Am I a Technical Person?

You know, a lot of people think I am good with technology. I have some knowledge, having played with computers going on 30 plus years, but my knowledge of contemporary technology more limited then you might think as I abstain from a lot of use of technology at home and in my personal life. I have a laptop computer that runs Linux – but I have never had Internet or television at home – though my smartphone in recent years does provide limited mobile hotspot access which I use sparingly.

People often think I must know a lot about Mac OS, Microsoft Windows or Computer Networking. But neither have been a topic of much interest to me, as I’ve almost never used Windows outside of work, and I don’t have much of a need for knowledge of computer networking, when I get my internet over my phone or from public hotspots. Other people take care of making it work, I’ve never purchased or used a network router, as I don’t have cable service where I lived, and when I was growing up we just had dial-up internet.

Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of different programming languages and with nearly three decades of using Linux as my primary operating system, I know quite a bit of UNIX. I also picked up some SQL when I wrote my own blog platform before eventually adopting WordPress, though I do write most of the theme and many of SQL queries that are used to power the blog. And as the Director of Data Services, which officially is a non-technical position though I use UNIX, SQL and RStudio daily, I am using computers constantly and writing scripts and queries to get the most of data. Plus I’ve done a lot of mapping and GIS work using open source software like QGIS and RStudio.

Truth is without a television or home internet though, I never get to experience a lot of techie-stuff. I really don’t like playing computer games, nor do I like glossy operating systems or advanced video and audio technology. I am quite happy with the XFCE Desktop Environment, which I like to point out, pretty much remains unchanged from 20 years ago, and pretty much works like computers did in 30 years ago. You won’t see me running out to get a Windows 11 or Mac OS X PC any time soon, I hate how much commercial crap and advertising for the rare times I have to boot Windows on my laptop to connect to the work VPN.