My friends who like computers
Sometimes I think I take myself too seriously, and forget that I started working on computers because they’re fun. The moment money and pride get involved, the darker parts of human nature bubble to the surface.
It’s nice to think back to being 12 years old at summer camp, watching the councilors having a LAN party. I remember one of them was playing Skyrim, my favorite game of all time. He wasn’t really doing much, just wandering around punching some unassuming characters. Hey I’m not one to judge, maybe they deserved it.
I noticed there was this giant hunk of circuits and wires on the desk asked him, what is it?
It was his computer.
But.. why did it look like that?
Well, he built it himself, actually, and wanted to show his work to the world.
Built it himself? I grew up with a dad who showed me the beauty in making things yourself. It’s cheaper, builds character, and its more fun. This guy was able to clobber together a bunch of parts into a machine capable of playing my favorite game ever. I was hooked.
In high school I taught myself how to code, and after that I knew I could figure out anything with enough motivation. Confidence, that’s what kept me going. I was the only one interested in computers, not even my friends knew what I was up to. I would have burnt out pretty quickly if I kept working on my own.
When I came to Berkeley it was the total opposite. EVERYONE was interested in computers, and I had a hard time figuring out which people I wanted to work with. I specifically noticed a strong sense of competition-- people trying to one-up eachother with their exclusive consulting clubs and internships. These kinds of people bothered me.
The Open Computing Facility was different.
These people weren’t concerned with status and one-upmanship. They were mission driven and didn’t care for appearances. And, unlike many other computer science clubs on campus, people actually relied on the things they built.
They host thousands of websites and other services for students, all build on infrastructure they built themselves with open source software. There is no barrier to entry. You can contribute in any way you want, and people are always willing to teach you if you don’t know how.
Our time on campus centered around the computer lab. It’s an underground room with no windows, below a prominent part of campus (how fitting). Most of us would spend our days working in the lab either on school or on OCF infrastructure.
It was a hub of computer experts. The people in there were so young and knew so much. It’s also a handy place to study: no matter what class you’re taking, chances are someone’s already taken it and can help you.
It’s amazing what can happen in a community of smart people. Practically, there are many benefits: hard skills, job opportunities, etc. You learn a ton, your friends are geniuses, and you have many odd encounters.
I quickly fell in with a group of older guys I liked. I learned a lot from them, still do. We’ve done a lot of things together since then.
Some of us went to Japan and Korea
Went to DefCon in Las Vega
We also like to get absurdly strong coffee from our favorite mad scientist.
(Phil blowing liquid nitrogen at his favorite bar in Antarctica)
Those early days were a lot of fun. We’d stay up until 6 in the morning improving the infrastructure, fueled by coffee that has the consistency of ink and feels like getting smacked by the hand of God. I’ve even slept in the server room a couple times. Its “work”, but when you’re doing it with friends it doesn’t feel like it.
There’s something uniquely bonding about running your own infrastructure. You and a few others are in charge of the entire stack-- from the application to the metal. It can be a lot of responsibility. Other people rely on your stuff to work. When something breaks, it can be a scramble to figure out and fix what’s wrong. But, it’s yours. You get to own it. It’s empowering to know that you are capable of running a service top-to-bottom for a whole organization.
The next iteration
This was all in college. Those old times in the lab are over, and most of us have jobs now. But, instead of mulling over the past and complaining about our lives, we’ve decided to take things to the next step. We’ve decided that we want to form a small community through our own self-hosted infrastructure.
The purpose of this group is still unknown. There may never be one. I’m not too eager to silo ourselves into one niche and cut ourselves off from other opportunities. We intend to promote writing, teaching, software, music, hardware, art, etc. We may settle into something, but we’ll wait for that to come naturally.
The important things are these: to learn, foster community, and to have fun.
We just got done setting up our Autonomous System, so now we’re our own ISP! I’ll write some more about this soon.
Community, community, community. It’s easy when you’re in college, but can you keep it going long enough to avoid becoming the boring asshole you see at work every day?
I’ll be switching over from Substack to a new website this week. You will still get my posts via email, but you will also be able to look at them on the website itself. I’ll send an update when this happens.