Harro Wurudo

Fanboi

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I was directed here to introduce myself (late, but I love making an entrance). So, by my user name you can guess I'm pretty much guess I'm a geek. Things I'm a fan of (Warning: Lengthy):

- 2D Animation (especially the traditional stuff), both Japanese and Western. Obviously my leanings are more strongly Japanese. I'm not an anime freek though. It being anime doesn't automatically make it good, not does it being popular. I consider myself discerning. I enjoy kids stuff and adult stuff. I like Star vs the Forces of Evil as much as something like Ergo Proxy.

- Comics/manga. The self-contained stuff like The Maxx, Watchmen, Transmetropolitan, etc. I'm not into Super heros much. Not even in the Cinematic Universe. I'm hugely critical of anime and films that aren't true to the source, unless they really pull it off so well it's like something original merely inspired by the source. I loved the Film Adaptation of Watchmen, the anime adaptation of Claymore left me cold and wondering, "How could it just... end?" The same could be said about Full Metal Alchemist, although if you watched the anime only, you'd enjoy it until the manga. All I say is thankfully they haven't tried to make an adaptation of Transmetropolitan or The Chronicles of Wormwood.

- Retro games. Famicom, right up until PS2 when I stopped gaming then. I stopped because a lot of games on PS2 just felt "too much". I mean good graphics and complicated gameplay don't make up for a shabby, pointless game. But it doesn't have to be that way. No decent plot can still be good. The best action platformer, Rockman (Mega Man in the US), proved that (well, 1-4 at least). No good graphics? So what? FF4 (sold as FF2 in the US and totally lost in translation and gameplay) had a beautiful story with actual depth. And the graphics sucked compared to what the Super Famicom could do. As for remakes, much like Disney, they simply show a lack of new inspiration and a desperate need to make an IP relevant again.

- And, lastly, and yes you will burn me as a heretic: pastel-coloured ponies. But before you light the fires, I do not consider myself a "brony" because I'm not mentally impaired enough to like the show for the fandom. Unlike "bronies", I can be quite critical of the show where warranted. Like how S3 was clearly the intended ending, S4 had some terrible episodes, and how most of the show felt like filler episodes after S5.

That's why the they call me...

The overly-zealous fan who fights the good fight for quality. He who walks the thorny pass, daring to criticise that Holy Cow. He who is reviled by the plastic fake fandom of the masses. He who dares to say superheroes aren't that super. He who fights against the horror of remakes of films and games, all alone, unappreciated, and even unwanted.
He is...


Fanboi
 


Interesting.

G'day @Fanboi and welcome. :)

So what led you to Linux? ( I've read your Post and Spoiler elsewhere)

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Ah... Wait, someone read my text wall? Well anyway, I was pulling the p155 out of myself and my pedantic ways as a geek.

So, what lead me to Linux, was just hackery. I used to take an interest in messing with things, especially making them do what they weren't intended. I also loved optimizing back then, it was a sort of challenge, both in code and hardware. So, I ended up trying to get an ancient notebook to boot faster than a new one. I messed about with several Linux and a couple of BSD distros. I found TinyCore Linux, which started it all. Once I got my 5 second boot time, I was happy. By then I'd started playing with Arch and Debian distros like Antix. I think it was Linux's greatest weak point, too many distros, that actually intrigued me. Somewhere along the line I just realised Linux was easier than Windows because you could do so much with the CLI. Coming from the MS-DOS days, I always found Windows frustrating and cmd.exe pretty useless. I'd drop back to DOS to do most things back in Win3.1 when it was just a shell, but things changed and I felt very out of control. So during the course of my Linux hackery, it occurred to me that a) it seemed like I could do everything from the CLI, b) I could actually do useful things just as I could on Windows regarding software availability, c) I had the freedom to make the system behave as I wanted, d) that in itself meant better security, e) it meant I was safe and had privacy -- I always felt uneasy about privacy then, and f) I found it easier to use -- my DOS to Windows transition was a nightmare whereas I picked up using Linux intuitively. Eventually I had only my main machine running Win7, being forced into Win8 was on the horizon, and I just decided to take the plunge: no dual booting, full erasure of the OEM partition and a clean Debian installation. I had to relearn a lot since LibreOffice, GIMP, etc. were new, but I was ready and willing. And I've never looked back. Debian's been my OS since, with the side order of other distros for those less intuitive than me. I do still explore what other projects offer and I love watching them grow (Antix for example), but I doubt I'll change from Debian soon. If I did, it'd be likely to Void since it feels solid and has a package manager like Arch's. For now, though, it's Debian all the way.
 
I'd drop back to DOS to do most things back in Win3.1 when it was just a shell, but things changed and I felt very out of control.

I can relate to that. :) I used to use memmaker and other tools to tweak to the max how TSRs were placed in the memory (1 MB of RAM on a 286).

Wiz
 
(late, but I love making an entrance)

LOL I didn't do my intro thread until I was a moderator. So, it's never too late. (I figured that was as good a time as any to do the intro thread.)
 
I can relate to that. :) I used to use memmaker and other tools to tweak to the max how TSRs were placed in the memory (1 MB of RAM on a 286).

Wiz
My first PC! 286 with a keyboard you could knock out and elephant with, no mouse, and a Hercules Monochrome monitor. Text only, no graphics*.

LOL I didn't do my intro thread until I was a moderator. So, it's never too late. (I figured that was as good a time as any to do the intro thread.)
Well, I guess. The one anime forum I belonged to doesn't even have an introductions sub. You can post it in the misc off-topic chats (rules actually say you can) and I think someone in the staff started a thread specially for that to keep the off-topic chats sub cleaner, but there's no specific sub intros IIRC (I haven't logged in for years, my acc is probably dead).

* Optional reading on how if my life had been different, I may not have ended up in a Linux-only environment.
I wanted graphics on my text-only monitor, but I was told I needed "this MSHERC thing", which I later discovered in my PC literacy quest, was a driver. Of course by then, I'd gotten the next charity giveaway which was a 386 with a graphics-capable monitor, although it was just shades of grey and Win3.1. I think it was round about then I discovered QBasic, too. I started by modding Nibbles (Snake) levels and eventually wrote my first game: A stupid quizz game, but anyway. I was proud at the time and I brought it to school on a floppy and copied it to the class PC, which was also a giveaway (from the same company as my 286 and 386 if I recall). Anyway, my game didn't have a quit option, it just had a DO...LOOP or WHILE...LOOP on each question (hey, I was like 10, I was discovering things). Needless to say, with my luck, the combined knowledge of my grade couldn't find the answer to one question (the game wasn't A, B, C, D, you had to type the answer) in my quizz game and thus couldn't exit (they didn't know CTRL+C). So of course my homeroom teacher thought I'd broken the PC until I explained. I can't believe a self-taught 10yo was more knowledgeable than an adult who'd received a basic PC course when the computers were donated to each class. Moving forwards in my hackery, I'd write a few useless programs and 3 shooters but they'd be my last... I'd made friends with this older guy in IT (well, attached myself to him like a shelfish) and he taught me a lot about hardware and software. That's about when I started dumpster diving (not literally) for parts. Eventually, I ended up with a 486 (DX, IIRC?) and a 16 colour monitor. COLOUR! My next upgrade was a cobbled together Celeron board & CPU from mum's work and various parts from other broken PCs that I was now collecting as a "service" for people looking to dispose of them. I even got my hands on a Yamaha DS1 Native sound card. SOUND! I was about 15 by then, 3 years after I'd had been given the ultimate birthday+Christmas present and ultimate tech ever: my Playstation. Those graphics looked incredible then and were also the final straw in my would-be game-making career. I'd hit a brick wall trying to make real games (QBasic was obselete by then), and the PS1 graphics had blown my mind, making me realise I had not a snowball's hope. So, eventually, I pretty much gave up coding. Some time later, I began writing, but I never finished anything until I was about 21 and completed a novel on that same cobbled-together PC from when I was 15. I'd stayed interested in PCs and repaired some for people now and then, but I'd never been able to afford an upgrade (we weren't the wealthiest family, I mean during a large part of my teens, our family and two other families were sharing a 2 bedroom house in a dodgy neighbourhood). I also couldn't get an upgrade from throwaways because there were businesses specialising in the field and maybe also because I was no long an innocent, cute little boy. Not to mention that many parts weren't compatible at that stage and graphics cards were freaking expensive and second hand ones weren't floating around, not that I was really concerned since I had a PS for my gaming wants. Actually, it was a funny time in my country: you either had a crap PC or an amazing PC, no middle ground. I got my first gaming-worthy PC, second hand, when I was about 22 or 23. I've only had two other gaming-level PCs and a gaming notebook in the last ~15 years. I sold the first PC and combined it with savings to buy the parts to do my second. This was the first gaming PC I had built for myself and not someone else, and the first 100% new parts machine I'd ever owned. Then I _had_ to sell that PC and get a notebook because I decided to pour all my savings into emigrating, which ended in my ruin because I got scammed! Yep, ended up with nothing but a suitcase and a notebook. It's these times when you really have to be grateful to rich distant relatives. They took me in and I paid for the roof and 3-square per day by basically being an-anything-you-can-do guy. I guess "general servant" maybe, lol. It was during my stay that a friend shipped me an old, busted notebook which I fixed and started playing with Linux on because I finally had my first decent internet owing to them being rich. And boy were they rich. The old geezer sold their farm in 1980s and made some good investments. Simple, humble farmer but savvy guy. That was a happy time for me. I mean I had practically no money because although I got a tiny allowance (basically so I could afford the odd personal thing like clothing or a haircut), I was mainly working for my roof and food, not a wage. The old guy was very old school; into humility, had work, no free bail-outs, etc., which is why I was cutting down branches, moving the lawn, and trimming hedges once to twice a week, vacuuming carpets, sweeping floors, and cooking meals daily, and looking after a sick old lady (his wife). Most people would've said I was being taken advantage of, but they had more money than God, they didn't need to take advantage of me. What few people, especially the under-30s, don't get is the value of labour. Taking a shower at night after a day's work (sometimes your second shower if you've been gardening because you don't wear dirty clothes to the table) makes you feel so darn good. It was a very character-building two years, not because it taught me much new in the way of philosophy or self-discipline, but because it restored my faith in myself and my own strength. When I lost everything, I also lost my pride and self-confidence. Those two years gave me back my zest. I also gained a whole array of new skills: basics of using Linux, very crude start with C and Python, trimming hedges, and looking after old folk. I returned to my home town eventually, got back into the normal working world, and years later, ended up building my current main machine. The gaming notebook, my main machine until a few years back, was the last Windows machine I ever had, and I didn't even hesitate as I wiped the OEM partition. I've been on Linux (mainly Debian-alike) distros ever since. Funny how so many seemingly unrelated events in my life lead me here:
What if I'd never had a PC at an early age? No DOS?
What if my first PC had not been keyboard only? Windows?
What if I'd never discovered Qbasic? Less interest in PCs?
What if I'd never made friends with an IT guy as a kid? Less knowledge, less ability to build myself my own PCs out of throwaways?
What if I had successfully emigrated? Fair, maybe I'd have been exposed to Linux in the UK, maybe not. I knew about Linux before then, so 50/50 unless you factor in the old broken notebook, which I think was the key, which I wouldn't have had in this scenario coz a mate's not gonna pay international shipping to give you an old and broken notebook.
Quite the butterfly effect. And looking back, it was an interesting voyage to my OS of choice today. And on a side note: it's been an interesting voyage technologically in general: It's been a privilege to watch technology develop and I feel sorry for people born from about 1995 onwards because they missed so much and they were born into and/or raised by a world/society that revolves around shite like Facebook and Twitter (I don't have an account on either and I don't know what Instagram is and all I know about TikTok is it's like YouTube, but shorter and easier to make a tit of yourself with).
 
@Fanboi Welcome to the community! Glad to see you decided to my an introduction!
 
My first PC! 286
oh the memories, my first was a modifies 286 with twin 20 Mh cpu's and a ram tower of 4 mb [sounded good back then] this was coupled with a high speed dial up modem all of 2,400-bit/s..and we thought it was quick :eek:
I am not a software man , my Fun came from stripping & upgrading and pushing hardware to its limits

Welcome to the Forums
Bwiz
 
G'day @Fanboi and welcome.
Unlike the others I ain't into coding when DOS based computers came out way back when nor am I that way inclined to-day but learnt the basic ins and outs of transistors and the types of op-amps created from them and types of gates and circuits that can be created from them and how they fitted together to form the architecture of the CPU and its basic operations.
 
Thanks for the further welcomes my fellow geeks, nerds, and social misfits... Oh, wait, it's 2021, we are now the cool kids coz we make all the stuff that lets them prat about on Facebook, etc. And in the last 10 years, gaming's become more mainstream that "everyone's doing it" (read any innuendo you want into that).

I am not a software man , my Fun came from stripping & upgrading and pushing hardware to its limits
I used to find it fun for a while when I was younger. Today it's more a means to an ends. I remember taking apart everything I owned as a kid/teen, including my PS1 (which I actually fixed a couple of times using parts from a scrapped one). But now, I'm more focused on the ends than means. It think the speed of technological evolution is getting ahead of me, just as gaming did for me beyond the PS2 era.

G'day @Fanboi and welcome.
Unlike the others I ain't into coding when DOS based computers came out way back when nor am I that way inclined to-day but learnt the basic ins and outs of transistors and the types of op-amps created from them and types of gates and circuits that can be created from them and how they fitted together to form the architecture of the CPU and its basic operations.
Respect. I know the very basic idea of how CPUs work having briefly delved into 16-bit ASM for all of five minutes. But I don't really know much about electrical engineering. I did know a guy who was in university doing an electrical/computer engineering degree. He did this one project which was a little buzzer that could play "beeps" as kinda like notes and some flashing LEDs that were in sync with said beeps.
Sounds crude until he explained it to me -- well, what I could follow of his explanation. Turns out those crude DIY breadboard projects we barely notice are actually pretty complex and time-consuming, and they need lots of planning/re-planning before even starting.
So, as I said, total respect!
 
Arigotou gozaimasu, sank yu mina-san.

Edit: Uploading sig here didn't work :mad:
 
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