[Too Much Tv Has Same Health Effects As Smoking And Lack Of Exercise:]

I don't know, I have always thought television was evil, brain rotting stuff. Didn't know it might shorten your life though lol!

I grew up without it (well most of childhood anyway). Of course, back then I thought I was cruelly deprived when I went to school and the kids were all talking about the great shows I missed, etc. Now I thank all the gods I didn't have it, because it made me read more books instead.

More sedentary behavior lol--except the mind is working...

[Hacking For Dummies?]

Start small and work your way up. Even something as simple as a Comptia A+ class and Network+ class will lay a huge foundation for exploring different avenues of computing and tinkering. Hacking isn't downloading a program and clicking go to DDoS someone. Its about seeing something, trying to figure out how it works, what makes it tick, how to manipulate it in ways it wasn't meant to be used, applying the rules implemented within itself or some protocol. Hell, hacking doesn't even have to involve computers at all. its a frame of mind and how you interact with people and things, thinking outside the box. Einstein, Tesla, Edison, these people are hackers. The term today, gets applied over and over again to criminals like lulzsec and anonymous, who run around dumping databases with sqli attacks. If they wanted to to do some real good, once they gained access to the system, expose corruption or injustices, not credit card numbers and passwords to users found in the database. Solves nothing, and only makes them look more skiddy in the process. Not that they don't have skills, but they apply them in the wrong way and end up giving the true nature of hacking and exploration a bad name.

Enough with my rant, but anyway, to learn is to play, experiment, try and fail and then fail some more. Eventually, thing will click, but get some fundamentals and learn to walk before you try to run with it.

Wow, great post!

And thanks Calianna. And Infiltrator for your words of wisdom in PM. Thanks to all who replied!

[Hacking For Dummies?]

Hey thanks, I will check it out!

And certainly no offense taken to the idea of getting those books 'for Dummies' lol!

I'm a relatively smart guy, but I know my limitations. I don't know jack about this stuff, not yet. And it is obviously not the kind of thing you can just pick up in a couple of afternoons.

[Hacking For Dummies?]

Thanks! I'll look for them on Amazon now.

[Hacking For Dummies?]

Yeah when I did some searches with Google, and almost everything that came up had more terminology that I didn't understand by far than that I could, I knew I had a lot to learn!

[Hacking For Dummies?]

V

The reason you don't understand what is being said, is because you probably dont have crap for computer background knowledge. Take classes, or download the FREE course material from say MIT on basic computer maintenance; networking; so on...

And just using "easy programs" is not Hacking by any sense. Makes you a no-nothing script kiddie that wants a click to "Go h4x" button.

Didn't think it would make me a hacker, as I said above I have my doubts as to how much time and effort I can put into it anyway. But I do think using some simple programs can teach you a lot.

No, I don't have crap for computer background knowledge. Thanks for the idea/tip about MIT.

The one thing I have going for me is I am not stupid, lol.

Just like any subject you learn, learning how to hack something takes time and practice. I would recommend you, if you don't understand something to research it in Google, so you have an idea of what it is and how it works. If you are still confused, just post a question in the forums and someone will try to answer it for you. But make sure, you research it first, you will learn more doing that way.

Furthermore, there are so many places you could start learning from, you could buy books or watch videos on the internet (securitytube.net, irongeek.com and etc). Or even from your own computer, you could install VMware workstation (www.vmware.com) and set up a couple of VMs (virtual machines) and learn more about virtualization, why is it used or what benefits can it offer.

Play around with your home network devices such as modem, router and wireless. Try to learn the fundamentals of them and how to set them up, very important if something goes wrong with your network, you need to know determine between them which one is causing the problem.

Last but not least, keep reading, watching and practicing whenever possible, that's the only way you will gain the knowledge and experience to understand all jargon (technical words or terms) around these forums.

Good luck and let us know how you go.

Hey wow thanks for listing the websites, I will check them out for sure!

I found this excellent forum by doing a Google search lol. Searches are indeed a great way to learn, as well.

[Hacking For Dummies?]

Or maybe easy to use programs? I have learned a lot about other computer challenges just by learning to use certain programs.

[Hacking For Dummies?]

Is there somewhere I could go for a simple introductory, step-by-step guide on how to learn the basics? Or at least get a general background idea of the processes involved, so I can teach myself.

I look at these threads and topics and some of the pages I have found from doing searches on the topics, and I can't understand more than half of what they are talking about, usually.

I'll never be a consummate hacker, I'd rather hire one than go through that much trouble to learn it all--but it would be nice to learn how to crack simple passwords, etc.

Many thanks in advance for your time!

[Web Development Help]

Hi, first post here!

I used to do graphics and illustration for many years, then became a stripclub DJ after those many years' frustration at working for cheap bastards built up to the point where I couldn't stand drawing anymore. That may seem beside the point, but it's not (sorry to seem obtuse lol).

I had always dreamed of starting an erotic website, and finally got started just this month. But despite my years of experience with hand drawn graphics and illustration, I was entirely ignorant of how to do it on a computer, or how to build a website. Basically, I have taught myself how to use Photoshop and Dreamweaver in a double crash course.

I have had to hurry to prove to this model that I could back my talk by doing the walk, or whatever, and get her to sign the damned model release forms and get them back to me pronto--like a damned fool, I have paid her a couple grand for videos without the release forms. I was a little too trusting.

I don't think that's going to be a problem now, because the preview website I built looks pretty good, with two pages, a front and a preview page, with some pretty snazzy graphics if I do say so myself, and links to three preview videos.

Obviously it's going to take a lot more than that to produce a money-making website, but after what I have learned so far, I think it will be doable without too much more effort.

I bought a somewhat dated book on Photoshop, that helped a lot. Dreamweaver was pretty tricky to teach myself quickly, but I found that by using the w3c tutorials, and combining that with Dreamweaver, I was able to get it done, after a lot of trial and error (and much loud cussing lol!).

It's pretty easy also to do a google search for tricks on how to use Photoshop.

One bit of advice, there is a way to save your completed Photoshop project for web use--you definitely want to do that!

I would also highly recommend you use Hostgator for your domain name and hosting--their technical assistance is so much better than you can imagine! They really helped me get through the first rough nights trying to get it all down. Their page editing feature is also fantastic--they have a code editing option, and also a very simple to use interface for webpage creation.

Basically I used all of these programs in combination in a mashup that somehow worked for me through trial and error, and when I got frustrated (which was frequent at first!), I would do a search or try what I was doing on another program.

Another bit of advice--copy the html code that Dreamweaver will produce for you and look closely at how it's structured. I still don't understand a lot of it--but for instance by finding where the 'center page' command was located in one page I had Hostgator help me with, I was able to enter that section of code in all other subsequent pages I made and thereby center the pages myself. Etc, etc.

Good luck! Don't get too frustrated lol...