i don't think it blows it at all. i have nothing against alex personally, but i think his stubbornness and defiance of listening to well meaning advice (and Alex, the advice you have got so far is well meaning, even if it seems like we are berating you, which we aren't) is something that, as Voidmain says, will only stand him in bad stead in his next phase in life.
Learning for yourself is much better than being at school, school is there to provide the resources (eg the time, equipment et c) to learn for yourself, and ultimately to provide you with a certificate to say you learnt it all well at the end of it.
I know, Alex, that you will say that chat and email are resources you need and that your school is depriving you, but i suspect that other resources are provided to you, if you take a bit of initiative, that suffice instead. The slight increase in resources that would be gained by allowing students unrestricted network access is not worth the price the school would pay in security.
Also, in my experience, those services usually distract from the business of doing whatever i am trying to do anyway.
Also again, the very fact that you get As all the time kind of suggests that you do not need any more resources at your disposal than you currently have.
Now, i reckon your attitude is such that you must ask every little question that pops into your head, and i suppose you reckon that is a good way to get answers, but you will waste your life asking questions when that time could have been spent finding the answers out for yourself. As voidmain says, if you do your own learning and research, the info you get will be that bot more relevant, and it will sink in a dozen times better than if you just get told stuff. It also enhances your ability to take the initiative and think laterally, which will be a great advantage whatever you do.
Again, no offence, but do do things the right way. Voidmain, from what i gather has always done things legally, and has done a lot of interesting and fulfilling things so far, and also seems to have become self employed and quite comfortable from what i gather. He also does not seem to blow his own trumpet or boast, and seems quite well adjusted and happy, all this just from his posts! well, you know what i mean, i have never met voidmain and i don't know if any of that is true, but that's how he comes across.
The point of me saying this is, he turned out alright, and he advocates actively finding things out for yourself and behaving legally. put two and two together.
Do you have a machine at home? do you have the ability to install gnu/linux on it? (ie, do you own the machine yrself or does somebody else want only windows on it, is there room on the drive for another OS if so, are you confident you can dual boot without wiping out anybody's data et c?) if so, i suggest you get linux at home, asap. this will enable you to program in a number of languages for free, and it will give you a grounding in a lot of stuff that you simply don't get with another popular operating system, i mean in terms of what goes on under the hood.
Basically, Alex, get linux, you will learn a lot, and i suggest you learn actively rather than passively. and no hard feelings intended.
