Thread: How do I become a Techie or a Tech-geek?

Well, this may be a strange question but I have to ask it. Im really an illiterate of the technology behind computers. I have been programming for some time, but I have never been interested in these kind of things. I can program a lot of 'advanced' things but I dont have idea how a CPU or a Video card works. Now Im becomming more and more interested in this. Maybe my lack of Assembler programming knowledge is not helping, what do you recommend me? Should I start with Assembler? Maybe some Electronic books can help?

Thx in advance!!! Robert.

Well, for the most part, you make double- talk.

I have written a guide on how to become a geek. I've posted it on some message boards a long time to go, but at least 2 and a half words have been changed: http://gozips.uakron.edu/~jwm7/l33tguide.html

You can download Randall Hyde's old Art of Assembly book and look at the chapter(s) devoted to machine hierarchy (look up art of assembly on a search engine - easy to find the site). It will explain a lot about how the CPU does what it does. It also explains in great detail linear equations and how they pertain to chip design, flip-flops, ICs, memory, and how it all fits together. It will explain Von-Neumann architecture and other architectures as well. Excellent source of info, if not a bit dated. For up to date info, download the new HLA version of AoA. It will explain more about modern CPUs. This download has not left my system.

You can also get A+ certification books from Microsoft, CompTia, and a host of other companies. I have the book from CompTia which explains core hardware and OS technologies. This will not tell you how the CPU works, but it will give you a good start as it pertains to hardware (installation, tweaking, removing, etc) and OS's (formatting drives, setting up networks, system maintenance, etc)

For more detailed info about the CPU you can get free literature from Intel. Simply go to Intel's website and look for their literature department. You should be able to order a host of books about CPUs and other chips (all the recent ones made by Intel, of course). These books will explain in great detail how the CPU works and what each instruction does. It will also give you the clock cycles required to execute each instruction, instruction timing, CPU timing, addressing scheme, cacheing schemes, instruction pipelining, etc. Some of it may be too techie.
The Pentium III series has 4 books with it, not including the book on MMX. Now they should have completed printing the new books on the Pentium IV - get these books - very helpful. They also have data sheets on most of their current chips, chipsets, video cards, etc. To my knowledge - all of this literature is absolutely free or can be browsed via the Internet!!!
I don't know how to get this info from AMD (their website is......a mess)-> Anyone know??

But, for non-programming related stuff like how everything works, get the book mentioned by gnu-ehacks. Great book.

Also, the Internet has a wealth of information on just about everything inside, outside, and beside your PC. It has been an invaluable source of information for me - research the net. Don't settle for only the top listings when you do a search on www.google.com or www.excite.com or whatever you search on. You may have to dig deep within those lists because they usually show the most popular or highest hit count URLs first. What you are looking for is not likely to be in that number. Research, search, and research more. If it's about your PC, programming, etc., it is probably on the Internet somewhere.

You can also go to Dr. Dobbs website and I think he has a CD that you can purchase that will help you out and he has a great site. I forget the address. Look him up on a search engine - his site will popup very quickly.

For programming help, you can visit here and dig through the trillion posts, both on this board and the old one - browse all of the links on the links page of this board (some are broken), buy book(s), go to www.programmersheaven.com (excellent site), look up a topic on the Internet, etc. There a million ways to find info about all of this.

For a list of all the interrupts in the computer, how to use them, and what interrupts certain programs use, download Ralf Brown's Interrupt List (again use a search engine and doa search with this name - it will be near the top). Also has never left my system.

For DirectX and modern graphics tutorials you can download the DirectX 8 SDK from Microsoft (total is about 280MB - better have DSL or cable modem). Also you can get the MSDN Developer Library when you purchase VB6 or MSVC and some other products. Very expensive, but this library is huge and very informative. You can also download OpenGL SDK and other helper libraries for it from NVidia. Also check out Eber Kain's website - he has a helper library that will help. I've not looked at the library, but I'm sure it's great. For more info on video techie info go to www.vesa.org and look at the VBE 3.0 docs, VBE 2.0, and the other info that is there.

Only problem now is that you will need to stock up on ink cartridges or toner (laser printer) because you will be printing a ton of stuff. You will also need a cable modem or DSL, and alot yourself a ton of time to research. My shelves are full of printed material, books, etc. My black ink cartridge has gone kaput on me again.........


Sorry, but I'm horrible at remembering URLs. When you find a good one, bookmark it, and you won't have to remember it.

Hope this helps.