what happened to the world of computers?

jason87x

New Member
Yea, what happened to hacking scenes and computers and everything like that? The last time I was really into computers was around 2004/2005. Everything was a 32 bit world, 64 bit only beginning to come to the scene, and it certainly wasn't all that important. The debates were Athlon XP vs Intel Pentium 4, people had understood Windows XP and nothing like Vista or 7 was ready to come out. Things seemed static and predictable. Everything was about either a hardcore gaming desktop, or a laptop, mobile things weren't much the rage. The dream was to have an ultimate gaming desktop that also used Linux. The fight was Microsoft vs Linux, Apple still a small player with those overpriced artist boxen. The fights of the RIAA against the user were minimal, they only went after big fish. Gnutella and torrents were still a relevant way to share files. From what everything sounded like, you could hack and not get caught if you knew what you were doing, and covered up tracks enough. Parallelism in CPU design was rare and mostly used in game consoles and in GPU design.

I was in high school then, in my peek of geekiness. I was a stereotypical rebel/goth/punk/cyberpunk/geek/hack whatever anticonformist (in effect a different kind of conformity) I could be, I was in severe depression. I basically read computer stuff all the time and slept, breezing by in honors classes with like a 3.5 gpa (unweighted, weighted it was like 4.5). I went to LAN parties at my friends houses, DII and CounterStrike were the games of choice, and sometimes the original Halo.

I kinda lost interest in computers, college changed everything for me. I lost my way. Here it is 2011 just about, and what happened? Now Apple is the big evil guy and Microsoft the small unimportant underdog. Intel also became rather meh and not that evil sounding. The desktop is basically dead. So is the laptop. Everything is on a phone, and nobody can decide what the phone or computer should look like. This weird touchscreen interface is frightening, and seemed rather inefficient to type up long things like maybe this very post. Of course keyboards on those small things are too small to type up stuff like this too. You can't find high quality music anymore, let alone lossless, the only good way I know to get music is youtube ripping, and the quality is terrible. Torrent is not only obsolete, it's pretty much a guarantee you will get caught if you use it these days. Processing is no longer understandable, textbooks and everyone else throwing around billions of buzzwords all relating to more than one processor at a time "hyper simultaneous multi thread level parallelizable hyper vector superscalar" it sounds like a complete mess. Was SISD not good enough, seriously? This parallel stuff seems to be creeping up everywhere too, when I was just beginning to fully understand a regular processor. I guess the present and near future is in vector it seems; the past was in scalar.

And even worse, lol, the Utopia game is NOT run by Mehul anymore. Frightening stuff. Also has anyone noticed how it's been over ten years since the release of Diablo II and Blizzard has still not come out with DIII? Are they stuck in a time warp like I am or do they have their developers only work on one game at a time (from what I've heard that IS how they do it)? DII is fun, but not without anyone to play it with.

Add to that the insane creepiness of the government. How I've been hearing about how they're spying on everything. Hacking sounds like you can't do it at all without getting caught; proxies are obsolete, as are any other attempts to anonymize. If you go through the fancy paid services, they still have your info there just begging to be subpoenaed.

And a future taken over by nanobots? Lovely. There will be nowhere you can hide (probably that way already just not dealing with nanobots). RFID chips and a cashless society... yea that sounds fun, looks like they will finally get rid of that darn little weed from mexico and that white powder, not to mention exploit the prison labor of half the population.

I sound like an old geezer who may as well have been stuck in the 1980s, but this brave new world is frightening me. I'm only in my twenties as well, that's the scary part, I'm not technically that old. But my insight into technology seems to be stuck in 2005. I am in Computer Science in college, I'm going to graduate in May, but the material I'm learning at this VERY LOW RATED school (the engineering school is barely there, in a school focusing mostly on biology and the "African American" agenda) is basically stuff that was relevant in 2003 at the latest or really much earlier, with only small introductions into the world of today. Needless to say those introductions were frightening.

Can anyone update me on how people deal with this stuff today and what's happening? How do people hack and not get caught? Does doing anything these days on a computer require special insider social connections to big names inside the government? What happened?

My life once I graduate is going to be like Office Space (in fact I'll be moving to DFW hopefully) lol.
 

dave1701

New Member
The desktop is basically dead. So is the laptop

Not true.

You can't find high quality music anymore, let alone lossless, the only good way I know to get music is youtube ripping, and the quality is terrible.

you mean the only way you know how to steal music.

Hacking sounds like you can't do it at all without getting caught

Hacking is illegal.

Processing is no longer understandable, textbooks and everyone else throwing around billions of buzzwords all relating to more than one processor at a time "hyper simultaneous multi thread level parallelizable hyper vector superscalar" it sounds like a complete mess. Was SISD not good enough, seriously? This parallel stuff seems to be creeping up everywhere too, when I was just beginning to fully understand a regular processor.

That's called technological advancement

Can anyone update me on how people deal with this stuff today and what's happening? How do people hack and not get caught? Does doing anything these days on a computer require special insider social connections to big names inside the government? What happened?

wow.


No offense, but you make me picture a druggie, geeky hippie who lives off of a welfare check becuase he is too lazy to get a job.
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
You fell out of the computer world and it advanced. Deal with it.

As far as hacking goes, there are still loads of hackers out there in the world. It is still illegal. It always has been. It has just gotten easier to get caught, yes.

And to close, take your hacking shit somewhere else. We don't discuss it here.
 

CrayonMuncher

Active Member
I think thats been the only constant since.... well forever:D

not it is not always, apple products run deeper than what you see on the surface please don't start this again.

As to the op

what? It sounds like you not only fell out of touch with the tech world but never really understood it to begin with.
 
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