Hey computer guy, listen to your mom!

I feel qualified to talk about this because I’ve been guilty of it to one degree or another over the years (as people close to me can attest), though as time goes on I try (and I think I succeed) about getting better at it. I think the issue exists in all professions (Leah and I had a conversation about it occurring in the design industry), but I think its especially prevalent in the technology industry.

I’m speaking of elitist, condescending, and just plain rude attitudes amongst those with (and without) knowledge of computers. These attitudes are far ranging. At one end of the spectrum is the “script kiddie”, who while annoying I find least irritating of the bunch. These are basically kids (regardless of age) who want to feel accepted into an underground culture, and also feel like they have a specialized knowledge that the majority of others don’t have. I honestly feel that this group isn’t emotionally capable of understanding how plain silly they are, usually because they’re young (pre)teens and aren’t mature enough yet. Yes, they use 1337 speak and claim to be amazing digital rogues because they download prepackaged exploits and post on message boards. They’re annoying, and I think any damage they cause should be taken as seriously, but they’re still growing up and we all started from a point less than we are now.

Moving up the scale, we come to the average tech person working in the support industry. I’ve worked in and around the tech support industry for a number of years now, and overall I’ve been lucky with the people (now friends) I’ve worked with, but I know a lot of glorified power users who make the end user feel like idiots because they don’t know how to clear their cache or defrag a disk. Granted – being in tech support is extremely frustrating sometimes, and there ARE a lot of end users out there that are slow, rude, or just don’t want to try. You have to blow off steam sometimes. But, the thing to remember is – the average end user isn’t interested in the inner workings of a computer – nor should they be. The computer is a tool, and while you should have basic knowledge of the tool you’re working with, the moment you start focusing more on the tool than the job you’re using it for, there’s a problem. If you’re working in tech support, your job is to know that tool inside and out. The end user’s is not. Blow off steam behind closed doors with your buds, respect yourself with rude users (civility is a two way street), but if a person’s just having a hard time, be patient and not “Nick the Computer Guy” (SNL).

At the end, we have “hackers” as the media has coined them, but often called “crackers” by those that are supposedly more mature. This is the group I really have my major beef with. I’ve been programming since I could read a C64 BASIC book, I know languages in the double digits, circuit design, ran a BBS and a large IRC network for years, exploited systems (in a different life), written a compiler, a file system, designed vlanned and routed networks with thousands of nodes, designed countless databases and an e-commerce system that pulls in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. I’m big into scientific computing for neural network simulations and cryptoanalysis. I’m no slouch when it comes to computer science. And I know this, and yes, sometimes I get a big head about it. But I try (and I might do this unknowingly, but I honestly try) never to make someone else feel bad or take advantage of someone else because of what I know.

*EVERYONE* has strengths. I’ve always wanted to learn more about automotive repair, but I just can’t get into it. I’m dumb when it comes to anything past basic car stuff. I can’t retain facts about recent history, I just can’t get interested about it. There are countless things that I’m both not good at and/or don’t want to be good at. Just as there are a lot of people out there that don’t know what a buffer overrun is, or how to analyze machine code with a debugger. We’re no more “important” because we know the difference between a stack and a heap. The excuse that all information should be free and open, and especially entitled to those in the know is such a pile of crap. If you’re really interested in how a lock works, buy a book on it, read about it on the Internet, buy one and dissect it, pick your own locks. You don’t need to go to someone else’s house, pick their lock, rummage around their house, then leave. If the kind of lock you’re interested in isn’t available or is too expensive – tough. Contrary to popular belief in certain circles, “knowledge” isn’t some inherent right that trumps any other. If you make the argument that there is such a thing as inherent rights, then privacy is just as big as knowledge – even when the person doesn’t have the aptitude to protect their privacy. Sure – it’s nice if someone shares their work with you, they help you learn, and you can be friends and life is great. But it’s also okay to put a lot of work into something and keep it for yourself sometimes too. It’s your right as the person who created it. I love open source software, I’m a big fan of Linux and have run it for 10+ years- but I also support myself by programming, both through my full time job and after work. And it’s not open source code, it’s closed and it’s mine, and I sell it. And perhaps someone could learn something from it, but they don’t have an inherent right to. They can if I offer it, but until I say “look at this”, they don’t have a right to take the most non-invasive peek at it. And no matter how smart you are, and no matter how many systems you’ve broken into, it doesn’t change the fact that intrusion is intrusion. A really good burglar is still a burglar. Not taking anything doesn’t change the fact that you still broke into the house. And because the home owner doesn’t have the knowledge or money to build a great security system doesn’t make it any more right.

I say the following not with condescension, but more as a plea: we all have our strengths, we all have our weaknesses. But we also all have to live in this world together, so instead of making someone else feel dumb, or taking advantage of them because you have a skill they don’t and you want something – try just being nice, patient, thoughtful, and respectful. Say your pleases and your thank yous, and don’t take without asking. Listen to your mother, the lessons you learned at 4 still hold true.

Photoshop: Mac vs PC

In my job I run into a number of people who are vehement Mac users. While a Mac with OS X is not my machine and OS of choice, I understand everyone has a personal preference. Hell, we’d all be running Amigas with some strange AmigaOS/Linux hybrid if I had my way.

A large portion of this Mac group in my workplace are art and graphic design people. I have conversations with a number of them every once in a while regarding why they like the Mac above the PC, and while I always hope it comes down to personal preference, more often than not the conversations follows this unfortunate trend:

Me: “So why do you like Macs?”

Them: “It’s better for graphics applications, that’s why virtually all schools and organizations use them”

Me: “What applications do you use?”

Them: “Photoshop (and other Adobe products)”

Me: “Don’t they make Photoshop for Windows?”

Them: “Yes, but it runs better on the Mac”

Me: “In what way?”

Them: “Its faster, less clunky, crashes less”

This is where it always breaks down. Apparently, “The Mac” is just faster than “The PC” running Photoshop. It doesn’t matter what processor you have, the amount of memory, hard drive speed, or fragmentation, etc, the Mac will always win. Thank goodness I have this 350 mhz G3, I’ll keep that as my Photoshop computer and remove the software from my dual core AMD 5600. I’m being sarcastic obviously, but as far as speed goes, I would love to see benchmarks of Photoshop operations on a PC vs Mac. And here’s the stipulation which is where many benchmarks crumble (on both sides), use equipment that’s equal from a cost perspective. Don’t use my example of two 2.8ghz cores vs 1 350mhz core – to sway either side. Spec out a PC from Dell, and a Mac of the same cost from Apple, and run benchmarks.

And as for the “clunky” or “crashes more” argument, I completely throw this out. I have seen both unstable PCs and Macs, both computers have an OS that allows files to get corrupted and deleted, both have fragmentation issues, both use hardware that can fail, both crash. I’m not a graphic design person by any means, but I’ve put a number of hours in using Photoshop on both a Mac and a PC, and I can tell you I get a spinning beach ball of death as much as I get segfaults on my Windows box.

If you like a computer or an OS, just say it’s a personal preference. It saves this myth from getting any bigger, and stops causing headaches for IT and business departments trying to support two platforms and justifying a larger budget.

A Non-deterministic Universe

I don’t buy it! Maybe I’m just not smart enough to understand the math, but I’ve yet to hear a proof (that I understand) that proves that quantum mechanics yields nondeterministic results. Hidden variable or local realism or whatever – I don’t know what the contrary theory should be, and maybe its just the computer scientist in me, but I can’t understand how ultimately, at the most minute level, something is indeterminate. To me that seems to throw causality away, and I refuse to believe the universe doesn’t operate completely on causality at every level. The moment you say, even at the most ultra-nano-scopic level, that causality doesn’t take place, you throw all the rules of logic away, and anything can happen. I just don’t get how logically someone could support the position that something happens with absolutely no cause. And talk about probability all you want, eventually, you get to the point where particle X exists at point 5.13645322 instead of at point 5.13645323 – well, what caused that .00000001 difference? Nothing? It just happened for no reason? I don’t buy it! I don’t understand how you can defend such a position with the same logic you use to support the equations that supposedly went to suggest such an idea.

I say we live in a deterministic universe. I say if we rewound the big VHS tape of existence and replayed it, everything would play out exactly the same every single time, to each and every particle. EAT THAT FREE WILL