in reply to What is PerlMonks anyway?

Being almost as old as yourself, jdtoronto, and having a similar background (without the engineering & physics) I find myself agreeing with most of what you say here.

I got into computers via a 'backdoor' and have only just recently acquired an interest in Perl. I find Perlmonks to be quite informative and well laidout, although I spend most of my time here observing the CB (it can be quite entertaining and somewhat distracting :-).

Personally, I wouldn't want anything changed ATM.

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Re: Re: What is PerlMonks anyway?
by Anonymous Monk on Oct 02, 2003 at 01:50 UTC
    I got into computers via a 'backdoor'

    I find this interesting. I've heard similar comments from many people. Often they're used as a reason why someone believes they know less about computers than people who have used computers all their lives. The odd thing here is that these people are using computers for a reason. Whether it's modeling physical events, analyzing biological data, or whatever, they have a purpose for their computer use. Given this, I find it strange that they so often seem to rate their skills secondary to people who use computers for the sake of using them.

    This can often be seen in various college graduates as well. What does a computer science degree really teach you? A few fundamentals, but to what end? Perhaps in some better programs you'll be able to competently work on an operating system, or compiler but encryption? Not really, that's just using computers for math. Bioinformatics? Not really, that's just using computers for analyzing biological data. Economic modeling? Economists using computers for their purposes.

    I think you would be surprised to learn how much more you can accomplish when viewing computers as tools rather than end results.

[reply]

      I think you have the wrong end of the stick here :-). Although I describe myself as have got into computers via a backdoor, I never used a computer in the course of my work prior to being employed as an operator about 15 years ago. I then moved to programming them about 10.5 years ago.

      Prior to that my only use for computers was playing games, looking after personal databases and the odd bit of programming.

      The 'backdoor' was, in fact, a couple of friends who got talking about my ability with computers, and one of those was willing to take me on, and I haven't looked back :-).

[reply]
        Same hear actually.. I wasn't really into computers until I broke my arm which I normally use to write. I started typing, and then I started coming up with things like it would be cool if I could do this, and it just sort of took off from there. (All be it, it was in the fourth grade when I did that and I'm now 25 but it's basically the same sort of thing...) :)
        Cheers


        ----
        Zak
        undef$/;$mmm="J\nutsu\nutss\nuts\nutst\nuts A\nutsn\nutso\nutst\nutsh\
+nutse\nutsr\nuts P\nutse\nutsr\nutsl\nuts H\nutsa\nutsc\nutsk\nutse\n
+utsr\nuts";open($DOH,"<",\$mmm);$_=$forbbiden=<$DOH>;s/\nuts//g;print
+;

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