wasn't value for my money and the only way i could truly find out is through these methods ... while the powers that be in the music and movie industries always shut down certain sites, file sharing programs etc, new ones will still keep coming out and new methods will be discovered always to pirate media that is chockfilled with the latest anti piracy technology, why do these hacker, code crackers do it? because they love the challenge of cracking a puzzle and more importantly they, like me want to have only what's value for my money and ensure that we never ever get ripped off anymore .. almost all the illegal pirated i've downloaded come with notices informing me to buy the official product if i should like it, there is no notice telling me to fuck the official product and use this instead ... also the real people incidentally in my view, who are causing the music and movie industry to panic are the cattle who download and listen or view the media without ever buying it..their mentality is such that once they have it, they can burn it and keep it without ever having to give the original artiste, program author, etc their share of the money for the hard work they put ... remember it's a big difference between the 2 groups i mentioned, one are basically mindless, self centered fuckwits whose view of the entire world is solely based upon themselves, not ever being aware of the rest of the world and it's events happening and not even making the effort to try ... while the other group holds the individuals who are aware and find out what can be done to remedy a shitty situation, fight for the freedom of choice by finding out new techniques to beat the system and still keep file sharing and media up and running, keep themselves aware of the changes all around them and do the necessary.

Simply put, when the computer was first invented, only social outcasts with mathematical genius minds but still lacking the ability to think on his/her own and rather would prefer having their wills directed by higher powers issuing orders to them, and also hang out amongst their own kind, never mingling with the rest of the world ...thus giving birth to the "geek" persona, but since the dawn of the internet, a new breed has been formed that doesn't fall into the cattle, the ones who choose to use the computer as a weapon against the powers that be in whatever possible way they can and choose to do so ... to all these people i thank you for your existence, it fills me with hope knowing that there are many more out there and that there still may be hope afterall for mankind... fight on!

I guess i truly realised how much of a geek i wasn't then on.
Adieu..

------------------------------------ GOD spoke @ 3:57 PM --------------------------------- 3 comments

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