Halp

Okay, here's the thing. I want to get started with programming, but before that, I want to learn as much as I can about hardware/other shit. What would I read/look at to learn this? Also looking into reverse-engineering and system penetration/hacking. I'm not in any rush, I just want a new hobby.

inb4 SICP, Haskell, hax my anus, etc.

Any suggestions?

SICP

I can't remember the name of the book, but it's a study guide for some sort of certification, A++ I think. It covers pretty much all the hardware components of a modern desktop computer. Read that and you'll have a good general idea of how stuff works how/why it all fits together.

Also, take apart an old computer or something. Disassemble it completely, clean it out, and then put it back together yourself. When replacing individual components think about its name, what it does and why you need it.

Then I suggest learning a low-level language, such as Assembler or C. This will further your knowledge of the hardware as you're interacting with it at a low level. This step is optional, but if you're looking for a project to do or something to motivate you to learn to program (trust me it can start to drag on after a while) buy an Arduino, do some cool shit with it, learn programming in the process.

These are the steps you must take to become an EXPERT PROGRAMMER.

Read the course notes for degree-level computer science, and do all the exercises.

gb2/gorp/

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Why don't you fucking read SICP‽ It's not called the purple book for no reason.

Reading any A+ certification material is enough for hardware.
The interesting stuff is the programming. Read SICP, then find something you like and program something somehow related to it (websites->PHP, applications/games-> C/java, scripting->python), to remain interested. Then try learning from the linux distros backtrack and DVL (damn vulnerable linux) for reverse engineering and penetration. The important thing is to keep things fun, you can jump around and skip some stuff but at the end of the day the boring stuff really is the basis of everything else.

Alright, I'll try looking these up.

Regarding reverse engineering, get a copy of IDA Pro and start poking around the executables on your system.

Some good first exercises if you're using Windows XP:

1. Make ssstars.scr faster by finding out which piece of code causes the delay between screen updates, and eliminating it.

2. Without cheating and looking at how he did it, replicate the work of http://www.lvllord.de/ on your TCPIP.SYS, to remove the outbound connection rate limit.

3. Reverse the exact algorithm for the Paint program's spray-can tool. Without cheating and checking online, figure out the keyboard shortcut to increase the diameter of the tool far past its usual proportions.

4. Determine the details of the network protocols used by the Internet Games in [m]C:\Program Files\MSN Gaming Zone\Windows[/m]

Damn, BBCode failure.

>>11
[\m/]

>>10
2. Without cheating and looking at how he did it, replicate the work of http://www.lvllord.de/ on your TCPIP.SYS, to remove the outbound connection rate limit.

His patch still has a limit, it just increases it. I removed it completely.

15 Name: Sgt.Kabukiman缪䘧 2012-05-24 9:33

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy
 All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy