New site about security?

[Egaladeist]

Hi katja,

There's nothing wrong with arrogance...in fact it's what motivates a person to excel over others...in a game of one-on-one Jordan has to believe he can beat Barkley...or he won't.
There's nothing wrong with being an expert either.

I agreed with Asp in regards to the fact most people, myself included, just don't like to hear about it...let your answers speak for themselves.

Eg

EDIT: I gave you greens because you've taken a little criticism and you haven't let it get you all bent out of shape because of it...that's good...you're progressing nicely

[My SuperMan Ego]

The Oxford guide to concise english says: "expert.
n. A person who is very knowledgeabout or skillful in a particular area.
adj. having or involving in specialized knowledge or skill."

So am I arrogant in assuming that members here are experts? Are you saying that AO has some non-experts too? In my opinion, operating a modern computer is a special skill which many people in this world still can't understand. And I'm not talking about illiterate bushmen from Africa or whatever. I'm thinking about the elderly and those people who never have been interested in this stuff to begin with. I know several people who are amazed about my computer skills. They're not that special compared to anyone else in the same branch but for those who are unfamiliar with computers, it's really amazing.

If computers were magic then I'd just be an amateur magician. But many people will still be amazed by the smallest tricks that I can perform.

So stop thinking that way, ego. Being an expert just means you know more about a certain topic. It doesn't mean you're better than someone else in general.

Aside the poo slinging I consider myself an average person. Im not impressed at all but I too find it amazing that someone would let you operate any sort of machinery yet alone drive. You telling others how they should think... now thats just out of line and down-right insulting.

[devpon]

If computers were magic then I'd just be an amateur magician. But many people will still be amazed by the smallest tricks that I can perform.

But, according to what you have allready said, you would be an expert magician. You know more magic than they do, so therefore you are an expert.
Now, doesn't that sound silly?

[zENGER]

Man, some people can take a subject with little controversy and just make a major drama out of it.

By the definition of what some of you consider a computer expert, noone is. You're almost saying that to be an expert you have to have the answer to every question in that subject. Noone does. I challenge everyone to come up with one thing that has progresses as fast as computers.

20 years of experience in computers does you NO GOOD. The computers from 10 years ago are so diverse than the computers of today. I personally am 25, and started diddling with computers around the age of 6. Does this mean I have 20 years of experience? I guess it does, but the computers I used then were commodores and have no bearing on what I can do with a computer today.

I would say that a computer expert is someone with a vast technical knowledge of any subject involving computers. Computers is such a broad field that includes, workstations, servers, networks, security, programming, etc.

Theres no reason to cause strife here.

[mohaughn]

Originally posted here by zENGER

20 years of experience in computers does you NO GOOD. The computers from 10 years ago are so diverse than the computers of today. I personally am 25, and started diddling with computers around the age of 6. Does this mean I have 20 years of experience? I guess it does, but the computers I used then were commodores and have no bearing on what I can do with a computer today.

I would say that a computer expert is someone with a vast technical knowledge of any subject involving computers. Computers is such a broad field that includes, workstations, servers, networks, security, programming, etc.

But if you look at the past twenty years of business computing not that much has changed, except windows. Unix is pretty much the same, MVS is the same, networking has become more widespread and faster but the basic principles are the same. OSI has been around since 1982...

Now computing has definitely changed in the home user market, but I don't see how it has changed in the business world with the exception of size and speed.

I never made any mention on who I think is or is not an expert. I just found one comment funny, and commented on it. Take what you wish from that. There is only one member on this site that I have followed enough of their posts to make that kind of determination, and that person is an expert when it comes to complying with standardized security measures, and compliance/knowledge with regulations. I've seen plenty of bad or just completely wrong answers from other members, and I know I've made some bad suggestions in retrospect. Honestly i don't have enough knowledge of most members to make any assumptions of skill level. Handing out the "expert" label is something that I don't do very often. I guess I'm not easily impressed.

Back to the original topic. I think most topics covered on this site can easily be grasped by novice computer users. There are quit a few tutorials that are well written and properly targeted to beginning computer users. There are also some very poorly written tutorials and posts.. But it is pretty easy to filter those out.

[Katja]

Eg, I always do like a little criticism. This world would be boring if everyone just agreed with me.

And while the members here are all just average persons, myself included, there's still the fact that many members here do have some good knowledge about computer topics.

And devpon, for those who know about magic, I'd be an amateur. For those who know nothing, I'd either be a God or a Devil... (Unless they're smart enough to figure out the truth.)
There are 6 billion people in this world and I wonder how many millions of them have some good computer experience. Would it be more or less that 50 million people who work regularly with computers?

Take a room and fill it with 1000 experts. Take the expert with the least knowledge compared to all others. The question then is if he's still an expert or not. You could say he's not because all others know more than he does. So if you remove him from the room, you'd have 999 experts left, and another one with the least knowledge. Continue to remove those and you end up with this whole world having only one single expert. (Or maybe a few more if they all have the same knowledge.)

So, how much do you need to know about computers (in general) to call yourself an expert?

[jinxy]

I didn't have the fortitude to read each and every post in this thread (I have a low BS threashold)

However, I thought I would post this for the enth time

The Oxford guide to concise english says: "expert.
n. A person who is very knowledgeabout or skillful in a particular area.
adj. having or involving in specialized knowledge or skill."

Bollox,............................................................Xspurt==

X: is an unknown quantity.
Spurt: is a drip under pressure

[Agent_Steal]

Until your name is being spread all over the security circles then well I wouldn't be calling myself and expert anytime soon ...

B.T.W anyone take the quizzes on that site ??? I used my expertise and knowledge to get all the questions right ...

.... It does contain some useful info though ...

[Tedob1]

Originally posted here by Katja
The Oxford guide to concise english says: "expert.
n. A person who is very knowledgeabout or skillful in a particular area.
adj. having or involving in specialized knowledge or skill."

So am I arrogant in assuming that members here are experts? Are you saying that AO has some non-experts too? In my opinion, operating a modern computer is a special skill which many people in this world still can't understand. And I'm not talking about illiterate bushmen from Africa or whatever. I'm thinking about the elderly and those people who never have been interested in this stuff to begin with. I know several people who are amazed about my computer skills. They're not that special compared to anyone else in the same branch but for those who are unfamiliar with computers, it's really amazing.

If computers were magic then I'd just be an amateur magician. But many people will still be amazed by the smallest tricks that I can perform.

"expert - a person with special knowledge or ability who performs skillfully"

"smart - showing mental alertness, calculation and resourcefulness"

while there may be many experts here it's just not smart to call yourself one.

[Katja]

Well, okay. Let's keep it simple then... How much does someone need to know to call himself (or herself) a computer expert? How do you judge if someone is an expert or not?

And wow... Lots of replies that are unrelated to the original topic.