What is the most useful+fun stuff to learn w/ computers?

[billdotson]

What is the most useful and fun things that you can know/learn with computers?

and where should I start learning (what stuff first)

[pay]

That would depend on your interests.

[Mateo]

Are you wanting to learn about computers or about other stuff, just using computers?

[Baelfael]

If you mean "What skills can I learn using a computer", I'd say definitely learning a programming language like C++ or Java.

[esaym]

I like networking and packetsniffing

Also filesystem stuff..although after corrupting my hard drive a couple of times I have decided to just leave ext3 at default settings....8-[

[23meg]

Depends a lot on your interests and current level of competence, but a common sense answer would be learning the ins and outs of the shell.

A good place to start: http://www.linuxcommand.org

[billdotson]

I would just like to have an intermediate level of knowledge in Java, C++, python programming, networking, BASH and DOS terminals, filesystems, multimedia formats, and to answer learn about computers or learn is computers I would like to know more about how they work and more about how to use them with the following topics above.

I just want to be pretty good overall because as soon as I finish my core classes I will be moving on to a computer science degree

[Boomy]

Downloading big porn torrents is fun... Packet sniffing and networking stuff is very interesting and fun.

Video editing, music production and computer graphics are cool.

Programming would probably have to be one of the most useful things you could do with a computer, but I don't know much about it personally.

[billdotson]

I pretty much want to be decent in ll the major categories: networking, C++, Java, Python Programming, hot to do really good multimedia stuff and know the differences in the formats and such. Where should I start? programming, networking, BASH, DOS, multimedia?

I really like almost anything to do with the computer and I just want to be rounded where I can do most anything that needs to be done. I know it is a long goal but being well rounded and decent or somewhat good in the categories is my eventual goal

[esaym]

I can't really tell you where to start but most of us here gained our knowledge by hanging out on forums and searching google :D

[Bloch]

Get some webspace (there are free providers, or you can pay about $100 a year) and set up your own website. Make a blog of your progress in computer hacking.

Figure out php and python, and cgi and set things up so that when you make a practice program people can test it "live" on your website/blog.
I mean for example that if you write your first textbook program to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit, upload it to the server and have it as a webpage backend so there is a blank field and the user enters the Celcius value and gets back the Fahrenheit value.

You can also try the Python challenge - www.pythonchallenge.com

[esaym]

Get some webspace (there are free providers, or you can pay about $100 a year) and set up your own website. Make a blog of your progress in computer hacking.

Figure out php and python, and cgi and set things up so that when you make a practice program people can test it "live" on your website/blog.
I mean for example that if you write your first textbook program to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit, upload it to the server and have it as a webpage backend so there is a blank field and the user enters the Celcius value and gets back the Fahrenheit value.

You can also try the Python challenge - www.pythonchallenge.com


Or get an old computer and put ubuntu LAMP on it for your own webspace and use dyndns (http://www.dyndns.com/) for your url