I was doing my usual thing of hopping from site to site (due to boredom) and came upon your nifty page. From the looks of it, this is just the place I want to be! =D
Right now I'm going to say that I'm such a newb I make my mom look like a computer genius (Not even close to the truth, but, compared to most of you, it probably is true). I have tried to teach myself C++ a few times, but I always get distracted by something (usually games and flying). I've also spent a year in school (a very bad high school) learning German. I'm not saying I can remember any of it, but I do want to become as fluent as I can, which is why I will be taking some German classes in college this spring. So, mixing some much needed computer experience and the occasional Deutsch sprechen (see? bad =P ), I'm sure I'll love this place ^_^ I will also have to introduce one of my friends to this site, as he is in the same boat as I am (with wanting to learn more about computer security and German), but he does not have a computer currently, the poor guy =(
Right now I am set up on two windows based machines (a homebuilt desktop that is coming up on six years old, and a fairly new Dell laptop). Bad, I know, but I love my games to much (currently World of Warcraft), and I do not really trust others to come out with fixes for WineX (this is the only program, that I know of, which can emulate windows DirectX) every time WoW has a new patch


Umm... Other than that... I have a fairly basic knowledge of computers. I'm the fix-it guy (for computers) amongst my friends, two of which troubleshoot/fix computers for a living. Usually I don't know what the heck I am doing, but I always fix whatever was wrong. Occasionally I'll get bored and set up a web server on one of my computers and play around with it (try to break into it). Sometimes I get lucky, but ultimately I'm not very good =P I think the most fun I have ever had with network security was in high school (I graduated just last June). Granted the school district's computer technicians weren't that bright (our entire district network was infected with some virus, that would constantly reboot the infected pc, for at least a week, except the computer I was using =P), but I did get to have fun pestering everyone with little pop up messages and random desktop images. Oh, and playing games during class. Can't forget that =)
Anyway... I read that ya'll have some books on here I could read to help me along. I think I'll go find those then go to bed (5am here). Talk to you all later, and thanks!