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I guess I'll hafta settle for at least 2nd place:
http://koti.phnet.fi/otaku/cosplay/gundam2.jpg

this is my Gnome 2.8.3 and I dont think its that ugly. It wasnt ugly even before I made it look a bit like OSX.

http://koti.phnet.fi/saminiem/kuvat/desktop.jpg

Even a nontechnical user can do a Google search for a product name.

You'd be amazed at how many people won't do a Google before posting here on Slashdot. Jokes aside, people here tend to be a bit smarter than average. And they frequently don't take the 45 seconds it'd take to Google something prior to spouting information that's simply wrong.

We have the tools to comment intelligently on just about any subject in 60 seconds or less. But, by and large, most people don't. What does that say about humanity?

As Robert A. Heinlein once wrote: "Never underestimate the power of human stupidity"

Coding: Hisoft Devpac Assembler, Aztec C, SAS/C, Storm C, Hisoft C, Hisoft pascal, AMOS and Microsoft Amiga Basic(!).

Creating art/gfx: Digital Creation's Brilliance, Deluxe paint, Real 3D, Imagine 3D and Lightwave.

Creating Music: Soundtracker, Noisetracker, Startrekker, Protracker, MED, OctaMED, Bars and Pipes, Super Jam, etc.

Desktop Publishing: Pagestream, Professional page.

Text editing / Word processing: Cygnus ED, Wordsworth, Final writer and Pro Write.

At that time most of the applications mentioned (with the the OS/HW combo) were much superior to anything you could find on "professional" PCs and Macs at the time, in some ways some of them still are. But sadly, most of the applications mentioned are now dead or only available for Windows/Linux/Mac.

Funny thing is, as far I can remeber it was not superior or cheap PC hardware that killed Amiga. It was not even the mistreatment it was subjected to by Commodore. It was iD software's "Doom" that put the final nail in the coffin. As no acceptable Doom clone appered for the Amiga in reasonable time, every kid around begged their parents to buy PCs instead of Amigas, which in turn led to the decline of the mass market for Amiga hardware and following that, the loss of most software houses.

This is my favorite sniffing tool.

There's an upgrade that also has some powerful recording and playback features, too.

I mirrored the screenshot:
Screenshot

A shot of the 0.5.0 release, the rest of shots are from the previous release.

If you take Clarke's Third Law, then it's obvious how hackers could be perceived as modern magicians - by doing stuff that other people cannot do within a medium which others don't understand. However, the public in general is, I think, becoming more jaded and jaundiced with technology. It's like one of those E. E. "Doc" Smith novels, where the characters keep building nth-power projectors and ships which go so fast as to be beyond all human conception of speed... After a while you just cease being impressed.

I would say that many hacker-types would identify more with Jedis or ninjas. The Force is kind of the equivalent of a natural hacking ability - you've either got the right mindset, or you haven't, but even if you have got it, you've still got to practise it. The interesting thing about ninjas is that there is nothing supernatural about them - they're just normal flesh-and-blood human beings who have, though devotion and practise, developed skills and abilities which seem supernatural to normal people, who don't possess these extraordinary abilities.

The other interesting thing about both Jedis and Ninjas is that neither worships gods or demons. There is no structured religion dictating what they should and should not do, and no deity or need to seek redemption, although the concepts of Good and Evil do exist within those frameworks, as they do in hacking.

Douglas Rushkoff, in his book Cyberia covered some interesting ground within the topics of hacking, drugs and technoshamanism. A lot of it's just wanking, but it's thought-provoking stuff and worth reading. I identified particularly with some of the sections dealing with rave culture. I used to be a club/rave DJ and I've experienced the uplifting feedback loop you get when you've got 2,000 people getting higher and more euphoric as a direct result of the music you're playing for them, and you're a buss from their reaction, which is spurring you on to lift them even higher... It's a unique experience and that whole mystical thing is something I've experienced in hacking as well.

Many hacker-types have the ability to adjust their mindset and way of viewing the world from the normal, physical reality of the ground, sky, buildings, doors, roads, etc., to one of networks, nodes, routing, directory structures, processes and so on. It's kind of like a different consciousness, an ability to perceive and inhabit a different world - i.e. cyberspace (to use what has become a cliched term).

And finally, we come right back round full circle to today, with films like the Matrix, which portrays a hacker-type who develops Jedi-like powers, and the ability to see beyond the facade which most normal people see (try drawing parallels with a Windows-style GUI or HTML, and the underlying shell, OS or protocols). It even includes Kung-Fu, which isn't a million miles away from Ninjas.

Even Neal Stephenson ventures into this sort of territory in Cryptonomicon, when we read Randy's classifications of different types of people, which he draws from Tolkein - men, elves, dwarves, wizards, etc.

These memes or themes permeate the hacking culture and there must be a reason for that.

As for religious beliefs, I personally think that many hacker-types are probably agnostic to a large extent, something which is often associated with scientists and other "intelligent" people.

And me? Well I just don't fucking know. I'm rather drunk and I'm going to bed now.

May the Source be with you.

D.
..is for "Don't concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory..."