Where do you Guys work

[Camerashy]

I'm fascinated about the extensive knowledge you guys have about computers, overclocking, cooling, etc.
What is your main day job and where did you gather the extensive knowledge you have ie: college course, self taught etc.
I'll start the ball rolling.
I'm retired (61) worked as an Assistant Head of Environmental Health with Congleton Borough Council my knowledge of computers is ziltch and the little bit I know is either self taught or learned from Forums like this one.
Dave

 

[HMFC_Riley]

I'm fascinated about the extensive knowledge you guys have about computers, overclocking, cooling, etc.
What is your main day job and where did you gather the extensive knowledge you have ie: college course, self taught etc.
I'll start the ball rolling.
I'm retired (61) worked as an Assistant Head of Environmental Health with Congleton Borough Council my knowledge of computers is ziltch and the little bit I know is either self taught or learned from Forums like this one.
Dave

Dad brought home his first PC in 1996 when I was still 6. Been hooked since. Can remember the first game I played while I was still on dial-up. It was about 700mb and took a good 24+ hours too download at 4kb/s!

Most of my knowledge about hardware comes from self-teaching. Only ever built 1 PC but I know my around inside and have messed around with hundreds of upgrades/components.

My software knowledge is a combination of stuff I have learned just from messing about in Notepad creating Databases and websites or using Photoshop as well as the Computer Science course I'm doing at the moment where I've expanded a fair bit with Java, C, Oracle, XML, PHP etc.

Currently trying to teach myself OpenGL for the coming semester and failing quite miserably (so if anyone has any decent sites then let me know )

 

[Sweeney47]

Well I'm self taught with all the stuff I know about PC's etc, only person with any real knowledge(and interest) on them in my immediate family so when things go wrong its always up to me to fix them, by fixing them, I learn things

But my Job is Assistant Training Administrator at a place called CSV Media Clubhouse, been there 2 weeks and its my first ever job...

 

[JakAttack]

I learnt by doing before I came here. I built my first PC after using an old Windows 3.1 machine out of my dads spare parts. Then started tinkering with everything (alot of broken items in my youth) and eventually honing my skills at PC Specialist!

 

[waydal242]

Im in college, =P
Finished a year of software engineering with networking and c++ and vb, databases, php, webs and that kind of stuff.
And teaching one of my teachers how to hack.

Now im on to a year of game design and development starting in sept. Should be fun =D
Thats if I manage to get away from my new gaming pc when it arrives :O

 

[steveuk87]

i'm completely self taught when it comes to PC's i studied A levels ICT but ended up teaching my tutor some stuff :/ i'm the only bugger in my family also (apart from my brother in law who is a computer forensic scientist) who knows nething about computers so i get thrown loads all the time!

as for a job i've had so many in the past it makes even my head spin! but at the moment i am a Quality Control technician/Flavour development technician for a homebrew company... VERY good job

Steve

 

[Concussed]

I'm self taught, it all started when I was a kid and for some awesome reason thought our C16 would work better with talcum powder inside . I'm the one in our circle who gets lumbered with old, broken and abused pcs to fix. It's funny to see how brain meltingly stupid some people are with computers lol.

By day i'm a Arboricultural Supervisor with a groovy tree surgery firm best job i've ever had been with the same firm for 8 years. You can be 120ft up a tree one day, grass cutting the next. My favorite work is emergency tree work especially during storms, multiple wind blown trees are like a 3d puzzle that can mess you up in a split second the adrenalin rush is sweet.

It also means I don't feel guilty about having a sedentary hobby.

Ma work.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28039&id=100000503112117&l=167f9d8705

 

[Xavien]

Ive owned a pc ever since doom was around so i know a fair bit about pcs, normally though when im not sure about something i post on forums asking then set to work on the problem myself, normally ive worked it out before i get a reply, although here on the pcspecialist boards you get a reply before you click "post quick reply" lol but thats a good thing.

As for my job, well im in a partnership with a friend, together we own a painting and decorating firm in bristol. So as you can imagine i really love my boss cause its me hehe. Been doing it now for 15 years and have never looked back. Not so much for the money (although it is great) but more for the freedom of being my own boss, picking and choosing the work and customers i work for and the hours i work. Its hard work....very hard work sometimes but you cant beat working for yourself

 

[jeebus]

I work as a desktop support analyst or desktop service analyst they seem to call it these days, pretty much self taught from the age of 12 playing/repairing computers for anyone who knew i knew about computers

 

[Valkyrie]

I'm a 14 year old nerd. 'Nuff said.

Although I only know a lot about the software side of things. I know my way (basically) around the hardware but not on the level of the people here.

 

[LDUK]

I'm also self taught lol. In fact, everything I know or know how to do (music, photo editing, game development, photography, video editing, PC building, video effects, animation and I'm sure there are many other things) I learned myself.

 

[Xavien]

Its the best way to learn i reckon LDUK, yeah sure mistakes are normally made but you learn from them and get better.

 

[greybing]

i am a freelance artist......who has just started to take an interest in computer hardware becuase i want a gaming pc and did not want to buy in ignorance......so i learned about the hardware from the net and places like this.

 

[RichardW]

never worked with computers, though I've owned many over the years, I still know very little and don't plan to, I open the case, see a jumble of wires and bits that I'm sure will explode if I touch them and close the case again.

I did get roped into maintaining works website a few years ago, dont know how.... that's all self taught through trial and error, mostly the latter but it still works

my latest achievement was getting a nasty virus off my daughters laptop, that's about the limit of my knowledge, if there was a hardware problem I'm more likely to act out that scene from office space

 

[Sleinous]

Im part time employed, just for the summer holidays, back to Uni in little over a month.

Most of my knowledge is self-taught/learnt from friends/learnt from forums/google searches/trial and error.

 

[greybing]

Sometimes it dawns on me how absolutely amazing the computer is...and from the humble origins of a 1 and 0 [on or off] you can convey hugely complex information.-and also the manufacturing of the components is mind boggling , a cpu for example............quantum computers are getting me hot under the collar though......when they are fully developed and mainstream ,it will makke current technology look as archaic as the colossus does now....sorry a bit off subject,got carried away

 

[rocknroll]

Long term illness. sever arthritus in both knees mean i have double knee ops every 12 to 18 months.
arthritus in my shoulder and severe back pain after a major car crash in feltham high street 3 years ago.
i run a football club called west london youth football which is voluntry and benefits on averaqge 60 kids a week between the ages of 6 to 16 every saturday for 2 hours.

computer knowledge or lack of it strated with hacking the schools netork back in the ate 80's, rebuilding my dads comcen pc ( a welsh ibm with monocrome monitor) right the way through to now having a mediocre knowledge that gets me by.

 

[Quander]

I am also self taught as well as from watching ppl and asking questions.

My first tutor was my Dad while not exactly a genius - at the age of 13 I saw my first computer the ol C64 and my Dad had done a program with sprites (a term bet ye thought ye'd never again hear) and some animation - it amazed me so found the program he did it with and set about learning how he did it. Advanced to a bit more complicated stuff but nothing out of the world -still have the want of learning all sorts of comp languages.

In one of my jobs - as a Trainee Accountant I was in the same office as the single guy responsible for fixing/ building all the company Pcs as well as sorting out the networks so pestered him constantly bout hardware, what does that do, why does that go there, how does that work - usual annoying questions lol.

Before the time of going online to get all your answers - when google was still in nappies I got all my tech help from a guy on mIRC (Microsoft Internet Chat Relay) chat room, called Dan - basically anything went wrong Dan was the man lol. From getting the solutions to problems from him I kept them all in my head and applied the similar logic to future problems of similar nature.

My first 100% owned PC was the Dell Dimension 2350 which after 2months nearly lost it to a virus - so thats where my virus knowledge was born which later extended to adware/spyware removal. As I became more Tech hungry the more add-ons I wanted - better DVD/CD drives, more RAM better Graphics superior sound etc. Unfortunately Dell machines not noted for their expansion ability - increased its RAM and changed CD/DVD drives but HD space was minimal so got new PC Advent T9306 which allowed room for expansion which is when I first dabbled in installing HDs, adding sound cards and Graphic Cards. That did me for ages until the call of Tech advancement was once again in the air so along came my 1st custom built Quad Core Q6700. Which I added to with more RAM, HDs and Graphic Cards until a month+ ago I got one from here which I have been very happy and involved more moving of HDs - downloading of drivers etc lol

Like all the above I tend to be the person in the family or friends in the family when PCs go bad - sometimes it can be quite flattering other times down right annoying lol. Espec when what you end up fixing is down to stupidity .

Up to now all jobs I have held have either been administration or accounts based but my latest - 4yrs old now is my first systems based job - Systems Finance Analyst whereby I use SQL on the Business System to isolate issues and try and determine their root cause. When I took the job 4yrs ago all I knew about SQL was what the letters stood for so again had to go down the path of self discovery to learn how to read and code with it.

The only part I would be a bit wary on from a Systems componets point is the mobo itself as in building a comp from scratch - adding cpu etc. Not worked with the cooling side either fans or any other advanced method. Water cooling sounds great no sound but should something go wrong Id be clueless so would rather stick to what I know - at least for now

 

[Sleinous]

mIRC isnt buy Microsoft is it? Thought it was a private firm and m stood for something else. Cpu and cooler are my least fav areas to work on

 

[Quander]

mIRC isnt buy Microsoft is it? Thought it was a private firm and m stood for something else. Cpu and cooler are my least fav areas to work on

Yup Sleinous your right I knew it was by some other guy but cos it was for windows the M fitted and even on wiki'n it gives:

mIRC is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client for Microsoft Windows, created in 1995 and developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey

So since the M def has nothing to do with the owners name then it only made sense to add Microsoft to it , unless of cors its the surname !!