# Are you a hobbyist?



## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 13, 2021)

I don't have a hobby anymore.

I moved to Linux from Win98 as a means of survival online and keep my Sub7 savvy chat m8tes at bay. I started using BSD in 2005 and have them to thank for inspiration. And I would, personally, but they already know it and won't speak to me anymore.

My hobby used to be customizing Hot Wheels diecast cars using only rattlecan spray paint, tape and technique for the paint job. 

This is a Custom "Balwin Motion" Camaro I saw a picture of once done with a can of red and white Rust-Oleum spray paint and tape.











A Custom Camaro Heatwave "fade" paint job using cans of white, yellow and red Rust-Oleum spray paint and technique I developed and painted in my kitchen.




A Custom Honda S2000 done with a can of blue Rust-Oleum, flat black Walmart spray paint and tape.


----------



## Geezer (Oct 13, 2021)

This is not a straight forward question.

Primarily, I use Freebsd as a tool for my profession.

Additionally, some aspects of Freebsd for my desktop, I treat as a hobby.

Certainly don't want a poke in the eye.

So I assume I am in the 'other' category.


----------



## Vull (Oct 13, 2021)

It was my livelihood for years but now I guess it's just a hobby.

I agree that it's a bit of a trick question. For an ever-growing number of people, computers have become a part of their lives. Like telephones, pencils, flashlights, and car keys, computers have become more and more like essential everyday tools.


----------



## Menelkir (Oct 13, 2021)

Sort of. I use FreeBSD as general computing operating system without dual boot. My hobby is retrocomputing, I have a modest collection of old computers so you can say that _using computers is my hobby_.


----------



## SirDice (Oct 13, 2021)

I turned my hobby into a source of income. Still like to tinker with computers for the fun of it, from old school 8 bit systems to modern 64 bit monsters and everything in between. I just like learning things while I play around with it. And the knowledge gained from that is useful in work related situations.


----------



## kpedersen (Oct 13, 2021)

Whilst I use FreeBSD a lot for work, I would also say that it is my hobby or at the very least it facilitates my hobby (which is computing).



Trihexagonal said:


> My hobby used to be customizing Hot Wheels diecast cars using only rattlecan spray paint, tape and technique for the paint job.


Those cars are quite small. How did you manage to get the large spray can nozzle to be so accurate?


----------



## Menelkir (Oct 13, 2021)

SirDice said:


> I turned my hobby into a source of income. Still like to tinker with computers for the fun of it, from old school 8 bit systems to modern 64 bit monsters and everything in between. I just like learning things while I play around with it. And the knowledge gained from that is useful in work related situations.


I think you said better what I meant.


----------



## George (Oct 13, 2021)

Yes, a hobby.
Using OpenOffice and stuff at work wouldn't be a good idea. I use Windows for work.
I use Android on my tablet.


----------



## hitest (Oct 13, 2021)

Technology is my hobby, I love to tinker with my computers, phones, tablets.  I use a variety of operating systems (BSD, Linux, Windows).  I retired in 2016 so I have the time to indulge my technolgy obsessions.  I enjoy computing a lot.


----------



## a6h (Oct 13, 2021)

The straightforward answer: no, I don't have a hobby.

Before car accident, I was playing guitar. I couldn't say it was a hobby, because I used it (along some DAW projects) to teach music theory in few private classes.
When it comes to computers, windows and FreeBSD: I was just curious to know how they work; on my free times -- mostly afternoons (I'm a blue collar worker).

Maybe one thing counts as a hobby though. After dropping out of mathematics university (the 3rd year), I've continued to do one thing, which I'm doing it since the age of 16, and I like it very much: to study mathematics from 4:00 to 6:00 o'clock in the mornings. I've tried to not skip any signle day (I've failed several times!). But I'm not sure if reading counts as a hobby. That's why I answered that "I don't have a hobby."!


----------



## Argentum (Oct 13, 2021)

Voted 'Other', whatever it means. I think it is a lifestyle.


----------



## drhowarddrfine (Oct 13, 2021)

vigole said:


> Before car accident, I was playing guitar.



Went to get my covid shot.

Me: Will I able to play the piano after this?
Nurse: Sure you can.
Me: Good! Cause I can't play the piano now.


----------



## Alain De Vos (Oct 13, 2021)

For me the definition of a hobby is spending of time where there is no immediate,direct financial revenue.
This holds for different I.T. parts for me including but not limited to freebsd.


----------



## eternal_noob (Oct 13, 2021)

Computing for me is everything. Profession, hobby, way of life. I wanted to study computing since i was 12 (and i did). FreeBSD is just a tiny part of it. A tool.


----------



## Alain De Vos (Oct 13, 2021)

What is way of life ? Sitting before a screen with pixels ? One colored red, one colored green, one colored blue. Way of life is unknown to me ...
Maybe you can enlighten me.
I was grown up with a commodore 64, and a TRS pocket from Tandy.
Move a zero into the accumulator ...


----------



## eternal_noob (Oct 13, 2021)

Well, (i quote Wikipedia) "computer science is the study of algorithmic processes, computational machines and computation itself".
Which doesn't necessarily mean you need a computer for it.

My brain works with Boolean algebra:

All i do, see, feel is binary.
Either 0 or 1, black or white, joyful or sorrowful, you get the idea.
Programming changed my way to think: I need to solve a problem? I break it down to  smaller problems, etc.

I could go on but i don't want to bore you.


----------



## Alain De Vos (Oct 13, 2021)

I never managed the LISP language. I always needed variables to store temporary data. Or was I too pragmatic.


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 13, 2021)

My main point was that people who aren't Professionals are oft times referred to as Hobbyist. That's why the first answer is Yes, FreeBSD is my hobby. I did include computers and other computer OS as a choice. I should have put "collect Russian watches".

Other was for the "I have a hobby but it's not one of these" BB Stacker Brigade. I was probably closer to collecting Thinkpads as a hobby and installing FreeBSD than I considered using FreeBSD a hobby.

My Ozark Operative relayed "Hobbyist" was the crowd tested keyword most effective in evoking the subliminal mental image of a "Stamp Collector" in research funded by the Fine Corporation in the Ultimate Plan of drhowarddfine to further define Professionals from, come on, say it now, "Hobbyist".


----------



## drhowarddrfine (Oct 14, 2021)

Trihexagonal I used to say FreeBSD was for professionals and "serious amateurs" but someone got offended by calling them an amateur. "Hobbyist" doesn't really fit the bill for some people who really know their stuff but only do this as a hobby. I just can't think of a proper term (not that I tried).


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 14, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> Those cars are quite small. How did you manage to get the large spray can nozzle to be so accurate?



I used tape to mark off the Balwin Motion and painted red first, taped it off and sprayed white. I had seen a picture of it as a model while at Hobby Hut getting tape. I used tape on the Honda, flat black first then tape it off and spray blue.

The Heatwave fade is a technique I came up with using the plastic bubble on the card that holds the car to block off parts while painting from the back to the front. Red, yellow and white moving the bubble forward to protect what you just painted.

Yes, they are small:











Get some Nissan Skylines in for International appeal. That's freehand silver to black fade. 
Taking a good shot of them to post on the Hot Wheels forums was half of the fun. I knew when the Sun came round my side of the building and would try to make it look like a photo of a full sized car with perspective. 

I'm not as good a photographer as I used to be. Cleaning up the overspray mess I made painting in the Kitchen not something I want to do twice.


----------



## Menelkir (Oct 14, 2021)

drhowarddrfine said:


> Trihexagonal I used to say FreeBSD was for professionals and "serious amateurs" but someone got offended by calling them an amateur. "Hobbyist" doesn't really fit the bill for some people who really know their stuff but only do this as a hobby. I just can't think of a proper term (not that I tried).


Actually, I find "serious amateurs" a pretty funny statement.


----------



## Jose (Oct 14, 2021)

drhowarddrfine said:


> Trihexagonal I used to say FreeBSD was for professionals and "serious amateurs" but someone got offended by calling them an amateur. "Hobbyist" doesn't really fit the bill for some people who really know their stuff but only do this as a hobby. I just can't think of a proper term (not that I tried).


"Amateur" just means you don't get paid for doing the thing. By that definition, Einstein was an amateur physicist when he wrote his paper on Special Relativity. I dunno why someone would be offended by being put in that company.


----------



## Hakaba (Oct 14, 2021)

Using FreeBSD is one of my hobbies.
This time, I am focused on the Jaguar X Type 2.5l as my first renovation car (maybe the last ?). The goal is to evaluate my skills to buy an older car.


----------



## ralphbsz (Oct 14, 2021)

I work in the computer industry, and have done that for the last ~25 years. None of my work has anything to do with FreeBSD.

Why do I maintain my own home server / NAS, and waste time making it work well (which implies using an operating system I consider good)? Because tinkering with things is my hobby.


----------



## Zvoni (Oct 14, 2021)

Computers always were a bit of a hobby for me since the mid-80's
Wrote my first Database in BASIC on a C64.
I'm more of a "tinkerer" than anything professional, but i have collected/developed some skills with computers (mainly software, hardware still sounds like greek to me).

As for "other" hobbies: I'm the singer in a hobby Heavy-Metal-Band and a skydiver, which is my ultimate passion.
If you're interested in some videos give a shout


----------



## fernandel (Oct 14, 2021)

I never think that FreeBSD is my hobby. It is a tool which I can use to do what I need it. But I have two hobbies: entomology and mushrooms which I picking and eating them from my childhood.
Okay, computers were my hobby when I start with ZX Sectrum. It shows me different world but later were just tools.


----------



## zirias@ (Oct 14, 2021)

Whatever I do as a hobby, I _try_ to do as "professional" as possible. 

My actual "profession" is software development and architecture. And at my workplace, we're using almost exclusively Windows and .NET (Core). Some Linux machines emerged, BSDs aren't of interest. So you could say operating some FreeBSD-based infrastructure at home is a "hobby" to me. Still, my systems serve some actual purposes (used in "production" for members of my household), AND I try to improve FreeBSD by working on ports whenever I find a problem affecting me (or I just have time and want to contribute something) 

So, my answer was, well, "Other"


----------



## mrbeastie0x19 (Oct 14, 2021)

I'm just a hobbyist amateur. I don't get much challenge in real life to be honest. My job is quite easy. Studying complicated details about computers gives me something interesting to study, that is challenging and pushes me to learn more.


----------



## kpedersen (Oct 14, 2021)

Zirias said:


> we're using almost exclusively Windows and .NET (Core). Some Linux machines emerged, BSDs aren't of interest.



Oh man, don't they realize that FreeBSD was *the* premier .NET environment!


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 14, 2021)

I edited it to include people who do this for a living and you can change your vote. It didn't even occur to me, probably because I've never made any money doing it.

vigole liked the Camaros. I showed them what a Camaro looked like. They said they'd never seen traction bars on a custom before. They had never seen curb feelers and static strips on a ghetto cruiser, either.

And nobody, had ever, seen anything like Early Kiler from the Adult Swim show Squidbillies in his black Hot Rod Truck on the return trip of an errand for his Sister Lil to get business supplies. With stolen John Deere Anhydrous Ammonia tank in tow and a team of four murdered out Mopars running high speed chase car interference for him. Two in front and two behind

You have to know your subject material. The blue Nova is a metal flake paint job:


----------



## a6h (Oct 14, 2021)

kpedersen said:


> Oh man, don't they realize that FreeBSD was *the* premier .NET environment!


Pre-CLI/.NET Windows era was a fun one. I liked it. Now I know what ruined it.
-- just kidding.


----------



## wolffnx (Oct 14, 2021)

FreeBSD is my hobby

also guns,but my card is expired so I cant use it


----------



## astyle (Oct 14, 2021)

I'm guessing that whoever got offended at being called 'amateur' was equating the term with 'not being good/experienced enough to be a professional'.  I've seen plenty of stories about self-centered people who were supposedly paid to know something, only to be outfoxed by unpaid hackers who would not pass an interview, but actually know a thing or two. Makes you wonder who's the one with professional-grade knowledge.

Back to the topic... I guess you could say that FreeBSD is a hobby for me. Not even so much the kernel/userland/CLI, but rather, the fact that it forms a VERY solid base for stuff like KDE and networking, while keeping things simple, and consistent. I guess a good *analogy* would be a rocket launchpad - I'm more interested in the rocket than the launchpad, in all honesty, but for a successful launch, you gotta invest in the launchpad first, and that's what I'm doing with FreeBSD, after getting frustrated with Linux.


----------



## mrbeastie0x19 (Oct 14, 2021)

astyle said:


> I'm guessing that whoever got offended at being called 'amateur' was equating the term with 'not being good/experienced enough to be a professional'.  I've seen plenty of stories about self-centered people who were supposedly paid to know something, only to be outfoxed by unpaid hackers who would not pass an interview, but actually know a thing or two. Makes you wonder who's the one with professional-grade knowledge.


Yeah this is definitely the issue. People getting paid who think they know everything because they do it for a living, so the word amateur has become a retort to say 'how would you know'.


----------



## Jose (Oct 14, 2021)

fernandel said:


> But I have two hobbies: entomology and mushrooms which I picking and eating them from my childhood.


Which do you pick and which do you eat?


----------



## astyle (Oct 14, 2021)

I like mushrooms, too.. Particularly chantrelles and lactariats. The latter are a lot of work, soaking and then fermenting them in dill-flavored brine for a few months  Fantastic with freshly steamed potatoes and a beer.


----------



## fernandel (Oct 14, 2021)

Jose said:


> Which do you pick and which do you eat?


I am picking the mushrooms which I know and we will eat them. There are people who know more than I and the musrooms will wait for them.


----------



## fernandel (Oct 14, 2021)

astyle said:


> I like mushrooms, too.. Particularly chantrelles and lactariats. The latter are a lot of work, soaking and then fermenting them in dill-flavored brine for a few months  Fantastic with freshly steamed potatoes and a beer.


I do not know if you know Amanita caesarea? It is a heaven special if you find still closed and Macrolepiota procera at this time. They are like a veal steaks .

​


----------



## astyle (Oct 14, 2021)

fernandel said:


> I do not know if you know Amanita caesarea? It is heaven special if you find still closed.
> ​


Thanks for pointing out the latin name... I googled it . Unfortunately, thanks to the shirt collar under the cap, that's regarded as suspicious stuff even by Russians who do know their mushrooms.

This is not to be confused with Amanita *muscaria*, which is the stuff all Russians are taught to *stay away* from.


----------



## fernandel (Oct 14, 2021)

IMO, is it difficult to pick up something "wrong".








						Amanita caesarea - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


----------



## eternal_noob (Oct 14, 2021)

astyle said:


> Amanita *muscaria*


You can eat Amanita muscaria if you know how to prepare it.


> The Japanese around Nagano eat _Amanita muscaria_ as pickles, as do the Lithuanians, Finns and Russians.


Everbody thinks it's really poisonous, but it fact it's pretty delicious.

Disclaimer: DON'T try this at home. You REALLY need to know what you're doing...


----------



## astyle (Oct 14, 2021)

Good disclaimer... I do consider myself an adventurous eater, but I guess I'll stick with balut:









						Balut (food) - Wikipedia
					






					en.wikipedia.org


----------



## eternal_noob (Oct 14, 2021)

I am shrooms guy too. A few weeks ago i picked a handful of _Ustilago maydis_. Wanted to try it for a long time. Unfortunately, they were a bit too old and i had to toss them.



astyle said:


> balut


Disgusting.


----------



## fernandel (Oct 14, 2021)

The food is so rleative but I try everything. I remember when I was in research and we had ethcnicity days. I think Vietnamise or Korean brought 100 years old eggs. I think it was July or August and those eggs were so refreshment. And it was just myself who ate those eggs .
But I love blood sausages with sourkraut or sour parsnip, boliled potato...I am hungry now. And I am still eating from my childhood a liver pate, special goose. And what is difference? Years ago was patte much better.


----------



## astyle (Oct 14, 2021)

eternal_noob said:


> I am shrooms guy too. A few weeks ago i picked a handful of _Ustilago maydis_. Wanted to try it for a long time. Unfortunately, they were a bit too old and i had to toss them.


Yeah, stuff is best fresh.

Damn, we did a good job hijacking THIS thread


----------



## eternal_noob (Oct 14, 2021)

I don't think we hijacked this thread. Eating weird stuff (and talking about) is a hobby too.


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 15, 2021)

No, this thread cannot be derailed and will, in time, encompass every topic in the Universe to become self-aware, but you will not be ware if it. And I would have gotten around to mushrooms sooner or later.

Grey morels sell for $20 a pound here. Not to me, but people pay it.

This is how the Balwin Motion ties together on top.


----------



## Deleted member 30996 (Oct 20, 2021)

Traction bars and Tiger Paws on a Hot Wheels Custom Camaro:





Cowl Induction:









Static Strips on a lowrider. It has curb feelers too but the shot didn't get them:


----------

