User:Capedude2005

Welcome!
Hello and welcome to the Wikipedia user page for CapeDude2005. This page can and does get updated from time to time, so check back for new information, comments, insights, and rants!

Basics
Originally from Ohio, I moved to Florida with my parents in 1982 and have remained down here ever since.

Presently, I am attending a state college and am pursuing a Business Management degree.

My Computer Background
I have a long history with computers and computer technology, going back to my first exposure to a computer in 1984, which was an Apple IIc. Since then, I have used Commodore 64s and 128s, Tandy-Radio Shack TRS-80 Model I, II, III and IV units (this particular system range I used extensively in computer classes in high school), the Apple II platform, the Amiga, Atari ST, and probably several others I've simply forgotten.

I consider myself, at my core, to be a technology enthusiast. In other words, in contrast to people who these days can claim to be "into computers" even though all they do is send and receive email, play some games, and have absolutely no clue about what's "under the hood", I actually am knowledgeable in and fascinated by what is made possible through their existence and use. For this reason as much as anything else, I have in more recent times become a Linux user and advocate, as well as a supporter of the concepts behind the Free Software and Open Source Software movements, the GPL, and so forth.

My first computer was a Mac Plus which I got in 1986 for my birthday. Since then, I have owned a Mac II, a  IIci, a  Centris 650, a  PowerMac 7200, a PowerBook 5300c (yeah, that's the model they had multiple motherboard problems with and some of the batteries -- early Lithium Ion units -- burst and nearly caught fire), a  PowerMac G3 Desktop, an iMac G4 800, a PowerBook G4 1.5GHz, several G4  Mac minis (one of which I've re-purposed as a Debian Linux-based file and web server), and as of June 2009, a MacBook Pro.

Yeah, that's quite a few Macs, but by comparison with others, I feel like a piker.

I have also built several PCs from scratch for myself and others over the years and every once in a while get that itch to build another system. However, I am also unafraid and unashamed to admit that the system I'm presently typing this user page bio on is an eMachine (which I've upgraded the RAM, the hard drive, and also the CPU) and is running Ubuntu, which is a Debian-based distribution of Linux.

What About That Other Operating System Company?
Oh, you mean Microsoft? Yeah, of course I've used their stuff. I mean, apart from Richard Stallman, who hasn't? I have used MS-DOS 3.3, 5.0, and 6.22. I have also touched Windows 3.0 once (that I can remember) and I've used Windows 3.1 quite a bit way back when. Since then, I've used Windows 95, 98,  98SE,  ME (and yes, like many others I feel the need to take a shower after admitting that),  NT 4,  2000,  XP,  Vista, and now Windows 7.

Professionally speaking, I recognize there are many different tools out there and that each serves its own niche or segment. Personally speaking, I keep Windows -- as with any Microsoft product -- at arms' length and use it only when I have to.

Certifications and Other Recognition
At present, I hold an A+ (hardware and software) technician certification.

I have given consideration to obtaining other certifications and will probably seek to do so as my schedule and finances permit.

Areas of Interest and Specialty
Beyond being a technology enthusiast, I also enjoy photography, have been a professional desktop publisher and graphic designer. I have written for computer group newsletters and other internal technical publications of companies I've been at. Additionally, I have created training materials at various businesses for which I've worked and really enjoy training others on a professional basis.

On a more personal level, I enjoy reading and writing within the science fiction realm. I am a Star Trek fan and, the older I get, the more I find I have an affinity more for The Original Series than any of the ones produced during my lifetime. I am a huge Babylon 5 fan and have been since a friend introduced me to it. (I would also like to add that Babylon 5 has completely changed my worldview on character development and the utilization of cause and effect in the extended sense.)

I enjoy history and believe that, without the context of history, knowledge is useless. I enjoy learning and studying the etymology of words and have an academic interest in other languages. I also enjoy humor -- especially irony -- and am a fan of Monty Python, Benny Hill, Steven Wright, Bill Cosby and Douglas Adams (author of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy).

My Soapbox
In this section, everything is my opinion or observation only.

Wikipedia's Academically Dangerous and/or Non-Authoritative Nature
As a college student, I'm having it constantly shoved down my throat by every professor and para-professional on campus never to use Wikipedia, except possibly as a reference starting point, and absolutely never touch it with a ten-foot pole for any real research work. I've had to correct articles myself, among them the article on Pearl Harbor and the Attack on Pearl Harbor.

I really do have to wonder about the productive and useful point and purpose of the Wikimedia Foundation if it is willing to just let its articles be vandalized repeatedly and thereby have its own credibility destroyed. Wikipedia has an amazing, awesome potential which I feel it will never live up to if something isn't done about this. I would love to have a dialog with the founder and anyone else about why this has been allowed to be the case, and what positive steps they're going to take -- not could take or might take, but are going to take -- to resolve this problem.