Where have all the real techies gone?

[DaveJ]

Seriously, I'd like to know. I'm getting up there in years, and can honestly say that, in my entire life, perhaps through sheer bad luck, I have never met one person who I'd consider an actual geek/nerd/techie. I understand that almost all of them have sold out to XYZ-Corp. At that point, I'd no longer consider them true techies, just like I don't consider bands that sell out to be true musicians anymore.

I'm the only techie I know, aside from all the ones in this forum, but I've never met any of you personally, so it stands that I have never, in my life, met an actual nerd. Where are they?

I have never met a single person, in my almost 40 years of age, who loves returning home to work on a special software application or build their own electronic device.

There are lots of people with no interest in technology who know the in's and out's of landing an IT job, and do it for the prestige or the paycheck or because they just like sitting on their butts. I work in IT, but I do it because that is what I enjoy. But I've never met anyone in IT anywhere who has any actual interest outside their jobs in working with technology.

They are ALL fine outstanding brilliant people, one or two geniuses, who deserve all the best, don't get me wrong, I would not want to denigrate anyone O8).

I mean, I have to be honest and say that a long time ago, when I had a job in Silicon Valley, after pressing the issue a bit (what can I say, I was very young), I found one who claimed to be working on some idea but I truly think he was just telling me what I wanted to hear.

So what happened? It may just be where I live. Chicago is not exactly a Mecca of the computer technology industry. There is not a single store in the city that sells electronic components like resistors and capacitors aside from Radio Shack. I understand components normally are ordered online, but this still reflects the social environment. Unbelievable, a city of 3 MILLION people cannot support ONE electronics store. There are just 2 places in the suburbs, one seems like a semi legitimate place, I'm not sure if they are still open, and the other one is Fry's Electronics, which is now more similar to a CircuitCity/Walmart that happens to also have a components isle. As a shopper wandering the isles, I never encountered a nerd there either, just maybe someone who needed a transistor to fix his mom's a lamp. He probably had a 6 figure technical job with his mom's lamp being the limit of his personal work. There is a Chicago Robotics Club (in the burbs not really Chicago, anyway) but based on their website I get the impression they just do it because they like going to competitions, and of course if one's interest isn't robotic competitions forget it.

With property prices the way they are, there are all kinds of people choosing to live at home in their moms' basements. I'd do the same thing if I could. You'd think that would be the perfect environment to nurture the nerd. When I walk to the store past hundreds of homes I wonder if there is some nerd behind one of those walls working on some special project, but based on my experience, among the thousands of folks around me there is not a single one.

The reason this upsets me is because I am socially isolated. My wife wonders why I never "hang out with the guys." I would love to work on my project with friends, and help them with their projects, and combine efforts to make some incredible new gadget. I understand big business has the resources to create things that individuals just can't, but I think that individuals can sort of fill in the gaps where big business just doesn't bother. And why should anyone care about big business anyway, if one is truly interested in the work they'd just do it regardless. When I was young, I just assumed I'd make friends with which I could work on important projects but that never happened. I've never met anyone interested in doing anything, technical or not, other than working for some corporation. I've never met anyone who wanted to start their own business, technical or not. I've heard a few people come up with ideas but they never do anything to execute the ideas, just expect someone else to do it.

Again, it's probably just because of where I live. I'm sure there are a few places like Silicon Valley where it may be slightly different.

[hunter]

1. Chicago used to have some great surplus technology stores...

They don't anymore?

:cry:

I live close enough to the Silicon Valley that I can drive there when I need a fix.

[JPettus]

2. Actually, I work with a guy like that here in Afghanistan

Though he's a machinist by day, at night he goes back to his Mac, works with UNIX command lines, finds ways to do fun things like make a RAID drive out of four thumb drives and takes his video games apart and looks for ways to use his toys in ways that they weren't designed for.

[Ptah]

3. Get an amateur radio license.

Then join a local Ham club.

That's were they are.

[RoyGBiv]

4. This is the correct answer ...

I grew up in a town of 15000 (max) people, where Radio Shack was Mecca because it was the only place within 80 miles you could get anything. We didn't even have a bona fide computer store until the early 90's, and it really just served as a place where the catalogs were you could order from. I knew lots of real nerds, real techies, and I still know most of them even if we don't live near each other.

We didn't all belong to the HAM radio club, but that was sort of a focal point around which we all hovered. If anyone needed hardware or schematics or just some random person to help with something, that's where we went.

One of the coolest projects in my memory was working out a way to use a Commodore 64 to connect through a radio set to NOAA and download real-time weather maps for the local civil defense. It was quite a sight. Three of us aged 17-20 down there in the civil defense headquarters (basement of the police headquarters) and a dozen guys at least in their 50's all hovered over wires and books and all kinds of crap strewn everywhere. When the modified dot matrix spit out that first map in the midst of a severe thunderstorm that had knocked out the local television station signal, it was sweet.

[lpbk2713]

6. Talking about schematics ....

I'm so old I can remember Sam's when it wasn't a Wally World outlet.


:rofl: :rofl:

[BlueJazz]

7. I've still got a few of those ...for Dumont TV's !

[RoyGBiv]

8. And speaking of TVs ...

The television repairman gave me my first introduction to electronics. He'd show up with a tool-box-looking thing full of vacuum tubes and fiddle with things until he figured out the problem with the television. Ever curious, I had to ask what each and every little thing in that chest was for.

[lpbk2713]

9. I must have a few around here somewhere.

Might be a collector's item for all I know. :rofl:

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

[RC]

11. You must be almost as old as I am!

[lpbk2713]

13. Just to give you an idea ....

I can remember Jesus when he was just an altar boy. :eyes:

[RC]

14. Well, I can remember dirt when it was clean.

It was when I had kids when it got dirty.

[Gore1FL]

5. Outside of work

I am the only nerd/geek I know.

[IDemo]

10. For those into electronics tinkering ->

ExpressPCB comes highly recommended: freeware schematic and board layout software, easy to use. Plus you can order 3 pcba's from your finished masterpiece for $51.

http://www.expresspcb.com/

[hunter]

12. I'd have liked to have that when I was a teen building things!

But point to point or wire wrap and perf board worked well enough for the machines I was building then.

My favorite little gadgets were built in metal boxes, and the components were all draped like spiderwebs across the terminals of switches, knobs, sockets, and jacks. When my design was solid I'd sometimes paint the bare leads of the components with liquid electrical tape, especially if the lid of the box didn't quite fit and I had to force all the guts in a little bit.