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Dated: Apr. 19, 2005

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By Hackman

I still remember the day in August of 1995 when a certain software company released a new version of their operating system, a significantly revamped release which promised to change the face of the computing scene forever; And indeed, it did just that. On that day, reading about the new features of the revolutionary OS, I felt the impending doom of my hobby/prospective career as a computer techie. It seemed that computers, as a whole, were becoming more automated. In the old days, computers did not have simple interfaces and needed skilled operators to use them; Gradually, they became somewhat more user-friendly, but still needed someone pretty knowledgeable to perform basic tweaks like adjusting your memory configuration. But at that point in history, I believe that the day was imminent in which computers would become almost entirely self-regulating, obviating the need for a skilled technician in most cases.

I began to search for a new career field, believing that there would soon be no money in my field. But as time went on, the trend of increasing user-friendliness began to take on new and interesting facets. Foremost among them was the apparent trend of corporate domination; As the Internet continued to grow in mass popularity and operating systems became increasingly elephantine and incomprehensible beasts, users seemed to be losing control over their computers, and the computers (or perhaps more specifically, the companies which manufactured those computers) seemed to be reversing the role, controlling the user rather than the other way around, by spying on the user's browsing habits and preventing them from having direct control over many aspects of their computers. Although this was largely a software trend propagated by inflexible operating systems, it was also propagated in hardware, by hardware companies manufacturing non-standard, under-documented hardware that was deliberately difficult to reverse-engineer to the user's own preferences.

I began to realize that there was a need for people who understood computers on a truly fundamental level; Someday, the time might come when people would have to piece together their own computers so they'd know exactly what went into them, and would be able to control those computers the way the original hackers of MIT did with their machines. There was a need to know not only basics like how to partition a hard disk or make a web page in pure HTML, but to actually make a computer from ICs and raw machine language code.

How much do you really know about computers? In the computer world, there are many different levels of user knowledge; Some people believe themselves to be knowledgeable because they can clear their web browser's cache or format a floppy. Others know multiple programming languages and believe they still know very little of all there is to know. The latter group are closer to the truth; As with many other things in life, the more you know, the more you realize how little you know.

Now that you've gotten free know-how on this topic, try to grow your skills even faster with online video training. Then finally, put these skills to the test and make a name for yourself by offering these skills to others by becoming a freelancer. There are literally 2000+ new projects that are posted every single freakin' day, no lie!

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