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Wow most of these are quite the contrast to what I used to see back in the day. At least in my circles it was just a collection of the technologies you’ve learn
by dinkleberg 11mo ago
Wow most of these are quite the contrast to what I used to see back in the day. At least in my circles it was just a collection of the technologies you’ve learned and enjoy. These are more like bumper stickers on the back of car. To each their own I suppose.
- shagie 11mo agoWhen I was going to conferences, my laptop stickers were a public display of "these are technologies that I use and you can strike up a conversation with me about them." To an extent, a resume that you can glance at from across the room. It's a bit of a statement for what you're trying to communicate with that lid - professional experience, political statements, personal "this is neat"... And part of this is a for me the lid of the laptop is something that I'd need to be able to be comfortable with displaying in front of a CxO without worry about if they may be offended or not (though perl might be offensive to some).
- viraptor 11mo ago> though perl might be offensive to some Now I'm tempted to make a set of: Perl, COBOL, Java Beans, Java EE, ActiveX, Silverlight, VB.Net, ActiveDirectory, Kerberos, ...
- SchemaLoad 11mo agoI've got stickers on my laptops. None of them are political, but I've got various indie fashion brands, music related, furry stickers, etc. If someone managed to be offended by them that's more their problem than mine. I can go work anywhere and have enough savings that it would be no inconvenience to me. I wouldn't want to work with someone who couldn't handle some trivial self expression on the back of a laptop. So far no one has ever been offended by this though. HN is far more sensitive than the average CTO.
- esseph 11mo agoHN is still not a quarter as sensitive as most corporations that aren't tech.
- SchemaLoad 11mo agoMost other industries are very exposed to external clients or customers. Software developers who sit in an office and only see other internal employees have no reason cover up their personality like that.
- potato3732842 11mo agorofl. It goes full circle. You should see the shit that b2b sales and support reps say.
- esseph 11mo agoJust about every enterprise has tech, and there are many, many sectors. There's also far more "tech folks" than developers at most companies, nor do all companies have devs on staff.
- crazygringo 11mo ago> If someone managed to be offended by them that's more their problem than mine. That can be a healthy attitude outside of work. People love personality. But at work, that's not a healthy attitude. You're there to work together, not to be uncompromising in expressing yourself. Your stickers are probably fine, but I can also imagine plenty of musical artists that would certainly be offensive (and rightly so) to some people, whether for their lyrics or for their criminal behavior -- and then the attitude of "that's more your problem than mine" is not gonna fly.
- hdgvhicv 11mo agoSafe to have a perl sticker as while it’s easy enough to put it on, nobody (including yourself) be able to read it.
- wyclif 11mo agoThat's why even though I like the weird and esoteric stickers you see here, I myself prefer the `unixstickers` style I think you're talking about. Debian, Arch, GNU, Python, bash, Ruby, Git, Vim, fork bomb, Tux, DEFCON, 127.0.0.1, &c. These are great for starting conversations, even in cafes. And you end up meeting some interesting people with shared culture.
- shagie 11mo agoIt is about advertising one's (possible) shared culture. For me, my laptop is part of my professional culture and thus I try to keep it as crisp and professional in appearance as one's resume since its a bit... difficult to laptop lids in certain cases. For my personal shared culture, that is the sort of thing that can be exposed (or hidden) on a case by case basis. My choice of t-shirt where I can button up or down depending on the context says a lot more about me than the lid of my laptop. Granted, it' one message at a time - but there are things that I've had on t-shirts that I made sure to button up before going into the office and seeing the boss (old school, and I still have it - those were durable shirts - https://www.flickr.com/photos/strihs/8536766235/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/strihs/8536766235/ ). On the other hand, I wouldn't put https://www.spreadshirt.com/shop/design/let+me+work+on+your+problem+funny+sarcastic+quote+sticker-D65007615be9fdc14d1c2f9c9?sellable=bB3OBjLAvMtrO8Q2geaQ-1459-215 https://www.spreadshirt.com/shop/design/let+me+work+on+your+... on my laptop no matter how much I agree with it. I would be amendable to putting a square of #22b7f2 on my laptop, and that opens up an entire discussion if recognized (I'm not quite ambitious or passionate enough to color the entire laptop that color). In another comment I linked https://imgur.com/a/jWhyBmI https://imgur.com/a/jWhyBmI as my laptop lid.
- brewdad 11mo agoI keep my travel laptop clean of any outward expression. Saves a lot of potential grief crossing borders or cultures. My at home and around town laptop can be my canvas.
- shagie 11mo agoMy work computer is spotless. My personal conference (and work appropriate - security wouldn't find anything unprofessional or untoward on it) laptop is the one with some stickers that are technologies that I want to put on there. My personal computer at home is desktop... so no stickers there. Even crossing company culture borders could be problematic if one is a consultant or sales engineer or professional services... This is one of those "in the wrong environment, something could scupper a deal - and you don't want that to be pinned on you."
- dylan604 11mo ago> comfortable with displaying in front of a CxO without worry In today's timeline, you'd need to be concerned about what some random TSA agent felt about your stickers and if that might get you pulled aside for additional screening.
- SchemaLoad 11mo agoYou joke, but I had someone tell me they were taken for questioning on entry to the US because their laptop had EFF stickers with some slightly edgy hacker culture phrases on them.
- dylan604 11mo agoI'm sorry, but what makes you think I was joking? I have seen a co-worker get pulled aside for additional screening because he wore a t-shirt that had the words of the second amendment or some such printed in a way of looking like a pair of pistols. On the same flight, we sat with another individual who got himself arrested, missed his flight, and was eventually released to sit on our flight because he wore a belt adorned with bullet shells cut in half. I'm not saying either one of them were the deepest of thinkers when choosing the garments for the day, but TSA also isn't employing the deepest of thinkers either, so why poke the hornets' nest
- tbrownaw 11mo ago> On the same flight, we sat with another individual who got himself arrested, missed his flight, and was eventually released to sit on our flight because he wore a belt adorned with bullet shells cut in half. I've heard of similar things before, and had the sense that this was less screeners being dumb and more legislators not fuzz-testing their work.
- ehnto 11mo agoI have a bunch of stickers from hobbies like bikes and sim racing. I guess it serves a similar purpose!
- garciansmith 11mo agoSeems to be in line with those I've seen for the past, oh, twenty years. Nerdy media (lots of Star Trek, video games), tech stickers, Linux users of course, a lot of political ones (oft left-leaning and lots of tech-related causes and groups like the EFF), some just plain silly/funny. Generally I see laptops with stickers in larger urban areas or university towns. Though honestly even ones I've seen in very small rural areas are generally similar, but maybe that just reflects the culture of those who tend to go to coffee shops and libraries and also wants to adorn their laptop.
- koyote 11mo agoI wonder if stickers in general are more common in the US just like bumper stickers are. As someone based outside of the US, I rarely see people with stickers on their laptop. The very vast majority of cars also do not have bumper stickers here (and those that do might have one at most).
- Gigachad 11mo agoStickers are popular in loads of places. They are all over the street in Australia. While I was in Italy and the UK they seemed even more common.
- ehnto 11mo agoI agree, in Australia you see plenty of them on laptops, water bottles and just out in the street like you said. We do have a lot of stickers on cars too but it's more common to see them on windows of the car not the car body, and I think in general they're socially quite different to what you'd see in America. More like brand stickers and hobby stuff, or jokes, not so much politics or religion.
- JoshTriplett 11mo ago> As someone based outside of the US, I rarely see people with stickers on their laptop. I see them at technical conferences in many different parts of the world, with people from many different parts of the world. It's not a US thing. And many of the sticker pictures on this site appear to be from European countries, including at least Finland and Germany.
- 0x1ch 11mo agoMaybe. When I was in Uni (3 years ago), everyone had stickers on their laptops and water bottles. Generally related to ones interests and hobbies.
- rockostrich 11mo agoDuring undergrad/grad school it was always whatever free stickers were available at hackathons. Now I usually just put 1 or 2 unique stickers to distinguish my MBP from others. Currently rocking one that's an illustration that my friend made of their dog with its tongue out.
- serf 11mo agoI blame the EFF a bit for that. The first soft-politico stickers I saw all over cons in the 90s/00s were their 'FUCK MICROSOFT' and 'FUCK GATES' stickers that exploded after the MS/Linux/SCO conflicts. Before the MS debacles (was there a before?) it was mostly FREE KEVIN everywhere. ..which for reasons lead to 'this machine hacks oligarchies', and 'piss: it's whats for dinner' stickers shown in the link. Speaking on that : Woodie Guthrie was better at marketing slogans than himself -- kind of interesting to consider how many more people are familiar with the 'This machine...' than his music. When I was going to these things I tended to avoid 'extreme' ones -- I was often job hunting and didn't need to project an image that may hinder that effort.
- komali2 11mo agoAt defcon, laptop stickers have imo always been vibrantly political. What you saw on laptops may be more a sign of the crowds you ran with than the times!
- ehnto 11mo agoIt's a good observation, I certainly don't see much of it in agency meetings. I meet with a lot of different industries too and it's pretty rare, I imagine they all have company laptops.
- 650REDHAIR 11mo agoHow long ago is back in the day? I’ve seen stickers like this for 20 years in SF/NYC.
- dilippkumar 11mo agoI ended up having a work laptop that looks exactly like my personal laptop. After making an embarrassing mistake once, I picked up some stickers and stuck them on my office laptop. Now, my work laptop looks clearly distinct, not just from my own personal laptop, but also from all the identical laptops other people at work bring to meeting rooms.
- DocTomoe 11mo agoA lot of these seem to be from the German left-wing hacker culture (e.g. the recurring yellow CYBER-Stickers are a dead giveaway) from about 5 years ago (considering the mix of stickers presented). Think ccc-adjacent. Considering that background, expect them to look more like a random Berlin lightpost than a conversation piece.
- TeMPOraL 11mo agoIt depends on what parties you go to :). Business events are where you get logos of programming languages and various technologies; hacker events are where you get the more opinionated and artsy ones.