The HTS Community

[skcuf]

I have been around the site for awhile, made a few posts here and there, but never really felt I had the right to say very much. I do what I can to learn computers, when I can. I have very little free time and thus, not as much time as I would like to learn what I would like. But I have noticed a decline in the amount of people that frequent the site here. I would say this is an odd occurance but if you think about it there is a reasonable explanation. People only really hear about hacking when there is a major attack, so the people that think, "I want to be a hacker," just want to break into their favorite game or facebook and lose interest quickly.

This is not my intent so I figured I would post on here and ask the question. As I continue on with my learning process, how many people are still here and willing to help if I have questions? I have always enjoyed coming here and learning what people have to say, as well as reading online articles and books. But there are some things that just need put into specific context that can only be answered with previous experience or knowledge. So how many people are still out there are willing, able, and here to help for the people who want to learn the true way of hacking?

[mShred]

Though it may not seem like it, most people on here are willing to help, if they are able to. I agree with you about the decline, but for reasons that I do not know.
As for your questions concerning help, if you ever need help I'd be glad to give some. Feel free to make threads about your questions/problems and I'll try my best to give you the help you need. Or if you need some more specific help, there are a few good people who will encourage you to PM them. And I am one of them.
So stick around, contribute, live life. Glad to see you're still active after a while.

[Vulpine]

There remains a decent number of people here who will answer your well-posed questions to the best of their ability. If there is something specific that you come across and need additional explanation for, ask away. Just be sure to give details so that we can give a detailed answer.

[centip3de]

I'll help you with whatever questions you post to the best of my ability.

[sanddbox]

The forums center almost entirely on asking/answering questions. Usually, if a thread has few responses it's not due to a lack of people willing to help but simply a lack of people with enough knowledge on the subject matter to properly contribute.

[thetan]

The forums center almost entirely on asking/answering questions. Usually, if a thread has few responses it's not due to a lack of people willing to help but simply a lack of people with enough knowledge on the subject matter to properly contribute.

^^ sad truth, HTS doesn't have the required level of that X factor to retain it's most knowledgable of passer bys.

[skcuf]

This is all good news to hear. I'm glad there are still people out there who will offer help. I feel that as technology comes into play more with society, the less people learn about it. Sort of like with cars. You used to need to be able to do maintenance on your car to keep it on the road. Now there is AAA or something of the sort and you always have a phone on you to call someone. Technology is the same way with the ease of use and access. I want to go back to the roots and actually learn how everything works.

The only question I currently have is about USB booting. I'm currently at a PC technician position as a summer intern and there are slow days. I sometimes get on one of the PCs we have laying around using a USB drive I made awhile back. Unfortunately, however, the drive is so old the only OSes it has are Ubuntu netbook remix 9.1 and backtrack 3. I was wondering what people thought the best current usb boot system would be. I would like one that is very basic that can boot basically any basic linux OS. Any opinions on this?

[mShred]

I'm not so sure i understand.. The best USB boot? It would depend on what OS you like. And unless you've got a huge USB, you probably won't be able to put very many OS's on it. I've never even tried to put more than two on one, i should try that.

[Phantom Wolf]

You used to need to be able to do maintenance on your car to keep it on the road. Now there is AAA or something of the sort and you always have a phone on you to call someone.

You used to be able to do maintenance on your own vehicle. I've said before that I work on a farm/ranch (here, they're the same thing), so I know something about mechanics. We can work on older vehicles/trucks/tractors/whatever with no trouble. Anything from simple maintenance to more complex work like rebuilding a transmission. However, when one of our newer vehicles developed a problem, there's nothing we can do about it. Why? Two words: Emissions and computers. Both these things have made mechanical work much more complicated than it needs to be, and to little gain. (/rant)

The only question I currently have is about USB booting. I'm currently at a PC technician position as a summer intern and there are slow days. I sometimes get on one of the PCs we have laying around using a USB drive I made awhile back. Unfortunately, however, the drive is so old the only OSes it has are Ubuntu netbook remix 9.1 and backtrack 3. I was wondering what people thought the best current usb boot system would be. I would like one that is very basic that can boot basically any basic linux OS. Any opinions on this?

Do you mean the best system to install on your USB drive? How about Slax?

[skcuf]

I live in a rural area so I know exactly what you mean about the older machines vs the computers. I am somewhat of the same way with that because my dad always wanted us to work on our vehicles when we were younger. Unfortunately, we have picked up some vehicles that have detailed computers and electronics in them now and can no longer do the work. That goes along with what I said about the advances in technology as well. I thought I said something about it but I guess my mind moves faster than my fingers.

On the USB boot issue I currently have Ultimate Boot CD -4.11 on the USB I use to boot. When I boot from the USB drive it gives me the option of a few OSes to choose from. I was wondering if there was something similar to this which gives me the option to choose what I want to boot from? Is that a little more specific?