Computer Jargon Too Difficult for Office Workers

slashflood writes "Most office workers find computer terms such as javascript and jpeg just as difficult to understand as a foreign language, according to a new survey. A poll of 1,500 staff by recruitment firm Computer People showed that three out of four wasted more than an hour every week simply finding out what some technical term meant. 'A massive 61% don't understand the difference between gigabytes, kilobytes and megabytes and as a result have sent e-mails with huge attachments that have blocked clients' systems.'"

Comments

Re:Its not just computers.

[Eslyjah]

I still don't know what TPS stands for.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TPS_report.

Not so easy for you, either.

[raygundan]

He's actually right, you know. Kilo, Mega, and Giga meant exactly what he said-- powers of 10. We computer-folk have been mis-using them for years to refer to nearby powers of 2, and there are new prefixes we *should* be using to avoid confusion. The "new" prefixes were published by the IEC in 1998.

for this:

1GB = 1024 MB = 1048576 KB

you should be using:

1GiB = 1024 MiB = 1048576 KiB

Where the GiB, MiB, and KiB stand for Gibibytes, Mebibytes, and Kibibytes.

Do I use them? No. They sound funny, and like many programmers I'm cranky and stuck-in-my-ways. But you should be prepared to accept that the standard "power of 10" usage of the SI prefixes mega, giga, and kilo you were taught in college science classes is indeed correct, and that the way we've been using them is an awkward legacy kludge that grafts a second meaning onto a widely-used standard.

Obligatory link.

Re:Its not just computers.

[Enigma_Man]

A lot of people complain about automotive analogies, but I really like them:

Knowing about files and their sizes is a basic part of operating a computer. That's like driving a car and not knowing that you have to change the oil.

Not anymore. Any new car you buy, they tell you to bring the car in for service every 3000, 5000, or what-have-you miles. They don't tell you every specific thing they're going to do. They might not even necessarily mention that they're changing the oil. Obviously most people have been brought up enough around cars to realize that you need to change the oil every so often, but that's often the extent of their knowledge. If you bring up other maintenance, like flushing of coolant, suspension alignment and greasing, brake fluid changing; a lot more people will know a lot less information about it. While it may be obvious to an auto-enthusiast, people just don't know what they have to do, which is why manufacturers have "service intervals" where they do _something_ and your car continues to work. It stands to reason that most people probably need something like this for thier computer, something that automatically scans/protects/assumes things for them, such that for 99% of people, their computer "Just Works", just like for 99% of people, the service you get at the dealership so your car "just works" is ok-happy-fine.

-Jesse