Slashdot Mirror
What Should People Understand About Computers?
counterexample asks: "It seems to me that there aren't very many good books out there that explain to the layman what is really going on with computers. My mother cannot go to the bookstore and pick up a book that will make her understand the strange language that we IT people speak, or why her computer would be susceptible to a virus. So, I intend to write such a book. I have a fair idea of what should be in it (history of the Internet, how computers talk to each other, what a hard drive does, etc.), but I'm interested to see what you all have to say. What do you wish your users knew? What kind of questions are you so sick of answering because you hear them every week? What does the general public think they understand, but really don't?"
My ancestors (parents and grandparents) are a naturally inquisitive people. Any attempt to teach them things about computers may only leave them more confused and full of questions.
..." ..."
You are about to undertake a Herculean task in that you are now required to omit certain things which we may all know. I think your strategy should concentrate on figuring out how simply you can describe something without causing more confusion and questions.
I would suggest analyzing The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay because he does a good job at using simple illustrations and brought me up to speed on a lot of engineering ideas when I was only in fifth grade. I would try to mimic him and use his level of detail as a template into what the common person is ready to ingest.
Perhaps you should also change your strategy from "What do I include?" to "Where do I draw the line?" Start with a computer and describe the monitor, mouse, keyboard, box, printer, etc. in a high level. These are the obvious things you see. Then you can take and chapter by chapter explain each component down to as much detail as you want to. I would then have a chapter on communications and the internet that doesn't go all the way down to protocols.
Allow me to illustrate what kind of people you should aim this book at in this telephone call between me and my mother:
Me: Ok, tell me what the screen says now.
Mom: It's blue.
Me: What do you mean "it's blue"? What does it say?
Mom: It says, "9F D8 34 7B
Me: Um, that's ok, ma, I don't speak hex.
Mom: "... FA 25 3C A2
One more thing, I shudder at the possibility of the history of computers being taught to my parents. This is more information that isn't really pertinent to what a layperson needs to know about computers. I would suggest delving into this as little as possible but historical facts always make reading interesting if you want to include little side notes.
As with most projects undertaken--keep it simple, stupid!
My work here is dung.
How about... Norton internet security and Mcafee will cause them more problems then they fix. Windows XP firewall and a free virus checker like AVG will save them a lot of grief. A good spyware program (how I wish pack.google.com did not include norton) like ad-aware or spybot and how to use it, anyone offering you a million pounds over email are scammers.
Stop using the web for free porn and crack sites (mostly if using ie) firefox and thunderbird replace the normal xp offerings well. You don't need a computer that is all singing and dancing just to use word and msn, or just buy a mac.
Buying a centrino laptop doesn't give you magic access to the internet (legally), stop plugging in usb stuff without the drivers first; erm, and the cdrom is not a damn cup holder!
use linux, openoffice ect...
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - Voltaire
"What does the general public think they understand, but really don't?"
Women.
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
...joke isn't funny anymore.
The difference between reality and fantasy is a nice soundtrack.
Design a mechanical arm that comes out from between the pages and stabs the reader in the face every time they confuse "memory" with "disk space." You'll be doing us all a great service.
Normal computer users do not have to understand what is really going on with computers, they are simply -- users. Like users of washing machines, they don't need to know how the machine spins, or how many gallon of hot water to mix with cold one when how why.
So in layman's term, computer is an electronic appliance, you plug in the power, turn it on and use it.
If you own a Microsoft-branded machine, it usually comes with preset icons, DO NOT MOVE OR DELETE OR CHANGE THEM, just click on those icons to perform your daily task, like Outlook Express for email, Internet Explorer for web and online banking. When you're done, click on the START button to shutdown, it's like you need to open the front door in order to get out.
Remember, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT modify your appliance by adding, removing or changing any settings or program, this will void your warranty. You don't simply add a 12-hour timer in your washing machine, you just use the 3-hour and 6-hour options built into the machine.
Viruses may attempt to enter and destroy your appliance by asking you if you want to install such-and-such program. It's like your husband asking if he can put his red shirt in a load of white washings, and the answer is always NO. Saying yes to anything that changes your appliance in any way will void your warranty, which includes installation, modification and uninstallation.
If you really need to do something risky, such as visiting a new website, try getting a program named FireFox. It's like when you're washing your new $500 bra for the first time, you use a bra net. You may continue to use the bra net every time if you want to.
A factory-default (that is, unmodified) machine will usually do what we call self-maintenance, like a self-cleaning process in some washing machines. You may notice your appliance being busy for a while, then tells you your appliance has been updated, which is good.
Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
The biggest problem I tend to face is that people don't know where the hardware ends, and where the OS Begins and where the OS Ends and the Applications begins. When they are doing something over the network or locally. They are just completely lost on the system. It it like they know how to drive but they don't know where they are now.
They will always blame the wrong part for their problems.
My Computer is Broken! When When MS Word fails to open.
Windows Sucks! When the system wont Boot because the computer hardware failed.
The Internet Is Down! When Windows somehow lost all its drives and fails boot.
My Computer is slow, I need a faster one! When there are 1000s of spyware apps running
What people need to know is what part of the computer does what type of job and how to at least say where the problem is.
They should know when the Harddrive is clicking away or when sending information over the network.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It may not have been updated but I read a book of the "For Dummies" variety several years ago that covered exactly the material you describe. I was reading it from an already very advanced POV, too.
Memory has nothing to do with long term storage. Increasing memory does not give you the ability to store more files.
Be sure to have a chapter dedicated to the on/off switch on both the main case and the monitor (hell, that might be two chapters right there). A chapter on when a cup holder isn't a cup holder. And don't forget the chapter on magic smoke. Covering those things should take all the mystery out of computers...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
and they bite.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
That I deserve a lot of cash for operating one, and that they have no hope of ever figuring them out.
(partly joking)
Alan Turing is a visionary, a hero, and a flawed man just like the rest of us.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, ought to know about this wonderful guy
that changed our history forever.
Assuming that's where you keep the manual for you car. All you really need to know about your car is how to operate it and how to take care of it (what kind of fuel, when to change the oil, belts, plugs, etc.). It's not really necessary to know much about how a car works to be able to properly use it. Such information is available to those who want to know, but it's not necessary to know the Brayton Cycle for example, to operate a car.
I would suggest that this be your state of mind when writing your computer manual. I.e. focus on how to use it and how to take care of it.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
But I was thinking about how such a book should be structured. It occurs to me that there's a lot of stuff that a person might like to know but might not need to know. And so I'm thinking the book should begin with an explanation of what's right in front of them. What each object on their desk does, how they relate to eachother, and the basics of how to interact with all of them.
Then from there, the next sections would go one step beyond that. So the first part would be to talk about what the computer is, then the second part would talk about how memory works, etc. So at any point if the person gets spooked by any of it they can just stop where they are and have a good amount of knowledge. Make it easy for it to be a gentle progression.
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
the CD drive is NOT a cupholder.
kthxlol
Why go to the bookstore when they could just google for it?
i say its a lost cause, there is soo much 101 book about computer. if u can't explain it to your mom. don't expect any book to be able to.
;p
People tend to learn on a step by step basis depending on the interest in any specific subject.
meaning if i am interested in learning quantum science. no mather how hard it is, I will keep on trying. well if i don't fell the need for it, i will give up and say its non sense.
So just grab your latest for dummie book and hand it over to your mom. If she REALLY wants to understand then she will learn.
Just give up, if you are just trying to force knowledge into her mind, its a lost cause
... but I'll only provide them if your book is to be released under the Open Document license.
The Death Penalty: Killing people to show others that killing people is wrong.
I think that's the wrong approach - it's like asking a calc TA what questions he got asked most during the term. How do I do problem #3 isn't terribly useful to put in a book - next year they'll have to know how to do problem #4. So it goes with computers. Many questions can be "answered" without giving any real insight to the end reader/user. Be careful - you have to teach basics
That said...
I remember having to go through contortions to explain the concept of a "file" and "directory" to my mom. Just how technical *do* you get? "Any file is just a bunch of data" can be a bit confusing...
--LWM
While I find books quite useful for learning about coding and such, many other non-technical people might find it more useful to use an online resource like http://computer.howstuffworks.com/
There are plenty of visual aids and easy to follow diagrams. Give that a shot and see if it helps or inspires your book.
http://religiousfreaks.com/Do not log in as admin
Have other accounts besides owner or User
Use Firefox
Use Firebird
Use AVG Free
Try not to use Windows :-)
When in doubt-be paraniod!
The antidote for misuse of freedom of speech is more freedom of speech.
-- Molly Ivins
Even if you are running MS Windows, no matter what you do to the computer, it will not blow up. Yeah yeah, I ran X back in the day when you could burst a monitor into flames with the wrong refresh rate but those days are mostly gone. So look at all the options under everymenu and read a whole lot to understand what you are looking at.
Maing them understand the underpinnings is a waste of time.
Tell them what they need to know. About anti-virus tools, anti-spyware tools and things to avoid.
What a joke. The main reason some of us even make a living at all is the flat out refusal of most people to read a manual.
Good luck with your book, you're going to need it...
The hardest concept for many beginners is understanding where stuff is, and how to get to it. Understanding the difference between memory and hard disk, and things on the internet. Maybe if your mom understood that you never want anything on the internet on her hard drive, she wouldnt install spyware on it.
Please sign petition to restore sanity to our banking system!!!
http://financialpetition.org/
Most people don't understand the facts about the proprietary designs many brand-name PC's use. A lot of proprietary PC's are hard to service and a pain to upgrade. They should be informed of the brands that are proprietary like Dell, their proprietary advantages/disadvantage, and the brands that aren't proprietary like PowerSpec, and their advantages. I'm a salesman at Micro Center, and almost every customer whom I sold a computer to didn't know what proprietary design meant and what brands are proprietary. Those are the one who usually buy Compaq, HP, Gateway, and Dell-brand PC's and end up leaving with a PowerSpec computer and liking it because its easily upgradable and serviceable.
That a computer is no more than a pocket calculator with a memory to store what buttons one would have pushed, the results from that calculation, and branching instructions to deal with special cases. Everything else is just window dressing.
There are millions of those books. The problem is never in people not understanding something. The problem is that you can not expect a layman to grok "at least the important bits" just as it is not possible for you to "at least diagnose cancer" when your not a doctor .
Such things simply take time and experience, and the completely inept will never learn.
I think "general public" includes women themselves....
{...boy am I in trouble now...}
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Most people don't have the slightest understanding of how the Internet works; for them, it is indistinguishable from magic. It would be nice if users understood how their machine fits into the Internet, how one computer communicates to another (at a high level, not necessarily the gritty details), and precisely what sort of hazards that subjects them to (and doesn't subject them to - e.g. everything that goes wrong on your machine is NOT necessarily the fault of a "virus").
Charles Petzold has already covered this ground, at least the software part of it, pretty well for the general reader in his book "Code".
In direct response to the title, that computers suck and one should stay as far away as possible from them because they will ruin your life.
I kill harmless processes for sport
The big box that you put the CDs into is not a CPU.
I can explanate how to administrate your network. You must configurate and segmentate it, so it can computate.
I do not know how many times I have to tell an attorney that they can not edit the text of a scanned picture by just typing over it.
They do not understand that if they want to edit the document they need to OCR the document.
Then there are the Attorney's that want me to call up Microsoft and get them to fix everything before they sue them.
Or how about the people that try to open documents or programs from inside other applications.
"Only one thing, is impossible for god: to find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." Mark Twain
People should know: Using a computer requires a person to make decisions. Making decisions requires a person to be informed. To be informed means to not only read, but to comprehend on screen messages.
A person who is neither interested in being informed nor interested in making decisions, or one who doesn't have the werewithal to comprehend what he/she reads, will have a hard row to hoe when it comes time to reap the benefits of computer use. Sadly, this could describe a majority.
Stay in school kids. Learn to comprehend more than the nuiances of rap songs and street slang.
A request for the format of your book - organise the explanations by things people actually use their computers for.
... and so on. This kind of task-based organisation should make it easier for the lay person to understand what is going on because they can relate it to something real they actually do.
- writing a letter: how a program starts, how different document formats work, how saving a file puts it onto the hard disc, how printing works
- looking something up on Google: how the internet works (good luck with that one!), how web sites work, how computers talk to each other over the internet, how firewalls work
Dunx
Converting caffeine into code since 1982
It's not a very sales-friendly message, but: Mass manufactured desktop computers and software are pretty much a teenage technology, immature and truculent. They are not very robust internally and are full of bugs which will irritate you and potentially be unfixable because proprietary software can only be maintained by its creator. Computers and particularly software is designed by people who not only have little empathy with the average user, but have little inclination or time to fix any problems they may be aware of.
Computers are going to be difficult to start out with, and all users should expect this. The rewards, of course, are great: control and use of one of the most advanced technologies humankind has ever produced.
What makes you think a layperson wants to know how a computer works?
Some where, like in the very beginning of this book, should be a simple statement, that you must have patience to use a computer.
When using a computer I think people need to know why do I have to do it that way vs how do I do it that way.
For some beginners scroll bars are confusing when you hit the up button the Text goes down, and when you hit the down button it goes up. You need to explain to them is they are pretending that you are looking at the text like you look threw binoculars when you move them up it looks like the world is going down. Or the Desktop Folder interface scheme.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Most people think that computer attacks/hack attempts are personal and thus think 'Nobody would want to hack MY computer'. Explain that these attacks are not personal and are often carried out automatically by an infected computer. Explain that there are only ~4Billion possible internet locations the computer can search and it will only take a few days for a computer to search all possible locations on the internet. Remind them that a computer can do over a billion things a second which is why it can search so many computers locations so quickly.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
Just enough to get them in trouble, so I have to fix their machine.
In this day and age, I need all the job security I can get. If that means users being 'click monkees'(TM), so be it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go delete the users' home volume, and restore it from last months: just out of spite.
I actually wrote a book like that. My agent is currently shopping it around to publishers. What i did was, I used my parents, who are 60ish, and in my mind, perfect specimens. (My dad always had a secretary and NEVER used a computer) I am a technical writer, so I am used to writing processes at a third grade level linguistically, but I am not used to writing at a third grade level technically. The key to writing an intor text, from my experience, is to write it in such a way that you feel it is insulting to the reader in terms of the basicness. Believe me, I know- I have read physics books that the author likely couldn't believe that he/she was putting in such elementary things, when to me, a layperson, these ideas are complex. It is not easy to write for an audience with zero knowledge about a subject that you know a great deal about.
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
I just lend people PC for Dummies. I bought it for my mother, and it helped her a lot. I've lent this and a couple of other Dummies books for Office & Windows it usually keeps them from asking the really dumb questions. Except for one individual who has a notebook with written instructions on reading his email. Go to the email icon on the desktop, click twice etc., he is beyond all hope.
If a computer was an appliance like a washing machine they would have been recalled due to faults. You would never except the bugs you do with a computer with an item of white ware.
Yes i am posting this from work like you.
Maybe most people are capable of understanding computers but most geeks are such shitty communicators they just cant explain things clearly enough, often because they just dont understand the subject well enough themselves half the time.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
I'd say you have no chance in hell of writing a single book that will tell people like your grandmother and my mom how computers work. A lot of it's bound up in information theory, and if you've never thought about it before, it's a lot like swallowing the red pill and waking up outside of the Matrix, because it legitimately touches on every aspect of your life.
Having said that, I do wish you luck. Maybe you have such pedagogical skill that I will be proven completely wrong.
Those are the things I'd include off the top of my head.
The book "Computer Science: An Overview" by J. Glenn Brookshear provides a good introduction to most aspects of computers and their use, without getting too technical or too vague. Some of the topics aren't really relevant to most users, and reading this book won't help most people know how to use their machine any more effectively. But for the person somewhat interested in what goes on in a computer and why, this book provides a solid grounding of what most computer people are talking about.
These two books are completely different and you should know which one you're writing, and not mix things up.
I personally would love a book that explains the basics of how RAM, TCP/IP, USB ports etc. work -- written in a way that somebody with no engineering background can grasp. But from the tone of your question I think what you're really leaning towards writing is a book that lets brand new computer users bypass the clueless stage. For this, you'd want to explain the differences between OSX, Windows, and Linux, and give users a good way to choose. You'd want to acquaint them with the main sorts of applications that exist -- word processors, spread sheets, browsers, etc. Then you'd explain a bit about each, like what a word processor is great at doing (things like on-the-fly spellcheck), and what it sucks at doing (book quality layout.)
Basically, you want to teach people the fundamentals of using each type of application, and keep them from using a screwdriver as a hammer (using Microsoft Word to typeset a book, for instance.)
You'd also want to write about the various peripherals you can install, like wireless cards, optical mice, and high-quality video and sound cards.
And finally, you'd want to make the writing engaging enough that people would actually read your book cover to cover. That's the biggest trick of all, and really, the only hard trick.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
I really wish that users understood that when something goes wrong, it stays wrong, and won't be fixed by trying the same thing a dozen times,
...Explain the difference between "memory" and "storage".
I can not even count the number of times I have said "your computer does not have enough memory for this" and gotten the reply "but it says I have 15 jig-a-bytes free, isn't that a lot?"
I think this problem is 99.9% the industry's fault for choosing the word "memory" to refer to something stored short-term (should have come up with some new word like 'zoigle'), but anyways...
Drawn from repeated conversations with family, the top three things that I wish novices knew:
1. Just because you saw it on the Internet doesn't make it true. This applies equally to politics, science, and "YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN INFECTED BY SPYWARE! CLICK HERE TO REMOVE!" (reference: my aunt, who spent about thirty bucks downloading sketchy looking "web accelerator" software because a popup told her that she needed it desperately.)
2. Messages/windows/random stuff which appears on your screen does so as a result of programs running on your computer. Sometimes they're from the operating system, sometimes from a program you launched, and sometimes from software which is trying to hide from you. Your first hint that something is wrong here will often be, "Huh. I wonder where that window came from?" (reference: the countless tech support calls I've had from people who failed to connect the porn adverts appearing from out of nowhere with the "one thousand cool smiley-faces in your email!!!!!" software they downloaded.)
3. It's surprisingly easy to render a computer completely inoperable. Back up your data accordingly, and make sure you have easy access to your install/rescue media. (reference: personal experience)
I don't get fed up with a lack of knowldege of users. That would be like a mechanic getting fed up with me when I bring my car in. I get sick of when users they pretend that they know things. Explain the symptoms to me, then I determine what the problem is.
Once teacher in high school had a problem and asked me to run the anti-virus scanner. I did, then told him it was done. He then explained to me that he couldn't print, and that was the real problem. I looked and the printer was out of ink. I told him to buy some more ink.
v4sw6PU$hw6ln6pr4F$ck 4/6$ma3+6u7LNS$w2m4l7U$i2e4+7en6a2X h
When I was 8, I got a computer for Christmas. My granny said to me, "Ask it who the Prime Minister is!"
Stick Men
The mouse is NOT a footpedal.
People need a good explanation of system latencies other than those pertaining to the processor speed; things like FSB speeds and the arrangements of devices off the north and south bridges. I feel like there's so much judgement passed on a system based on just that one aspect that people have no way of knowing what type of system they're buying or using. People need to start paying attention to RAM and FSB speeds as well as HDD and peripheral interfaces. They also need a good explanation of bit depth in different parts of a system. The average user doesn't know what the difference between a 24-bit and 16-bit souncard is, and they don't know how a 64-bit processor differs from a 32-bit one. I think a good book that explains these things in a simple, easy to understand fashion would be a great asset to the casual computer user/comsumer. (I'm not saying it will be easy to write though) :)
-Julius
Everyone who doesn't know a thing about computers uses the word "download" to mean any kind of data transfer from one piece of hardware to another. To my wife, for example, you "download" a pic to a server on the Internet. (To her I respond, "No, you UPLOAD it"). Or if I transfer a file from one of our computers to another, she still calls it "download". Or even if I install a program from a CD, my wife still calls it "downloading".
...he knew how to treat a female impersonator!
joke, waste your mod points elsewhere
"Made up/misattributed quote that makes me look smart. I am on
I wish we could get royalties for developing the outline for your book.. that's what I wish..
-- You can't idiot-proof anything, because they're always coming out with better idiots.
Define that the monitor is not the computer, and the computer is not the monitor.
A user isn't alone in their efforts to understand any modern technical system. In fact, there is an army of user-interface designers trying very hard to make this 'simple and straightforwards' to reduce the number of tech-support calls. Any computer, toaster, or VCR that's half-well-designed wants to be understood, if you'll forgive my personification.
So... Don't fight them! More often than not, people have assumed a machine/task is difficult long before making an attempt (and indirectly working with the army of engineers helping them).
Generally, people who don't want to get into a device think about the device as it's function. A dishwasher is a machine which washes dishes, and most people won't think very hard about how the motors and pumps and timers work. A car is a machine which takes you and your stuff from here to there, etc. Form follows function, and a car is designed to take you from here to there reasonably safely and comfortably.
The problem is that a computer *isn't* like this, at least not for most people, not yet. A computer may be the machine you use to check your email or browse the web, but that's really not what it *is*. A computer isn't designed to browse the web, it's designed to run software. Some of that software includes web browsers.
I think that's a big part of why people have trouble with computers. They want to know, "why doesn't my computer just *work*?" And the answer is that it's really hard to even say what that means for a computer. It's a general-purpose device. Companies which sell systems sometimes try to package the computer as an appliance with some finite number of functions, but without making the whole thing run off ROM and denying the user the chance to do new fun stuff, it's really not an appliance.
"history of the Internet, how computers talk to each other, what a hard drive does, etc."
I think you should skip most of that. At least keep them extraordinarily brief. History of the Internet shouldn't be more than two sentences. How computers talk should be about one sentence explaining that it's exactly like how people talk on telephones, but computers use computer sounds instead of voices. A hard drive is a file cabinet where your computer stores documents.
Any more complicated than that and your book won't be any better than existing books. Few new computer users even care about that sort of thing, so get it out of the way in "additional information" bubbles or something like that.
You need to provide the content that techies normally answer for their families:
1. How do I attach a photo to an email (provide examples in Outlook, Outlook Express, Hotmail, Thunderbird, etc).
2. What are viruses and how can I stop them? Explain a virus in terms of a biological virus that humans get. Some are like colds that go away and others are like cancer that kill your computer. Provide a link to AVG Free with screen captures detailing how to keep it updated.
3. Installing new computer accessories. Everybody buys a digital camera or a printer that comes with a CD. Explain the steps involved for setting up most printers and digital cameras. Show exactly what a USB cable and port looks like as well as a serial cable and port. Most beginners do not know this and many are afraid to plug anything into their computers. Tell them that making a mistake won't harm their computer because cables can't fit where they don't belong.
4. Direct people to places where they can get good free software for things such as creating calendars and photo albums.
5. Keep your book directed at Windows users. Even if you love Macs it's too hard to provide this information about more than one OS without confusing readers who only know their computer is a Dell. You'll need to instruct them how to tell which email client they have, what the icon looks like, etc.
6. Show people how to clean up their desktop by deleting unused icons. Windows sort of does this, but not in an intuitive way. Many beginners and even intermediate users won't delete icons from their desktop and have trouble finding things because of it.
I'm sure I could think of more. I gave my mom an Ubuntu Linux PC in August for her birthday. She's 65 and it's the first computer she's ever used. She has never once asked me how the Net works or about the history of computers. She just wants to send email, look at digital photos she takes and send them to people. Other than for Gmail she doesn't really use the Net at all.
It might be a good idea to separate your book into beginner and advanced topics. Beginner topics discuss how to do basic things like attaching photos to email while advanced topics can include creating online photo albums for family, removing red eye from photos, etc.
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.
I teach a basic web development class, and my students often have a spotty understanding of computers in general.
The one foundational skill that I think cripples computers users, is the understanding of the filesystem. I think the most common source of confusion with computers is "where did it go? it was just here!".
People download and save files to the default location, and then hope it's in "My Documents" somewhere. But they don't know how to navigate to "My Documents" (C:\Documents and Settings\Username\My Documents). When people understand it's a tree and how to find it's trunk, their eyes light up with sheer user power.
Slices, dices, eats your lunch.
Homer: Now then... computer.. kill Flanders!
Ned: Did I hear my name? My ears are burning!
Homer: [whispering to mouse] That's a good start, now finish the job!
Ned: Oh, you're busy. Catch you later, compu-tator!
Homer: Oh, five thousand dollars for a computer and it can't even handle a simple assignment!
Developers: We can use your help.
Page 1: reference list of book opcodes ...
Page 2: program to produce page 2 text
Page N: md5 sums of pages 2-N used to check for possible reading comprehension problems
Epilogue: "Now grasshopper is one with computer."
Now that's a book that will let them know what computers are all about.
Computers are dumb objects.
... a big-ass path of "decisions". That's all.
... there is no "thinking" the box does on its own.
Let me explain that. During the course of my studies for my degree, I found out *what* computers are made of and how they do what they do. Just electrons falling through metal
People need to at least understand it's not a magic box
Remember, before writting, know your audience. Who is this book going to be tailored too? 40+ people with little or no knowledge of computers, 8-14 year olds who want to learn the in's and out's of a computer (possibly future /. readers), the list goes on. I know when I was young, I learned computer hardware by playing with old machines, but not everyone learns like that. So a simplistic detailed book may be good for them. On the other hand, my parents need a step-by-step instruction on how to do anything on a computer. So they might was a book that has a list of step-by-step instructions on how to do some simple and some not so simple tasks. Just my opinion....
okay, you want us to help you write a book for the layman so that you can claim it as yours!! I want 50 percent of gross sells before giving you advise.
All I ask is that people read Windows XP for Dummies or the equivalent for their OS before actually going out and purchasing a computer. Yes, they are, for the most part easy to use, but so are cars... though you're required to get a license for a reason. Don't buy a frick'n computer if you don't even know how to run an installer program to walk you through setting up your Anti-Virus. If you want to learn and don't know anything yet, that's fine... then learn. Don't call your ISP when Internet Explorer keeps crashing and asks you to send an error report.
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
include a bit about basic maintanance. I'd say 50% of all my jobs are due to user caused damage (kicking the machine, pulling cables out roughly, bent pins) include a bit about care and maintanace!
should get A+ certified?
I constantly get calls, "I can't play this game/load this software."
Tell people how to check thier proc. speed (also helps ebay fraud).
Tell people hot to check thier memory (vs. hard drive, see above posts).
How to read the bottom of the box thier software came with BEFORE they purchase.
Real world example: Microsofts latest flight simulater will not work on an 800 Mhz machine even after buying that Radeon 9600, removing 2000 for windows XP and upgrading to 512 ram. Expensive lesson. $5-$600 bucks later, you realize you could have overnighted a brand new Dell to fix your problem for $350.
When the "computer as an appliance" becomes hidden behind an applied interface, then it ceases being called a computer. Ipods, cellphones, TiVo, etc. have more hardware and software than gneral computers more than 5-10 years ago. But the "computerness" is somewhat hidden in the appliance.
Do your parents need to understand Electrodynamics to use a toaster?
Do they need to know how to set the timing on an internal combustion engine to drive?
The point is that unless you are on the engineering side or on the repair side you need only limited knowledge.
What's needed is not a book to teach the basics, but a book which can provide linkage to bits of information that are needed.
I think what you really need to tell people is not to assume things. Its been mentioned memory!=disk space and cpu!=the whole system...
Tell them to take a deep breath, and admit they do not understand this stuff. When asking for help, ask "I need more space for music, what can I do?" and not "If I upgrade my memory, can I store more music?"
-FL
> What does the general public think they understand, but really don't?"
That's the main question in this thing, and that's what the book shouldn't be aimed at. These things change over time so if you write them in, your book is as dated as "Learn yourself Windows 3.11 in 24 hours".
Stuff they think they know:
Every computer runs Windows.
Everybody can install the drivers that come with the hardware, that's what they're for right?
All stuff in shops works in Windows on a PC.
When your computer slows down it's natural and you just need to reinstall.
Computer hackers destroy computers and are only bad guys.
Programming is very hard, near impossible.
When Windows fails you call out your nearest computer nerd and tell him to fix it. Every computer nerd claims to know a computer, so he should at least know how to fix Windows.
Rebooting is considered a way of fixing stuff.
Microsoft file formats are accessible for everybody.
Computer software is only decent if you have to pay for it, but you shouldn't pay but get it off the intarweb, that's cheaper.
Flash websites are better than XHTML websites.
You know, stuff that would make you ignore somebody instead of answering them.
Every user I've ever met whose 2+ year-old Windows installation is limping along because of (1) all of the crap they've loaded on their system and (2) all of the "patches" that Micro$oft has courteously given them SWEARS their problem is a virus. Actually, anytime anything goes wrong, the average user guesses "virus!". The fact of the matter is that computers require MAINTENANCE and CARE just like anyother system. That means re-loading a Windoze OS every 2 years, removing lost files (.chk or lost+found), defragmenting, cleaning off spyware, etc.
- Email - Don't open email from people you don't know or addresses you don't recognize; if you do recognize them, read them thoroughly first and do not click on anything in the email until you are sure it is actually from the sender and not a virus sent from their address book. If you're not sure, send them an email (do not forward!) asking them if they sent it.
- IMs - See Email
- Don't try this at home Unless you're knowledgeable about these things, do not try to set up firewalls, home networks, etc. without assistance. Find someone who knows these things.
- Bad people will try to attack you - Set your virus scanner to automatically update your definitions daily. Install a firewall. Don't buy online except from well-known and trusted sources. Get, use, and update anti-spyware.
- Keep up to date on events in cyberspace - visit computer news sites, Slashdot, anti-virus websites (using RSS where possible). Be on the lookout for the latest happenings (phishing atacks, Trojans, viruses, etc.). Ask someone for help if you are not sure.
My two copper coins.GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
People should understand that a computer can only do a few things. It will read data, write data, some i/o, and some processing.
I wish one of my clients could understand that an ip address is like a phone number. If he has a hosted and remote server running his email with one domain name, that he can't run a webserver at his office using the same domain name.
Boole's and Shannon's insight is that all information about a comptuer problem can be expressed using only two nouns. They are zero and one, or on and off, or high-voltage and low-voltage.
I wish people were not scared of their computer. Many people never learn to use a computer well, because they are afraid they will break it.
GUI does not equal Windows!
Updates are important!
IE does not equal Internet!
Many people can't tell when they are online and when they are not.
MS is not your friend... so stop giving them money
I think the public should know more about DRM issues and patent issues.
I could go on, but...
1. Sounds sad to say, but in this day and age, you can't trust anybody just because what they say sounds intelligent or correct. Rather, you have to read about file and password security, computer protection, sharing data, and staying up to date with the latest trends and advances from reliable sources. Verify that what you are being told is true, preferrably from a knowledgeable human being.
2. Take a class in basic computing, using email, the internet, installing software and hardware and general computer maintenance. You can learn a lot from a knowledgeable instructor, and chances are you will have notes and books of what you have learned for future reference.
3. Read slashdot.com, cnet.com, search wikipedia and many other informative sites like this one.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
1. That when an AV program tags your email (EMAIL CONTAINS VIRUS) that it does NOT mean that it is now OK to read the email because the AV program "fixed it"! 2. That just because you don't notice your computer running faster after I search the registry to remove gator, that it is now safe to reinstall weatherbug! 3. A firewall does not enable you to safely turn on every neat flash, activeX, java, or any other "cute" program that "you want to show me" "that you found on the internet". I would personally like a good analogy with a bullet proof vest and taking a bullet between the eyes.
Why doesn't this dang computer work??!? Can you fix it for me?
People know how to do that.
USER: Hey, my email seems to have stopped working so I looked in my control panel and both my LAN connection and my 1394 connection are enabled.
ME: And?
USER: And how do I fix that?
ME: *FOREHEAD SLAP*
You shouldn't use computers. Computers are bad, m'kay? If you use computers, which are bad, you're bad, m'kay? And that's bad.
Shop as usual. And avoid panic buying.
Disk and RAM storage are both called "memory" because in information theory terms they are different meatspace arrangements for doing exactly the same thing -- storing bits of information so that you can read them back. Early computer scientists didn't make much of a distinction because for one reason those early machines often used magnetic disk or drum storage the way we now use RAM. And early personal computers had no fixed disk storage, only floppy disks (if they even had those) which nobody would confuse with memory installed in the machine. So the terminology problem that was created before 1950 really didn't become a problem for average users until around 1990.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
The Computers Merit Badge Phanplet, available at any Scout shop nation wide. You can drop some of it, but it has a lot of good stuff in it for your task.
And if you are going to do a history, don't start with the internet, get some paper tape, some punched cards, and some old floppy disks (8", 5.25" and 3.5") to show how far we have come over the years.
The problems the average dumbass create on their pc is how I make money. Don't go teaching them shit and fuck it up for me!!!
Kickass Cheap Web Hosting
Brayton Cycle => Gas Turbines
Otto or Diesel Cycle => Cars
But.
This is much like math anxiety. It's not just the subject, it's the fear. Most people so fully assume that it's beyond them that their first reaction is to fall helpless to the floor.
When I used to do tech support, I used to tell people that the thing wasn't complicated (at least not conceptually), just big. That is, there's just not, for the average MS Word user, much to figure out. Hit this button, that happens. Hit thatbutton, that other thing happens( repeat 1000 times). It's like dealing with a dishwasher with 1000 buttons. Nobody things they know what all the buttons do, but it's a dishwasher, for chrissakes, if you only know the 5 buttons you need you're fine and you don't give yourself an inferiority complex worrying about the other 995.
Thinking the thing is so deep is the problem. The knowledge domain for IS-type stuff is wide but shallow- lots of things to know, lots of disconnected facts, not much depth to them. Compare this to say, writing a novel, where the knowledge required is narrow (very few "things' to know-think of what you wnat to write and write it) but very deep. The wide knowledge looks hard to people when in fact it's conceptually very shallow.
And that's why most people think they can't use a computer but can and most people think they can write a novel but can't.
I think the problem with the question you and anyone who is apt and able with computers has is that there is literally two worlds: the computer world and its history and the normal world. The normal world is aware of devices which allows them to do things differently. Ie, word processing is a task which is done one a variety of devices like typewriters, wordprocessors, and computers. In such a case, a computer is just a huge expensive word processor/typewriter. This is completely different from the normal world user who may use their "computer" to just do email, surf the web, and chat. In that person's case, the computer is just a way to keep in touch and get the news. Define your scope. Otherwise, you will literally have to feed the other person the entire world history of computers. There are dedicated fields to such topics. A couple of them are called world history and anthropology. What do you want your family member to understand, exactly? Why do they need to know? The word computer just means something that computes. But that is meaningless to a lay person. In an ideal world, people wouldn't need to know what's going on inside of the computer. (Ie, Apple's view, most "computer" devices and portables, etc) If you really want her to learn what a computer is, enroll her in post-adult education in computer science. The formalized course will introduce her to concepts which forms the basis of computer theory. This will, in turn, lead to a better understanding of why computers work the way they do and what it is that they do: automate repetitive tasks, present simple interfaces to overly complex tasks, or whatever you want them to do. You don't need to understand what a computer is and how it works to derive enjoyment and use out of it. But you do need that understanding to make the most out of it.
Winged Power Photography
Hi Dwayne,
Hope you're having a great day. I tried to put pictures into a folder
and ended up with a screen full of icons on the "desktop".
So, please call this evening before '24' and get me cleaned up.
Thanks, Dad
He does not need to know what an internet is... he needs simple exercises with moving files. Getting them comfortable with moving files and how to open programs/etc.
Religion and politics, without the flame. godgab.org
"Your computer represents the work of literally millions of people, from hardware to software, that have worked virtually independently of one another to create a complete product. The fact that it works at all is a miracle. Please don't complain if something isn't to your liking."
Some of these may surpise you:
0. What an operating system is: Most people think OS == computer, and so they fail to appreciate the degree of flexability that their computer actually offers them. If they understood that OS != computer then they would be more open to a FOS OS.
0.5. The idea that there is a division between userspace (things I can do) kernelspace (things the computer does). This is useful because it leads naturally into a discussion of root/administrator and other system accounts, why they are there and why they should be protected. It would also debuse people of the notion that their computers are not safe just because they are on, but not "doing anything". It also is a good segway into "what a driver is".
1. WHOIS and DNS basics: If more people used it, we wouldn't have as much phishing as we do now, because they would not implicity trust URLs.
2. Include a big chapter on all of the easy ways that passwords can be cracked, stolen, guessed, etc. Most people don't appreciate how much information you can steal, say, rooting around in their trash for old desktop calendars. They also don't appreciate how fast you can crack short passwords.
3. Digital Signatures. If only more people knew how to use these! E-mail spoofing and privacy concerns go poof!
4. Bitorrent and filesharing, because you've got to give people what they want.
5. Explain what all of the major HTTP error codes mean and how they get around them. This kills the old "Son, I got a timeout error. Is the computer broke? No mom, just wait a little while and try again. The Web site is busy, or having routing problems."
6. Backups, backups, backups.
7. Explain the USB 2.0 Fullspeed vs. Highspeed crapulance.
8. VoIP HOWTO? Its day may have come...
9. The difference between POP3 and IMAP. Having that as common knowledge would have saved me some time over the years...
10. Explain that deleted != destroyed. Data recovery tools can get stuff back. You should cover this from both side 1) this is good because sometimes you can recover data 2) this is bad because you teenage son's porn stash never really died.
11. Rudamentary HTML and CSS
That should be enough for now.
...En að Besta Sem Guð Hefur Skapað Er Nýr Dagur
My parents (more often my father) use both Macs and Windows PCs. I'm forever trying (and failing) to explain how Mac OS indicates application context switching. A major problem is that my father doesn't understand that closing a window in Windows kills the application, whereas closing a window in MacOS only closes the window--the application remains running in memory. I see evidence of this same cognitive dissonance with my mother, when a dozen applications are running on her iMac, but only three windows from any of those applications are actually on the desktop or minimized. Naturally performance suffers in this situation. This is especially pertinant on my dad's office computer, because he's running Virtual PC and needs to switch between a PC world and a Mac world. He doesn't really understand that he's changing operating systems, and therefore changing user interface philosophies.
Maybe this concept is a bit too advanced when the average user only has to get used to one environment. It's something I deal with whenever I'm on a service call with my parents though.
frostycellnex
So I say forget doing a book at all (at least initially), and instead consider screenwriting a DVD video. People will be far more willing to give it a quick spin than check out a book. Also, it's much cheaper to duplicate, and you can distribute it over the Internet. (Technically, the same is also true of "books" in PDF format, but books are traditionally not thought of in that manner.)
If the DVD is a success, than you can go into more depth in a follow-on book (or just leave a PDF file on the DVD).
Schwab
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
Wasn't there a whitepaper that listed "user education" as one of the top myths of IT?
Even if you write the perfect book the target audience won't bother to read it. They don't really want to be educated even when they say they do. The phrase "Why doesn't this work properly?" is almost never a request for an explanation, only a complaint phrased as a question. I don't really mind at this point, I've just learned to deal with it.
This pessimistic view is only what I've managed to glean from supporting people at work and at home for years. Maybe the OP has a more motivated user base that truly wants to be taught and keep up with changes in technology.
Many people are replying asking that a section be included to tell the user what the difference between RAM and Hard Drive are.
A generic user won't care in the least. All they'll both need and want to know is that "it stores your stuff". If you MUST include something, just say "RAM makes it go faster, Hard drive is how much room you have"
And don't bother defining any acronyms. No random person in a conversation will say "random access memory". They'll say "RAM", and that's it.
Coming from many years of tech support, I'll give some of the most common mistakes.
There were several good ideas of describing what they see directly in front of them (keyboard, mouse, etc) and what they do. Tell people the difference between the monitor and the case. That pushing the power button on the monitor does nothing but turn off a TV. The signal is still being sent to your TV, but it's just not showing it on the screen.
The disk drives. SHINY SIDE DOWN! That's about all they need to know about a CD-Rom. That, and the little disks hold your files. And tell people the difference between a CD and a DVD, like that a CD-rom can't read dvd, but a dvd can read cd.
Someone also mentioned a good one. If you don't know what something is, DON'T CLICK ON IT! Unless you don't know what an item in a menu does, ask someone who does. Odds are, you don't need it.
Inside My Computer... do not delete anything other than something you created and named yourself (ie: word file, etc). All of those little pictures with words under them are files that the computer needs to stay happy.
As well, if you want to clean it, tell people how to clean the screen and keyboard, and who to check for and clean dust from the various openings in the computer.
And finally... if you need to call help, saying you got "a good brand name" doesn't do anything. Some other statements to avoid:
"But I got a DELL!" - if it's broken, it's broken. All computers can break.
"Why did this happen" - That's like asking "why did that bulb burn out." It just did. That's all.
"Will this happen again" - I don't know. Will the next bulb you put in burn out? Will you get in a car accident tomorrow? I can't see the future.
So in layman's term, computer is an electronic appliance, you plug in the power, turn it on and use it.
Even if I accept your framing of this debate, there are a few issues. First, you don't just "use" a washing machine. There are settings, types of detergent, general rules about mixing colors, etc. There are even some out there (as I found out when I returned home for the holidays) that don't automatically set the time when you put in quarters, or, even more shockingly, need quarters!
That's the level of complexity that this book should be targetted to. Not teaching how to run a webserver or how to "fix" the hardware (in your analogy, performing maintence or upgrades on the washer), but what a "browser" is and how it talks to other computers, what the "Internet" is and how it is (or was) different from the WWW, how viruses do what they do and why, the difference between RAM and your hard drive. Basically, everything your parents have or have wanted to ask you about computers.
Folks looking to get a rudimentary understanding of their computer really don't want to read history. That's just a turn off and a waste of their time. If you insist on including historical information, put it in an appendix. What you need to do is determine what it is these folks minimally need to know and put that right up front in the clearest non-geek language possible. If you do that, your book will gain success by way of word-of-mouth and won't wind up on the store shelves among the hundreds of other failures.
Heard any good sigs lately?
people understood that MS Windows is just an operating system, not part of the computer itself, and that there are better alternatives such as Linux.
If more people just knew the difference between memory (RAM) and storage (Hard Drive), I'd be happier.
Sheesh!
The real problem isn't that the information you'd like to convey to these laypeople has never been put into an easily readable, accessible format. The problem is that most people really don't give a damn about how things work.
Remember that most people never bother to even learn the full capabilities of the devices they come into every day contact with, like cell phones. Do you think that people who can't program their VCRs are really interested in the science involved in storing and retrieving data from a magnetic tape?
I'm not trying to harsh your mellow, but you need to face the facts. Most people are content to believe that the underlying technologies that make their lives so easy are simply "magical," and leave it at that.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
To include in your book, one bold line that reads:
A COMPUTER IS WORTHLESS WITHOUT APPLICATIONS TO PERFORM SPECIFIC TASKS.
I allways hear "I just got a new Digital Camcorder and I want to make home movies with it. Could you quickly tell me how I do that?"
or
Comp Ignorant: "My sister can do (long explanation shortend to..)video chat, I want to do that with my computer."
Me: "Oh cool, what kind of computer do you have & how fast is it?"
Comp Ignorant: "A Dell"
Me: (realizing they don't know their specs) "How Old is it?"
Comp Ignorant: "It's not that old.."
Me: (realizing they are not aware computer hardware "AGES" fast in relevance to application performance... )"When did you buy it?"
Comp Ignorant: "2000"
Me: (to save time and energy as I allready wasted 10 minutes trying to get them to tell me anything useful) "Buy a cheap new computer, get broadband, and call me when your ready..."
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
>>>shudder at the possibility of the history of computers being taught to my parents.
:)
I agree.
The book should take on the angle of driving a car.
ANALOGIES
Controls: keyboard and mouse
Engine: OS
Bumpers: AV software
Crooked mechanic: Windows update
Lemons: Windows (please pass a lemon law for this crap OS)
Mclaren F1: GNU/Linux (or is linux an original VW which became a porsche?)
Car Jackers: script kiddies/spyware/adware
Of course You need road signs, maps, short cuts, scenic routes and many other things. "Drivers training" should be a requirement.
(copywrite Ken Wood 2006)
The government which is strong enough to protect you from everything is strong enough to take everything from you.
Explain everything in simple concepts, ditch unnecessary ones. For example I found out that people tend to always confuse hard drive space with memory, so I chose to simplify things a bit, dividing everything in two main categories: 1. Components which cost you a lot of money and you get in touch with them rarely CPU, RAM, mainboard, etc 2. Components which can be easily upgrade-able and you bump into them most of the time HDD, optical unit, video card, etc I used this approach when I explained how a computer works to my uncle and he has never asked me anything computer related since. It must be working...
This is not your signature.
Please explain that AOL's internet is the same as IE's internet.
The actual computer is not a "hard drive". The thing that the monitor sits on top of is the computer.
A Mac is a PC (is a Mac)
A floppy/diskette drive and a zip drive are not the same.
The CD-ROM is not a cupholder.
No matter what the web page says, you did not win anything. You never win anything online.
Someone does not have "The Internet", just like someone does not have "The Highway."
The monitor is not a "TV Screen."
Unless you continually try to win things online by clicking on the web page (in blatant violation of the aforementioned rule), if there's some folder and you don't know what it does, chances are it's important.
Confirmation dialog boxes are there for a reason.
Feel free to add more.
"I want to get more into theory, because everything works in theory." -John Cash
Come on...there are thousands upon thousands of books, and there are many books for dummies (not to be confused with the "for dummies" books). What you really meant to say is that people can't be bothered to read a paragraph let alone a book (even a slim one).
There are way too many topics to cover in a post, but some
Computer Etiquette
Computer Security
When in doubt --- DON'T DO IT!
Check your plugs to make sure they are attached properly
E-mail tips
Web surfing tips
A cousin/nephew/grand child who is a computer geek.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
People need to understand why a simple reboot fixes half of their problems.
Might wanna check out How Computers Work before getting too far into writing the new book. I've used it several times to explain concepts to new computer users.
when is enough enough? Can we expect people to get a freakin' clue about computers? Why must those people who are good at understanding what makes a computer tick have to put up with the psychological abuse from complete technological idiots? And look at all the time wasted.. at this rate a third world banana republic will have caught up to the first world.. without computers.
Wow. Just Wow. That's a huge task.
Consider how much you know about computers, and how long it has taken you to accumulate that knowledge, some of which you just understood the first time you saw it, because you're probably interested in the subject and bright enough to pick it up. The lay-person is neither of those things (well, perhaps they're somewhat interested if they actually purchase your book).
I guess you could try looking at it from their point of view. Computers are magical to the lay-person because they have no clue how a computer "knows things". They don't understand where the letter they wrote is saved, and how it comes back up on the screen, how things are undeleted, or even how it can add 2 numbers with electricity.
I would do something like this...
1) a bit (logical and electrical representation)
2) binary number systems, how to add/subtract/multiply/divide in binary
3) boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, XOR)
4) describe how add/subtract/multiply/divide can be done with boolean operators
5) a transistor - MOSFET is a good start, simpler than BJT if you simplify it (boy, this is getting deep)
6) now show how all the boolean gates can be created with MOSFETs
7) memory - a flip/flop is good enough, don't worry about DRAM
8) opcodes - how to store add/subtract/multiply/divide as numbers in binary, give an example from a RISC processor, like a PPC
9) ALU - algorithmic logic unit, uses opcodes to tell it what ops to perform
10) program - just a list of opcodes and data
11) memory structures - just do Array based stuff, to keep it simple, describe a random access file structure, fixed field lengths, like a bank statement or something
12) A simple program to total the debits and credits in that file structure, using the opcodes from #8 above
After a while you're going to get to the point where you're writing an introductory text book, so stop. If you want, take a look at Neal Stephenson's book, Cryptonomicon - he actually has mathematical stuff in that novel and it's written so people can get it. See what he did and build off that.
Remember, people really don't know how you can even do math in a CPU. Some programmers don't even know. But that's what the lay person is saying when they say they don't get it.
And don't expect that you can write a book that anyone can understand. I've run across people who did not understand how to use a handheld barcode scanner, and that's something so darned obvious that I never thought about how to teach someone what to do, other than point and shoot.
Good luck!
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
These would be a good start: 1) C:\ is a location on a filesystem/disk 2) What a URL is 3) What an email address looks like And then the next thing to learn would be to tell the difference between a website that'll give you a virus and one that will not.
I constantly get calls, "I can't play this game/load this software." Tell people how to check thier proc. speed (also helps ebay fraud). Tell people hot to check thier memory (vs. hard drive, see above posts). How to read the bottom of the box thier software came with BEFORE they purchase. Real world example: Microsofts latest flight simulater will not work on an 800 Mhz machine even after buying that Radeon 9600, removing 2000 for windows XP and upgrading to 512 ram. Expensive lesson. $5-$600 bucks later, you realize you could have overnighted a brand new Dell to fix your problem for $350.
I don't understand how exactly a car works. I have a vague idea that combustion of gasoline creates pressure which is channeled into turning wheels, but that's about it. I don't have the foggiest clue how laundry soap works, or dry-cleaning for that matter. In the same token, I haven't the foggiest clue how to understand women.
There are levels of underestanding required for the use of anything. If you break it down, malicious software exists because some jerks out there are exploiting the fact that they understanding software deficiencies better than Microsoft or you. People don't *need* to understand 100% how things work. They could, but they don't care to. Over time as people age, they accumulate a list of things they "know" and their curiosity and desire to learn decreases (the more you know, the less you care to learn).
People care more about increasing the comfort level in their lives than in increasing the understanding of the world. Ignorance is bliss, and the more you learn, the more aware you become of your ignorance (ie, you are really learning just how much you don't understand).
Most people see computers as a tool, albeit an annoying, complicated, troublesome one. In fact, from the people I have talked to, if they could get away with NOT using computers in their daily lives, they would. They'd rather spend their time with family, or recreationally, etc. As a tool, computers are rather flawed - the mere fact that they break down so easily is proof of that. Instead of thinking of ways to make it easier to learn the tool, why don't we just fix the tool itself? Make it simpler, easier to use, more reliable. What you sacrifice in perfect flexibility, you gain in adoption. The best consumer technology is transparent technology.
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
explain that:
...mmhh... running out of quick ideas ...anyone care to expand?
MS Word/PPT/etc is not a suitable format for emails
not everyone has the UI layout in mind for some obscure program they might use (and are unable to do so)
it doesn't make sense to call someone right after sending some email and asking if the received it
"Nae Kin! Nae Quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna be fooled again!"
Having a masters in computer science and having worked at a low "down to the metal (well, poly)" level with VLSI, I think I'm qualified to say that the first lesson every disciplined user needs to understand is that the magic smoke needs to stay on the inside. If it gets out, you need a new one. Feel free to try to collect up all that smoke in a jar and try to cram it back in later. It won't do you any good.
Next week class, we will go over adjusting your computers Johnson Bar, and adequate Frambus parameters. And bring in $5 and I will oil your computers muffler bearings.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
General Concepts:
1. lots of knowledge can only come from experience and effort and can't be taught
2. the field changes often so syntax changes often - general concepts move more slowly
3. not every consultant understands everything - you have to ask around
4. you learn by doing. doing comes from having work to do. find new tasks and try to do them.
5. lots of answers are already on the Internet. Google is your friend. Learn to use it well.
6. the people at slashdot and fark love to talk
Philosophical Rules:
1. If it can appear in a computer, it can be copied. There are no exceptions and never will be.
2. If you help other people, they will help you. Open Source is about working together, not communism and not piracy.
3. Learn why DRM is bad.
4. Perfect anonymity is possible on the Internet so complete censorship is impossible and always will be.
5. AOL is not the Internet and HTML screws up email
Technical Rules:
1. The Internet is slower than your computer.
2. Networks overlap - it's meaningless to say, "There are slowdowns in New York today".
3. understand bloat. Find out why the biggest isn't always the best.
4. The Web is a subset of the Internet. The Internet can do more than the Web. Email is not part of the Web.
5. Your connection to a remote site is made up of a series of connections and is as slow as the slowest link in the chain.
6. Understand asynchronous routing if you are going to use traceroute. Traceroute can only give you part of the story.
My plan was to describe what goes on from clicking on the location field, typing www.wikipedia.org, hitting return, to displaying the contents, step by step. Or for sending an email from a webmail account.
That should be lots of stuff.
I thought people might like that, and be able to relate to it since they are familiar with the results.
You could put that in a separate chapter to offer a view not taken in the rest of your book.
Stephan
http://stephan.sugarmotor.org
If you could read a single book and get everything I've learned in nearly 30 years of computing, you could replace me with a very small shell script.
If such a book existed, stories would be sitting on Slashdot for hours before the "FP" trolls, because we've all be scrambling to get jobs in our 2nd-best skillset.
One pet peeve of mine is that people call hard drive space "RAM". In your book you should thoroughly cover the difference between system memory and drive storage.
For this to work you have to be there. My "users" are generally classmates. my first attempt normally goes "Click File, print, -" then they're like "what, where, gimme a sec" then I wait around 5 minutes. I then get up, gesticulate wildly at the screen going "Click *here*, then *here*" and then they're like "I can't see the screen! Move your hand", repeat once or twice. Then, finally (normally 10 minutes after the question was asked) I take the keyboard off them, hit the hot key, and press enter, wadle to the front of the room and collect their print off. I then have to cope with 6 more of these questions.
I can't complain, they only know how to use windoze to do (insert job here) click here, then here, then here. It's far faster and easier to convey just to say goto start, run, type cmd and press enter. then type XYZ and press enter. I may like GUIs but conveying instructions is best done through a standard CLI thats standard.
Now, *teaching* users require a very large book and a very good teacher with a strong arm to hit the student with. Users will not learn, unless it gets them to do their job instantly think about telling a newbie to click start to turn the computer off...
also, i like macs, i know people who are computer illiterate, who have come and sat down at my mac, logged in, gone online, blah blah blah, and only asked me one or two questions. And I don't have to hover to make sure they don't download spyware, adaware, viruses... etc.
I find these questions surprisingly hard for non-computer people to answer. What is the difference between a data CD with mp3's on it and an audio CD? What is the difference between a data CD with mp3's on it and an "mp3 disk" (like the kind Nero has a wizard for)? This tends to blow minds as well: Your iPod holds 30gb of DATA! Most of the data happens to be mp3 audio files that are played by a software mp3 player on your iPod. To say it holds 10,000 songs is an ESTIMATE. "I burned this CD put it won't play in my CD player" "That's cause you burned an mp3 disk, not an audio CD" "OK, how do I burn an audio CD?" "Start the CD burning wizard, and drag all the mp3 files you want on it onto the playlist" "wait...that's what I did before" "No you burned a data disk with mp3's on it not an audio CD whose audio originally came from mp3 files" "uh...what?"
Most grandmas and Joe Sixpack users out there NEED an appliance. No PC is an appliance right now. Until they can get what they need we will be bitching and they will be bitching as well.
;-)
All of those users COULD be using Linux but will not be for the foreseeable future. Maybe if Microsoft could make an "appliance" version of Windows instead of all the other versions (Home, Pro, Media) that basically turned everything off (java, etc.) made the default user the lowest user class available, and only installed applications during Windows Update that are truely needed then some of the problems might be a little less frequent.
Maybe the Update Center could even have a list of programs that can be installed upon request. Hey, just an idea.
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
People who are woefully un-informed about computers generally aren't going to be interested in reading anything longer than a pamphalet about the subject. If that.
Think about it, how often have you re-explained the same thing (ferinstance "Why doesn't the computer just know the difference between a good program and a bad one?") to the same person, only to have them glaze over, and repeat "but why?"
I admire your initiative, but I'm skeptical about much of a positive result.
---
"I can't complain, but sometimes still do..." Joe Walsh
This seems to be the biggest mystery for many.
Explain what files are. Explain what programs are. Explain that you use programs to open/run/play files. Explain that files go places, most usually on the hard drive, and they're sorted into directories, or 'folders' if you insist. Explain that everything is kept in files one way or another. The computer doesn't just magically know everything.
From there you could also explain how files are loaded into memory, saved, deleted, copied, moved, etc.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
how to at least say where the problem is.
That's it right there. When you go to the doctor, you tell them what hurts. When you go to the mechanic, you tell them what noise your car is making. When you need computer help, you make up something vague to tell the computer guy, like "the internet doesn't work", and usually the computer guy gives you a vague answer back, like "you need a completely new computer".
And the sad thing is, there's no way to bridge this divide. Every person who works on computers has tried to explain computers to average people in ways they can understand. And every one has tried to get average people to explain their problems with computers in ways *we* can understand. Their eyes glaze over, they say "I'm stupid, just fix it", and I end up billing two hours to determe that a USB cable is unplugged.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
You are assuming people care that they don't understand. I support a 100+ users who just plain don't care to know or understand anything beyond their fingertips. Those that care have already been paying attention.
Bottom line is that don't want a PC, they want a toaster. Turn it on, put in bread, wait 30 seconds and out pops my toast. Every time.
But we're not talking about toasters, are we?
legal. fun. profitable. pick two.
The less they know, the more I can charge for my services. :0)
- Basic hardware. CDs, DVDs, hard drives, flash memory devices, monitors. Broad concepts, not specific formats.
- Networks, drives, folders, files, file formats, DRM, icons, and shortcuts. If someone doesn't grok these concepts, they'll ALWAYS be lost. Explain some general pros/cons to various common file formats (JPEGs, etc.).
- Operating systems, drivers, applications, windows, and dialogs. Installing, upgrading, removing, and replacing. File associations and "default" Internet applications.
- Exercises with every chapter burned on a CD included with the book. Not movies, but actually interacting with their own PC using the files provided.
- Practical security: updating the OS, using OSS web and email programs, antivirus, spotting phishing and likely emailed viruses/worms, backing up personal files, the difference between freeware and malware, avoiding snake-oil products like firewalls, registry and memory "optimizers", cookie cleaners, etc.
- Net 101. Connections, web browsing, email management, replying, forwarding, hoaxes, urban legends.
- Basic mousing: double-click, single-click, drag/drop, right-click, etc.
Probably a lot of other topics, but these are a few that the true N00Bs I know have had issues with.
There was a Time-Life book series published in the 80s that did what you're describing. The series was published by subscription, where you got one book per month, each on a different facet of computers and networking.
I believe the series was called How Computers Work, or something similar. A library might have a copy of the series if you want to see how they did it.
Each book was heavy on graphics and professional illustrations, with text placed as a filler on the page. The text was simple, to the point, and did not play down to the reader.
I collected the whole series back then, to lend to people who asked beginner questions, and to have a ready supply of illustrations of the insides of computers. I gave away my series a while back, but it is worth tracking down as a good starting point for your book.
Good luck!
The problem isn't that people don't understand computers, hardware, OS, Internet, etc. The problem is that even if they have that information, people don't understand basic troubleshooting theory - in a word (two words) "problem solving." If you look around (outside the world of IT) you'll see the same ineffectual flailing by many people whenever faced with any kind of problem: They simply don't know how to define what's really wrong, run controlled tests to separate what is working from what's not and eliminate possibilities, check simple things first, etc. Thos same processes can be used to fix a computer, fix a car, or solve a crime. Without an understanding of those processes to the facts, the facts themselves aren't much use.
The problem I think you are going to run into is getting people to read your book. I like to use the car analogy. I drive my car, but when things go wrong, I really have no idea what the problem is beyond "There's a clunking noise coming from under the hood". But I don't feel compelled to go read a book about it to figure out why or where the car is broken. I just take it to a mechanic to fix it. That's his job, not mine.
Most people just don't care to learn how to fix their machines...they just want someone else to make it work so they can keep on doing whatever it was they were doing. And we (geeks)should be glad...it's a pretty lucrative business.
Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.
First off, I think informal, periodic quizzes from time to time would help with reading comprehension. I would say the more pictures the better for hardware, and I don't just mean illustrations. Perhaps you could start off with one modular component (the case say) that you slowly add onto - piece by piece like a puzzle. In this way you could focus on the idiosyncrasies of the machine elements, while keeping it all grounded in visual space. For operating systems, I think that you should explore what all systems must have in common before you delve into the specific details. If lucidly built upon an understanding of the different hardware components, you can easily explain what drivers are and why some components don't need them. Perhaps most of us slowly acclimated to our OS over time through use. You will need to compensate for this natural gravitation by supplying examples that are familiar, or that a reader can follow along with. I feel as though metaphors can sometimes hurt more than they help; I would just make sure that it's simple and not too absurd.
I wish people would understand the limits of what a computer can and cannot do. There's an impression that computers are very smart and should be able to detect all mistakes in the same way a person can. They can autocorrect a spelling error but fail when typing in a URL and many don't understand why it's pedantic in one context but not another. (Actually, URLs may soon have this behaviour too as search engines improve).
I think you need a clearer idea of who the audience is. The following all need very different books:
1) Typical home user who wants: internet, email, word processing, some spread sheet...
2) Gamer moving from console to PC based games
3) Typical corporate user who is trying to figure out what is going on
4) Corporate manager looking to explain problems to IS staff
5) Teacher looking to explain concepts to children
etc...
Don't go crazy on the history, but you should probably go into it a little bit. People want to know how to work their current computer, not how ENIAC worked.
.exe attachment!")
I'd thought for a while about trying to help put together an introductory Internet course, and had made some decisions I think are important. One of my teachers (thankfully, not in the CS department) once started talking about how your computer broadcasts its IP address to every computer on the Internet, and that's why you get so much spam. People will parrot back information they get, without really understanding what's going on. So lay a good framework. Explain IP addresses, but on a basic level. (Don't get into configuring a broadcast address or how BGP4 works.) The analogy of a phone number works decently, and can also be used to explain netblocks. Then introduce DNS.
I'd mention bits and bytes, and megabytes and gigabits, but on a more basic level. But if you explain it well, in layman's terms, I think you can have the average person understanding why their 60 GB hard drive holds less.
I'd devote a reasonable portion of the book to understanding how things work. Why is spam such a problem? How do people get spam? What can they do about spam? How do they protect against viruses? (You can mention various anti-virus programs, but also encourage basic (seemingly not-so) common sense. Don't open random attachments. Don't download random programs.) Explain how some common viruses have spread: especially those that could be prevented by user training. ("Hey, check out this
Cover wireless, and mention its security implications, as well as the potential for interference. (My 2.4 GHz cordless phone and my 802.11g router don't always play nicely.)
Current events are important, too, IMHO. What is "P2P," and why is this R-I-A-A making such a big deal about it? (Try not to be biased!) What's Linux? How is a Mac different from a PC?
Overall, I think it's important to cover a lot of topics, even some that the average user might not deal with everyday, as it helps to lay a good framework for actually understanding how things work. The most important thing, though, is to use a really clear, non-technical tone. In my experience, this is a "gift" some people have, and some don't, and it makes the difference between whether you just confuse people further, or whether it all makes sense when they hear you talk.
________________________________________________
suwain_2
I can't tell you how many times parents and relatives have come to me saying that the computer has a problem and won't do something they want it to do. When I come to check it out, 50% of the time, whenever they try to do whatever it is, an error message comes up that explains the exact nature of the problem and how to fix it. :-x
1. The floppy drive is not a "credit card slot".
2. The optical drive is not a "coffee cup holder".
3. Hard Drive does not mean "tough".
4. Kazaa = Bad
5. Windows = Bad
6. Slow/broken computers do not respond to threats, violence or psychological warfare (unfortunately).
7. Use Firefox NOT IE.
8. Computer = Friend.
9. Internet = Good. The internet is only as evil as you are.
wallpaper != screensaver
I don't know how many times I've heard people mix up the two.
Thank you so much for posting this, I haven't laughed so much for a long time. What a great discussion. Oh dear, how true. How difficult, how impossible, how true!
Please tell people that their tower is NOT called the CPU or the MODEM.....we have those people at work all the time
Mandatory Penny Arcade link.
I think the number one thing you need to talk about is not what is a hard drive, or the difference between DDR ram and a thumb drive, but instead it is how to be safe online. Simply saying never give out personal information is not enough. They need to know how to (relatively) safely buy things on Amazon, or ebay. How not to fall for the various email tricks. I have an older relative that has been using the internet for 4-5 years recently fall for one of these emails asking for credit card information. The email claimed to be from their ISP and said that the credit card that was on file had expired, then provided a click to add a new one link. The site looked legit, except for a small typo in the url.
Ike
Weird that the article author couldn't find this book:
PC for dummies
ISBN 0764540742
Pretty much covers computers in laymans language, doesn't go too deep, and is funny as well. (Lies about lots of stuff to avoid going into detail, though, but does it so that it doesn't matter).
Example of a user question: my computer is too slow, what do I do?
Your book could provide a section: Speeding up your SLOW computer:
--
This FAQ can become of gargantuan size, even to manage the TOC for this book would require some kind of a two way mapping mechanism. Maybe it shouldn't be a book but a piece of software, a knowledgebase? Or maybe it is a book and software in one package?
Anyway, good luck with that, it will be tough - explaining in a book what takes many years of experience and serious problem solving abilities.
You can't handle the truth.
Other posters have covered the obvious things, but two issues that used to drive me nuts were a simple ones: Failure to update antivirus software; and how to plug in the keyboard/mouse/etc.
I'd have someone bring in a computer loaded with viruses, and after telling them that was their problem, they'd insist I couldn't possibly be right! After all, "I have McAfee on it!" Yes, they did, but it was the original install that came with the computer, and only several years out of date.
I also used to cringe when I'd get asked to "come out and hook up(or unhook) my computer." This always brought complaints about the bill, and really is something simple - where and how do you plug in the keyboard (and I've seen someone trying to screw it in), the mouse, printer, and speakers.
yeppers!
If people wanted to know about computers they would learn...
There is already about a bazillion books about various aspects of the subject. Is this new one gonna be an index to thems? Or maybe an overview of them all?
There was a post a couple days ago about a guy that wanted everybody to help make a book about all the known science (or was it the sum of all knowledge), maybe you could just bootleg a section from that one.
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
People need to understand that the computer is telling them something about its state every second. They need to understand that icons are not actually files and can just as easily be inaccurate as accurate about the content of the file. They need to understand the concept of a tree directory structure and that the location of items within that structure is important, persistent, and doesn't change at a whim unless they changed it. They need to understand the difference between single and double-clicking and that doing one when they should the other will have unintended results. Also, that stray clicks can matter.
They need to understand that using computers properly demands precision of action, knowledge and observation that is not usually demanded in normal human interactions. Everything they do matters, and if it's not precisely right then the computer will not behave as intended.
It would also be useful for them to understand the concept of networking. Not the details, just the fact that wired networks must be connected at all junctions, wireless networks require working transceivers and antennas on both ends, and that files on a fileserver actually exist on that server despite the fact that one can view them and use them from the computer on their desk while the network is working.
They need to understand that computers are a technology that is new, constantly changing, experimental and incomplete. That computer technology does not have the same polish and reliability as telephones, refrigerators and automobiles that have spent a hundred years getting to their current level of reliability. They need to understand that their computer and hard drive will absolutely fail, probably at the worst possible time, and that computer data is basically fragile and evanescent. This leads into the necessity of knowing the importance, strategies and mechanics of backing up. And actually doing it.
One more useful thing for end users to know would be that power outages, surges and brownouts can damage their computer and that a UPS is helpful in preventing data loss.
And finally, as a technician myself, they need to understand how frustrating it is to watch users who do not or will not learn repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot with their computers when they would be better off and much happier using a legal pad.
I'm a life-long computer and video game nerd with a BSCS and one year of work experience as a software engineer. I learned to program BASIC as a kid in the mid 80s by typing in programs from books and magazines, then by messing with the code to see what it did, then by making my own little games and utilities.
A computer nerd friend with whom I was living last year (who had been building, configuring, and maintining his own computers and doing his own case mods as a main hobby for several years) was just starting to get into programming by way of a community college programming class. After coaching him for a couple weeks it finally clicked with him how a CPU works, processing one instruction at a time and operating on the current contents of memory with no knowledge of what came before or what comes next (well, except maybe in modern processors but that's beyond the scope of a basic discussion). There is no magic or artificial intelligence built into the CPU - it's mostly just a simple workhorse that can follow a specific set of directions to move bits from one bucket to another and perform elementary math operations and logic evaluations.
It was pretty cool seeing this dawn on my friend, as if I had whisked him behind the curtain where only computer programmers are allowed to hang out. I think if more people realized this, they wouldn't be as intimidated by computers because they'd know how true it is when we say "computers are stupid - they can only do what you tell them to".
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
For most users computers are appliances at the level a console TV was in the '70s. Right on the cusp from when it was a novelty to when it is a necessity for entertainment and information. Think of the old console TVs they had a whole bunch of knobs that controlled horizontal hold, verticle hold, brightness, contrast, and tuned the TV frequency. Let a kid play with the knobs for a few minutes and the tv could be rendered unwatchable. Prone to causing an epiliptic siezure. It could take hours to get the settings back to where you wanted them, you might miss the show you are watching, you may never quite get it back the way you though you had it. Now take this analogy to a modern PC connected to the internet, without proper security (firewall, spyware, virus software)a PC is like that console with the knobs wired to the outside where all the neighorhood kids can screw with your settings and know what you are watching. And the commercials are trying to trick you to let them play with the knobs.
Things like the difference between the left mouse button and right mouse button. (primary and secondary click, secondary click = menus, etc) Which everyone one knows, but not really, not for true beginners.
Lots of visuals, with just one concept covered per page.
Strangely enough the cartoon floppy disk character pointing at important things actually improves the effectiveness of the text for beginners, instead of using a simple highlighted arrow in the picture.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
- Operating System
- File
- Directory / Folder
- Program / Software
- Cut
- Copy
- Paste
It wouldn't hurt to explain that Microsoft Windows is an Operating System - and that other Operating Systems exist. A little anti-MS bias is always good.And if you can write it in a way to get my Mom, Grandma and Aunt to understand these things these things I will buy them each a copy.
Get a thread highlighted in Slashdot (Sneak it in a book review or a followup to this post) so we can all know when its published!
Conserve Oil, Recycle, Boycott Walmart
One thing that has to be in this book. Deleting the desktop shortcut DOES NOT delete the program.
Teach proper terminology. I think this is most important. Keep it simple and inform people what a monitor is, a hard drive, memory, power supply, video card, sound card, motherboard etc. They dont need to know what the difference is between Nvidia and ATI or a good speed for a hard drive. But when I explain something to a laymen friend and they dont know the difference between space (hard drive space) and memory. Or my boss saying she paid $3000 for 2 hard drives when she ment two new computers.
Talk about how to use google to find out how to fix simple problems like spyware or where to find codec's.
Maybe a short chaper on how to clean a computer. Just a simple open and spraying a little compressed air. Ive seen computers with a nice layer of dust covering everything. A power supply literally filled with dust.
Be sure to tell people that just because they read your book doesnt mean they know everything there is to know. Its sad when people talk like they know everything but they still dont know how to empty their recycyling bin.
Tell people to stop keeping everything on their desktop.
The difference between the internet, OS and hardware problems.
Explain that computers arnt that hard to use or understand. It just takes a little time and patience. Dont be overwhelmed just stay calm and go one step at a time. The computer wont run away from you and if something bad happens it can probably can be fixed so dont be afraid to try to tweek and attempt repairs. Laymens shouldnt play with windows fills or the registry but they can delete un-important files, defrag hard drives, install software and tweek settings.
I can't tell you how many people I've met who can run some applications, but do not understand how to create folders and look up files that they have saved. Some people run computers for years without learning this. Please newbies, buy a book and LEARN THIS FIRST!!!!!!!!
I have many times had to explain the fact that for the most part the computer only does that what you tell it to do. In regards to this I kinda like this quote...
To err is human--and to blame it on a computer is even more so.
- Robert Orben
call me...
From the blurb: What does the general public think they understand, but really don't?
I think the general public needs to understand that... They suck and geeks rule!!
Seriously, I hear your call but I don't know what to tell you. I'm currently dealing with two members of the general public that know little; one thinks he knows everything, the other doesn't give himself enough credit (my 61 year old dad and my 14 year old nephew, you determine which one doesn't know anything, heh).
Maybe not a good place to start but I think that amatures need to know that there are certain things they shouldn't trouble themselves about until they get some dirt under their fingernails, so to speak... these people use any buzzword to describe anything they don't understand.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
A) most REAL IT people dont answer questions from the general non-computer literate public in the way you seem to think they do ... they simply FIX the problem because EXPLAINING it is not time-cost-effective..
.. and with as little knowledge require - a car like a computer is a TOOL - they dont want to KNOW how to fix it - just the BARE MINIMUM requried to use it to do what they want ...
B) most NON IT people DO NOT WANT to `understand' `how' the computer works - they want it to just work the way a CAR does - you turn the key - and it functions -like magic ! they have no interest in taking a course or reading a book on general automotive theory even though they DRIVE a car and they have NO INTEREST in nowing DIDDLY about how a computer works even though they USE one...
they are pissed that they break so often and Unkie Bills buggy unsecure software is largely to blame for that ( a message that is starting to trickle down ) but what the PUBLIC wants is not a `computers for dummies' book - what they want is a computer that works as TROUBLE FREE as their CAR
- Your book will fail spectacularly because the PUBLIC doesnt want it.
Like the difference between copy, download, and install. Far to many people say things like: "Give me the cd so that I can download the program onto my computer", or "I'm going to download these mp3s onto my player"
Or the difference between memory and disk space.
Although, for a lot of people, no amount of explaining is going to help.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized. --Sun-Tzu
I hit the "submit" button by accident. Anyways, the types of questions I want people to know are just basic things that we as "IT People" overlook, but are completely foreign to people that don't know squat. ie: 1) What a web-browser is. 2) Basic things about the internet specifically, since it's what most people use computers for anyways. e.x: What TCP/IP is. The significance of IP addresses. Simple scenarios that happen from time to time and how to deal with them ( like if your internet stops working, try resetting the damn modem, renewing IP Address, and disabling your Firewall). 3) The benefits of a Firewall/Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware software (And what viruses/spyware are and can potentially do to your system, symptom-wise). 4) The difference between "Hard Drive" "CPU" and "PC". They are not synonyms. Basically, what I mean for #4 is that they get the correct information and terminology if they're going to be referring to it. I don't go around calling "hamburgers" "hotdogs".
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
Who is the target audience, and what is the goal?
If your target demographic is the layperson whose computer usage is simply a means to an end, i.e. using a computer to do their job, then give them an understanding of the tasks they perform. And maybe a list of Do's and Do-Not's for basic computer usage on your network. Too much theory about the underlying tech will be overkill for someone who just wants to be able to perform their job. Think the level of explaination in a software User's Guide. Very specific, functional instructions for the tasks at hand. "This is how you set up automatic IP addressing on your computer. Click this, then click that."
If you want to foster a basic understanding of the operating system and hardware and networking, then give them a comprehensive understanding of basic terminology and how all the components work together. Think the level of a For Dummies guide. General information on a broad scope. "Set up your computer as a DHCP client. Your computer then contacts the DHCP server to get an IP address. The DHCP server then gives your computer an available IP address."
If you actually want the reader to understand the underlying tech, then explain the tech in detail. Think sysadmin manuals or those certification textbooks. Detailed info explaining how something works under the hood. "The DHCP client broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER message, and any DHCP server that hears this broadcast will reply with a DHCPOFFER message.....etc"
I've seen books that are geared towards the general public attempt to explain too much. And I've found that users on my network really need information specific to our setup, but do not want to know the underlying tech.
I'm not disparaging the intellectual capabilities of the non-geek reader. I just think that they need a firm foundation in the basics before you can get into details. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
What a sad day it is when the "for dummies" books become too technical for the layperson.
Cheers
Xyst
I teach, and often times the subjects that I teach are technical or obscure topics that can be difficult for the layperson to grasp, especially if they have no background in the subject being taught. The solution to this, that works for me, is to develop a number of solid analogies between things most people understand and the subject at hand. For example, how computers work can be compared to preparing food in a kitchen (thanks to my IT friends for developing this one for me!). Specifically:
In a computer you have things that are similar to things in kitchen, like...
- Recipes show how to take ingredients, prepare them, and cook them for a desired result. Similarly programs are a list of instructions the tell a computer how to process data for a desired result
- Cabinets or pantries, these store items that you cook with just like a hard drive stores files that the computer uses.
- Counter space used to prepare items for cooking or eating, this is similar to RAM in a computer where programs and files are temporarily held before and after being processed ("cooked").
- A stove of range top is where the food is cooked, this is similar to a CPU where the information from the files is actually processed
- Serving dishes are where to food is displayed and eaten, this is similar to an output devices (monitor, printer, etc.) where the processed files are displayed for the user.
You can expand on this analogy by showing how having a bigger stove (faster CPU) or larger countertop (more RAM) or more accessible cabinets (hardrives with wider pipes) will impact the speed and ease with which you can prepare a given recipes (speed of executing a program).
I know this is overly simplified and can be improved on, but analogies like this one will go a long way towards teaching people what you want them to know. And that "a-ha" moment of the light bulb going on as someone understands what you are talking about (or writing about) is really worth it.
I hope that helps.
...on viruses, malware and spyware, and how to get rid of them. I've lost count the number of times I've had family and friends tell me their computer is either running slow or popping up images of pron/viagara ads/etc. When I ask them if they've ever scanned for spyware, they look at me like I have two heads. So, I would devote a whole chapter to that.
It is not our abilities that show what we truly are... it is our choices.
You might have to write a collection of books. I don't figure one book will cut it.
Drill into their heads that you cannot cause permanent damage to the computer merely by using it[1]. You cannot cause permanent damge to the computer merely by using it. You cannot cause permanent damage to the computer merely by using it.
Then, throw them to the wolves. Let them experiment on their own. Let them get themselves into trouble and don't bail them out. Being the always-rushing-to-the-rescue "computer guy" is like being the omnipresent government. You don't really fix anything for good. You just get people dependent on you instead of being self sufficient.
I see this with my mom. She's used a computer for almost 15 years. She cranks out all kinds of cool lesson plans, assignments, and tests for her students (she's a HS Spanish teacher) with Word. She's not computer-dumb (I wouldn't say she's computer-smart either, but...). But if she gets into a problem and I show up to fix it, she wants to be the one sitting at the chair so "she can remember how to do it next time." As soon as I arrive on scene, all of her computer knowledge goes out the window. Downloading and unzipping files? Not a clue. Opening My Computer? Nope. Finding an "options" dialog? No way. She doesn't get that 99% of computer problem solving is improvised. She just expects that I know the exact order in the menus and dialogs. Even after I walk her through it (which is like pulling teeth, because she has forgotten how to do anything) I can count on her not remembering it and having to do the same thing some time later.
So, for God's sake, next time, when someone asks you what you do for a living, tell them you solve hard math problems. Don't tell them you work on computers.
[1]Obviously, doing things like changing voltages and overclocking can cause permanent damage, but how many people in this book's target audience are going to be doing things like that?
If a user can be taught the difference between data files and executables and where they reside in memory at any given time, they are well on their way to understanding how the computer works. This is the foundation by which they can understand how everything else works.
Web based email is probably the best example. There is some serious confusion for a lot of users about what exactly they are looking at. They can't tell the difference between a browser and a website because they don't understand the file/program concept. To them, the browser is "the internet". With fundamental computer skills, they can easily be taught that the browser is a program, which communicates with other programs over the internet to ask for a file, which is then sent back over, and shown on the screen.
Your grandparents don't need to know programming, the tcp/ip header structure, how a hard disk is actually storing data, or anything else like this. They need to understand the parts they work with, which is files and programs.
-- If it aint broke, fix it till it is. --
I don't think the average computer user is very interested in "how hard disks work". I don't think most people care about "how" their TV works, or "how" their car works.
For the vast majority of users( not IT or CS people ), computers are just tools. Because of the increasing complexity of cars very few people are expected to know enough about their car to service it themselves. I think that computers are headed in the same direction, if they aren't already there. The average non-it/non-cs person is not going to be dealing with the hardware directly, but instead dealing with the interface.
The "average" user isn't concerned about how the components work. Instead, they're interested in how to make their computer perform a certain task. I think you can write a book like this and find that your intended audience has little to no motivation to read details about the internal workings of their computer
I certainly understand the frustration of trying to explain something to a non-techy family member or friend and having their eyes glaze over. However, to solve that problem you have to try to express yourself in a way that actually addresses how they(the non-techy) think about computers. In my opinion, that means focusing on tasks, what they want to accomplish, rather then just descriptions of how the pieces work. Do they need more space to store photos?(Storage Capacity, kilobytes, partitions) Does it take forever to copy files?(System Bus, drive access times and transfer rates, etc). Depending on the task you can introduce the basic concepts associated with it and how they might solve a problem or actually accomplish something with the PC.
One fact about computers that even technical people often forget:
The job of the computer is to make your job/task easier - it is not the other way around.
Yes, there is a time and place to learn a particular interface for a specialized job, to configure a certain program to get a special behavior or download some patch or driver to get some random hardware to work. But these things should be the exception and not the rule. I think there's way too much software that forces the user to bend to its design/shortcomings, rather than the other way around.
Futhermore, I'm rather saddened by the fact that nowadays I notice most people are afraid of their computers. They don't explore or try something new just to "see what happens" - because everyone has been bitten hard by some bug or some unexpected behavior and lost valuable time and data. So they have a very simple and rigid routine, one they know "just works", even if it's completely convoluted and non-sensical. I'm sure most people here have observed the same thing.
http://www.talknerdy.org
In my personal experience, albeit little - I'm a CS student not employed in the field - so that extends to fixing friends' friends, my family (and their friends) computers whenever something goes wrong. Everytime they ask what caused the problem and I try to explain in as simple a way as possible (this could be a personal shortcoming) and how to stop it happening again the subject is usually changed or a blanket statement that they "Don't know about computers" supplied. The worst is my parents, the slightest little error or anything like y'know ones been downloadin pr0n and doesn't want the other to find out. You explain how to fix things, gain a bit more privacy and you can bet your kidneys that tomorrow you'll fidnd yourself fixing the same thing. They dont WANT to know, as long as I'm here they dont HAVE to know.
I notice that you didn't say "PCs".
First things first
1. Choose the right computer. If you can't understand the tool after a minor amount of instruction it probably isn't the right tool. You aren't stupid (look what book you are reading.) The tool is supposed to be designed for you, the user. If it isn't, then it may be the wrong tool. Some tools require too much practice to be useful or safe. Consider the helicopter, dental drill, violin, surf board or a car. A car is harder to own and operate than public transportation. To some the trade-off for car ownership is worth it. Is it better? Some computers are easier to learn and possibly less versatile. It doesn't help you to have a computer that is too hard to use. What computers are easier to buy, operate, transport, etc? What do you give up by picking a computer that is easy? Will WebTV, Xbox or Macintosh serve your purpose? Can you afford to have professional support for your computing needs?
2. A computer is a device that processes. In order for a computer to be useful it must also interact. The ones that interact with humans generally have visual outputs and tactile inputs. it may be useful to know where the information that will be, is being, and has been processed is gotten from, used, and stored at. How the information is entered, used, and delivered is worth discussing.
3. Interactions between computers is what networking is all about.
etc...
.. Blub falls right in the middle of the abstractness continuum. -- Paul Graham
If someone reads and understands these, they are qualified to operate a computer.
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
It seems to me that there aren't very many good books out there that explain to the layman what is really going on with computers.
amazon.com --> Books --> Search --> "computer basics"
Why don't you ask the authors of your ingenious book?
I find the most common confusion amongst laypeople is that they get memory, hard drive and CPU speed all mixed up. Client says: oh I need a new computer with 200 GB of hard drive..that will make it faster right? (you can also fill in "hard drive" with memory. Or you are asking how fast is the computer....and you get..."huh......256 of RAM? I think that's what the sales guy said it was..." Bottom line: stick with the basics (very basics). Most common user don't care why..they will just glaze over and throw the book away.
An important thing to teach in the book would be how to research a problem they find. Not like troubleshooting but something along the vein of "I need a program that does X and want to find out what my options are" If you give a reader the tools to find open source/free software as well as the pay to play alternatives and weight the pros and cons of each, that would be useful in such a book. Or say they want to share photos with friends how does a non-alpha-geek evaluate the current offerings or even find the current offerings.
i believe to actually teach someone "the computer" you would need to use diagrams, pictures, and artistic renditions. Actually, make it like a children's book. BIG WORDS, few words, tons of pictures. After all, when we're little and know nothing about "books" how do we learn? The books with big pictures, few words, and LARGE TEXT. Hence, a person who knows nothing about computers needs a similar approach. PLEASE don't get into the history of the internet or computers. Do I need that info to know how a computer works? No. Does anyone? No. You perhaps need to get into more detail as in "what" do you want this new computer user to know? How to protect themselves? Or how to logon to slashdot and read news? I think I just farted...
The biggest problem I've seen is that people think computers are just mechanical. They don't understand that what makes a computer a computer is that it will react differently based on different sets of data.
For example:
USER: OK, just give me the steps to make this happen.
ME: Well, here's step 1 thru 5 if column A contains a number less than 100. But if column A contains a number between 101 and 500 then...
USER: WAIT! What are you, stupid? I just want the steps to make this happen.
ME: I'm sorry. You're beyond hel... er... I can't help you.
...a while back, mostly from computers being marketed as appliances. All along, people have expected to plug 'em in and just go, and almost never pay for work on them until it's time to upgrade (if even then). Maybe an automotive model would actually have been the best idea, where people brought their computers in for a "tune-up", or had a tech come out every so often to service them at home. What we ended up with is clueless but well intentioned users getting loaded down with all sorts of malware and assorted glitches, or if they're lucky, they find a friend who ends up being their personal service person. If they were getting regular service appointments, at least their machines would be in better shape, and they'd probably learn a few things along the way from talking to the service techs. Too late now I suppose.....
Oh, and by the way, did the parent really deserve Flamebait? C'mon guys, that was kinda uncalled for, wasn't it?
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
The mose useful thing when I'm trying to understand something new is a simplified model that I can use to rule out many wrong understandings from the start. Along these lines, you might describe a general model that makes clear the kinds of things a computer can do and things it can't. Think of it as a form of compression by supplying a simple algorithm to get it mostly right, then a small list of corrections to get it exactly right. Maybe people whom this would help already understand computers.
A lot of people (myself included) have given you lots of ideas for what to cover.
There's something I think is important. Make it interesting. Make the beginning especially interesting. If you begin by explaining bits, and then bytes, and then files, and then programs, you're going to scare people away. If you begin with ancient computer history, you're going to scare people away. I'm honestly not sure how to begin, but can think of lots of ways not to begin. I've returned tons of library books because the first few pages weren't enough to pull me into them.
I think the best suggestion for keeping the book interesting was to have the first chapter be a very broad overview, and then branch out into details. A very brief overview, with lots of, "I'll discuss hard drives in more detail in Chapter 7" sort of stuff might be much better at holding interest.
I think you can draw lots of real-world analogies, too. Think of a folder as a manila file folder, except that it's common to put folders inside of other folders, often getting as many as a dozen nested folders. A "file" can range from a sheet of paper (a small text file) to a whole book. Some files can only be read (a letter someone sent you), some can be written on (a form), and some can be run (instructions). I think this can help people relate computer terms to things they already understand. Just make sure your analogies hold up: if you explain that the Recycle Bin is like your trash can, you should really talk more about "recycling" by erasing whatever's on the 'paper' and putting it back. (Which lets you discuss fragementation, too.)
________________________________________________
suwain_2
In addition to the topics already discussed, my parents and other pre-computer adults I've taught have trouble figuring out how to intearct with software, conceptually. How do you know when to single-click or double click? It may be helpful to include the history of standard GUI interactions, such as how the mousing UI was developed/evolved - and in doing so explain why users have to click and drag to highlight or double-click to run. But, as with all other concepts you'll consider discussing, it would be very difficult to keep this chapter simple and manageable.
It would be nice if they understood why all the people in these incidents were stupid.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
The concept of directories is the question that I encounter the most when trying to teach computer newbies.
> In such a case, a computer is just a huge expensive word processor/typewriter.
That reminds me-- an excellent introductory book to using computers is The Mac is Not a Typewriter, by Robin Williams.
(no, not that Robin Williams.)
You do not have an internet. Your internet is probably broken because:
To be quite honest, there are quite a few things. I think one of the most important of which is the idea of a filesystem in general. The most computer illiterate of people don't understand how a filesystem works and are completely baffled when a shortcut even gets misplaced.
Judges and senates have been bought for gold; Esteem and love were never to be sold.
I always start with a lesson on how to navigate through the filesystem, so they can find their pictures, downloads, etc., etc., and a quick rundown of how file extentions indicate what application can open the file. I also try to explain the difference between an application and the file browser (usually the finder cause I am teaching Mac newbies).
I also spend a short amount of time on the difference between RAM and hard drive storage.
This typically overwhelms them so I give them a few days off and then revisit the topics later.
Most users suffer from the 'chocolate piano' syndrome. I first saw this behavior in my Advanced Pastry class at the CIA (the cooking one). EVERYONE who walks into the class wants to make a chocolate piano but no one is interested in making a simple truffle. My computer users want to make videos and photo slide shows but don't know where to find the file they just downloaded off the net.
Then we start answering specific questions about specific applications. I also encourage them to keep a pad of paper next to the computer to write down their problems and frustrations. They are usually easy fixes for someone a little more savvy.
My only point is that we should strive to know how our complex lives function, but we shouldn't immediately call somebody dumb or get frustrated because they don't know what virus protection or spyware or how to RTFM. And no matter how good of a basic book is available, not everyone will read it. Just how many great books are available on car repair and maintenance, versus how many people know how to do it?
This book has a lot of nice pictures and diagrams, and explains not just hard drives and CPUs but things like GPS, Napster, etc. (although I have the sixth edition, I'm assuming the current eighth edition is probably similar). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789734249/sr=1-2 /qid=1137531708/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-3267622-7897402?_ encoding=UTF8
Meaning: to drive a car, you do not have to be a licensed mechanic. You don't have to know what a throttle linkage is or why it's important. What you do have to know are the controls that you use to interface with the vehichle. Seatbelts, steering wheel, pedals, mirrors, whatforth and whatnot. You have to know what they're called, what they do, and what you're supposed to do to them to get a desired result.
Similarly, I don't expect my computer users to speak binary, swap hard drives, debug code, or get the green golf ball joke. What I do expext is that the user is at least passably familiar with the controls, both physical and logical. Keyboard. Mouse. Floppy drive. CD-ROM. Monitor.
I expect them to know that the little 'x' closes the application and the little '_' minimizes the application. I'd like them to understand while Windows is the operating system, it is not the correct answer to the question "What program were you running?" I'd like them to understand, at least in a conceptual way, what a network is and why this means that I cannot "download the internet for them."
I don't expect them to understand the mechanical differences between laser printing and inkjet printing, or even what toner is. "I need ink" is fine, just please, please tell me for what model printer.
I would love to know why this one user can't be bothered to read all ten words in a dialog box before clicking "OK", downloading an evil Active-X and hosing his machine, but he'll take the time to completely document a BSoD. I doubt this is a computer issue, though.
All I'm really looking for is basic competence. A comfort level somewhat warmer than cold hatred and sheer terror. The presence of mind and self-awareness to answer the question "What were you doing right before your term paper got ROT13ed?" The gumption to just tell me up front that they won't follow my phone directions, rather than making me walk across the building to press 2 buttons for them. At least don't expect me to believe the "it wouldn't do that for me" lie. No, YOU wouldn't do that for me.
One day a year, I want it to be legal for each IT person to shoot one BSoD-documenting user as an example.
Oh, not fatally, you sick freak! I'm not evil or anything. I'll settle for flesh wounds.
"Hey, the third matrix movie would have been good except for the plot,story, and acting." --AC
"Try Rebooting". Seriously. It has a bit of a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reassuring quality too it.
Maybe I shouldn't be one to argue about Sigs, but nonetheless...
Most of the "Rights" that site says aren't "in" the Constitution are embodied in the 9th Amendment.
"Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" is not technically in the Constitution, but "life, liberty, and property" is in the 5th and 14th Amendments.
"Of the people, by the people, for the people" is technically from the Gettysburg Address, but the Constitution begins "We the People..."
I'm sure there are others. Those were just the most obviously misleading.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
On the history of the internet: it was NOT created to withstand nuclear attack. I've heard professors, co-workers, and journalists say that it was, but it wasn't. Go ask the folks who built it, or read "Where Wizards Stay Up Late," by Katie Haffner and Matt Lyons, who already asked. (Actually, that may be the best resource I've found for early internet history)
Other than that -- people should know the difference between *bytes and *hertz, hertz and hurts, hard-drive capacity and RAM (which one is memory? In what context?), how optical drives work, how hard drives work, how magnetic drives work, and a basic history of operating systems. It would be good if more people understood the client/server concept as it existed before people had desktop PCs, and how it led to the concept of a desktop PC.
I could go on for about 20 pages, just listing what I think is important.
Good luck!
(disclaimer -- I'm biased, because my father is referenced in the book as part of the ARPANet project. No, I'm not telling you who he is, but he claims the book is accurate.)
The problem with most beginning computer books is that they explain what the various parts of the computer are but don't tell the reader why he/she needs to know about them. What the user really needs is the ability to reason about the computer; the ability to figure out for themselves that the Internet connection is down, or that the mouse is unplugged.
Certainly you can't reason about a computer without understanding the various parts, so you still need to describe them. But perhaps you could do it within the framework of a series of common problems. So, for example, you could have a chapter "What to do if your printer doesn't work." In that chapter you'd provide the usual troubleshooting advice but accompany it with an explanation of why you are performing the various steps and what you expect to learn from them.
This approach might make a more interesting book to read and leave the reader with the ability to approach new problems on their own.
By MacCauley (sp?). Best darn book ever and I need to go get it from my parent's house at some point so I have it with me. I mean, how can you beat the pictures of wooly mammoths who demonstrate basic mechanical properties?
Genius. Beautiful genius.
Here's the new edition on Amazon: The New Way Things Work
coding is life
What hourly rate can/do you charge for "repairing" (removing spyware/virus/trojans or simply reinstalling) computers?
What is the magic hourly rate that makes this economical for both you and the owner of the computer?
How do you obtain steady work? Questions I always asked myself.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
What part of "DON'T TAUNT HAPPY FUN BALL!" did you not understand?
Computers should be appliances. Of all the full featured operating systems, MacOS X comes the closest (but doesn't really hit the mark either).
Windows and Linux are nowhere close. In many cases Windows is worse on that mark.
What is the mark? I want to approach a computer to accomplish a task, I want a VERY low learning curve, and I don't want to have to tweak or futz with it to make the computer accomplish the task (i.e. update drivers, constant virus updates, device managers, etc.)
So...no one is hitting that mark, per se. But MacOS X comes closer than most.
I remember having to go through contortions to explain the concept of a "file" and "directory" to my mom. Just how technical *do* you get? "Any file is just a bunch of data" can be a bit confusing...
And yet people bashed the crap out of MSFT when they introduced terms to Windows like "Folder" and "Document" to try to solve this very problem. Not saying that you did, just finding it a little ironic that usability lags so much in general.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
It's an amazing jump... I had been writing software for over 10 years when I finally got to a hardware design course. First day of class, the professor told us that our final project would be building a 4-bit computer. Talk about panic! But 4 months later, the project was actually easy as cake.
Now obviously you can't compress a full course down to 3-5 pages, but I think you could put enough to convince people that all a computer does is answer "yes or no" billions of times per second. Makes it much easier to tell them anything beyond that.
This brings up the key point. Maybe somebody should write a book on the joys of learning. Show people how not being ignorant of the world around them can bring them joy. Of course sometimes it brings infinite frustration!
Teach people to learn basic things, like how does electricity work. To most people even that is magical still. The concept of circuits being open or close, how much load is on the circuit, etc. Most people think "plug too much stuff in, power goes off and you call the electician or building manager and they come magically fix your power." They don't even know why it blew the breaker, or what the breaker is.
I know my grandparents generation understood things far more than most people do today. Unfortunately I think the general lack of knowledge is due to a school system that is intent on teaching facts and not knowledge, let alone wisdom. They teach basic set facts that are single entities, or sometimes tied together. But they don't teach the skills to take basic facts and extrapolate them into understanding reality.
Maybe I am just overly optomistic about the human race?
1) I don't think most people have a valid mental map of what the pieces are, let alone how they fit together. At least once a month I find myself repeating to my dad "No, Internet Explorer is not the web. No, e-mail is not the web." The man is not an idiot, quite the opposite - he has over 50 patents to his name. However, he's 80 years old and never used computers before retirement. 2) I'd like people to understand the difference between supply-push and demand-pull in communications. Don't e-mail a copy of your 20M Powerpoint to everybody in the department, put a link to a copy on your personal web page and e-mail the link.
Couple of things I thought should be said here. First off, the people that are asking those questions over and over again, won't read this book. They don't WANT to know. When a person doesn't want to know something the blinders come on and trying to take them off....well, you might as well back a badger into a corner and try to take it's pelt with a pair of tweesers.
However, if that didn't dissuade you from trying, the things I see that people need to understand MORE than anything else is basic terminology. The whole computer is not called a Modem, CPU, CD-ROM, or disk drive. If people can use proper terminology (or atleast close enough that the tech can figure it out) then support calls would be cut in half.
To help you explain things to a child, we compare things to something they already understand. In the case of computers (and the fact that I went to school for automechanics) I find computers can relate very well to cars in the average user's mind. Ie, the CPU is the engine, the keyboard and mouse are the pedals, steering wheel, and shifter and the monitor is the windshield. I'm sticking with the basic aspects for a reason. You may even want to make note that "you know what these are in a car, basic knowledge similar to that will make your computing world so much easier and rewarding."
The thing that I have found is that when teaching beginners is to explain early the gravity of playing with certain things.
They say that Beginners can do stupid things, and that with a small amount of information beginners can do a lot of damage. This is true.
So you will need to explain that there are places in all OS's that you should never poke in and/or delete from. You will need to explain things like the guts of the machine are not scary, but getting your fingers even close to the BIOS can cause a static charge to ark to it.
Oh, and a buyers guide. All new computer purchasers should find the software they want to run, then find out what OS or OS's it runs on. They then should have an idea of what they intend on doing with it. Simple home/small business use and Graphics = OSX, Home/Business use = Linux, Home/Business and Gaming use = Windows. That Windows has tons of payed help for beginners, Linux has moderate help for free for beginners and OSX has little help but is designed to be almost self explanitory.
All Beginners should also go to lengths to find modern examples of all platforms to try them out for a few hours with software before deciding what suits them.
The right OS and the right software for the beginner helps with understanding. For some beginners having the screen selector on Linux can be confusing, for other beginners the screen seletor is easy but they find having maany programs open in windows behind other windows on the one screen confusing.
Keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy and paste are almost 100% cross platform and do speed things up. This would force you to explain the simple theory and use of a clipboard. I have found that some beginners confuse the clipboard with loading and saving files. Be very clear about the difference.
Good luck.
Two biggest questions any "computer guy" get are, probably, "Can you show me how to use a computer?" balanced with "What computer should I buy?"
The hidden question in what computer to buy is, which is better? The basic bits, CPU, RAM, and storage seem to bewilder. Particularly, since memory and HDD/storage use the same nomenclature, i.e. megabytes and gigabytes. The difference between memory and storage causes confusion all the time.
I often put it like this: storage is the big cabinet you keep all your files in. However, in order to use a file you have to get up, pull it out of the drawer it lives in, and open it on desk for perusal. Thus, RAM is the desk. Filing cabinet space can be massive, but without enough deskspace, you're constantly shuffling papers.
I tell newbies to by a mac or a dell, depending on how Windows oriented they are, and to "get all the tech support." If you can write a book that will stop the computer guy from getting all those calls for free tech support, your book with be a guaranteed preferred geek gift.
ALL THEY NEED TO KNOW IS HOW TO READ A HELP FILE. That pretty much does it. Teach them how to get to the help files and the basic terminology and that is probably the most useful thing you can do. Anything beyond that is gravy, because if they care enough to actually RTFM then you don't have to do anything else.
Egads, what a huge task.
I will throw a couple thing out there I have seen I though were basics but cause either people grief or me grief.
1. The Difference between memory and hard drive. Without getting technical. More than once I have seen people get out of memory error and then go in and delete files from thier hard drives to clean up space. One time this woman had something like 40 copies of word open 12 excels, email, web browser etc, she gets that error. So she goes in and deletes all her dll files. Why because she doesn't ever use them.
2. Don't get in a panic, panic will just cause you more problems. I had another woman come to me all upset and in a panic her computer wasn't doing anything no matter what key she hit. So I go to her office and she had some how lost focus on the app in front of her. Hence the keys she was hitting wasn't doing anything because the app didn't have focus.
3. Just because you see a computer expert do something. Do not think you can, or do not immitate an expert. Another example someone seen me using a mini pc vaccum to suck the lint and crud out of the computer. The next day they came in asking me to help them. Aparently they decided to clean out thier computer as well by hooking the big shop vac up at full suckion going across the motherboard. While Clean, they also sucked off every single jumper on the motherboard.
4. Use your head look for the obvious, along the lines of don't panic. More than once someone has come running to me with a runaway computer. To which I walk over and remove their planner from the keyboard. Another thought do not eat over your keyboard or use heavy lotion on your hands on your keyboard. It makes your keyboard really gross.
5. When in doubt use the help file. Not only will you find your answer usually without distubing several other people. You may learn a few other things you didn't know as well.
6. The difference between double clicking and single clicking. While we are on clicking how about right clicking. Double clicking on a single click thing leads to many of the same thing open. Hence leading to error number one. Also if you double clicked on something and it doesn't open right away it may be because it is a large file or you are on a network, or something like that double clicking it again will just slow it down even more because now it is trying to process two of them.
Computers are extremely patient. Computers are extremely stupid.
Computers will do exactly what you tell them and won't second-guess your bad instructions. Someone has to tell them everything about what they are supposed to do. That means if people don't tell them right, they'll do the wrong thing. They'll do the wrong thing millions of times (see, they are patient).
Sorry.
This could cover raster versus vector image file formats, lossy versus lossless encoding, proprietry (.doc) versus open formats, etc. For an analogy with multiple lossy transformations compare to dubbing a cassette tape multiple times - if your target audience is old enough they will recognise that.
Backups are for wimps. Real men post their data in comments and have slashdot mirror it
According to my family, the largest problem they face while they "learn" to use a computer is how to filter what they see on the screen, in both large and small scale. Basic things like knowing the difference between inputs (Button, Selector Box, Dialog Window...), and to the more complex, what is an ad on a web page.
People write them all the time, but like most college textbooks regarding computers they are so horribly outdated by the time they hit the streets that they provide nothing but humor fodder for IS departments.
Don't try to teach someone how computers work by telling them about CPU utilisation, memory utilisation, memory leaks, and good programming techniques. That's for IT people to know and care about. Focus on easy to understand and largely correct analogies to things that they would understand ("Your computer as a human body" type of thing).
At the end of the day, most people will want to use their computers rather than tinker with them. There are plenty of resources out there for people to learn basic usage, and if they haven't yet, they probably don't care enough to do it now. So you, as an IT person, should work on making programs easier to use, more secure, and less bloated. You will be doing a much better service to people everywhere than writing a book no-one will read.
So I guess I'm saying, don't write the book. Some people will always be users, just as some people will always be creators and tinkerers. Just as I don't expect an artist to try to teach me the reason why pink and red don't go together (I just accept that as fact), I don't expect everyone to know how to write their own compilers. I can enjoy art just as that artist can enjoy surfing the web, and we both leave it at that.
From Baker Street to Binary: An Introduction to Computers and Computer Programming (Paperback)
..."
# Paperback: 277 pages
# Publisher: Mcgraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1st McGraw-Hill ed edition (June 1, 1983)
# Language: English
# ISBN: 0070369836
# Note: Gift-wrapping is not available for this item.
It covers computers in terms of telegrams and such technology easy to understand.
It wont help people get a real understanding of what modern computers are doing; but it will help them understand the sorts of things they are doing (and I don't mean "binary addition") but like: Sherlock Holmes had the post office install a telegraph machine in his rooms, which he wired up to a train set (on which were stuck cut-outs of himself) so that he could control the casting of his shadows on the window without being inside. The parallel is, of course, a modem.
The book presents a series of sherlock holmes mysteries and then discusses the technology he uses and what the computer equivalent is, thus the reader is capable of saying "ah, it's like a
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
I think what most people don't do for whatever reason is search.... If there is a problem with your computer search on the problem/error code... People feel that things only happen to them and they are unique... Every problem I have seen supporting computers I have been able to resolve by serching for the answer... If people would only look for an answer they could probably solve most of their problems on their own...
Bill Rodriguez
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789734249/qid=11 37532114/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-8013614-9758315?n =507846&s=books&v=glance/
A computer doesn't necessarily have a monitor and a mouse and ther doesn't have to be somebody sitting right in front of it for it to be doing work. There are still some computers the size of a room - no they aren't exactly the same as the room size ones from the '70s.
Backups are for wimps. Real men post their data in comments and have slashdot mirror it
Fixed broken Wintel boxes was not a course taught in CS classes at my university.
If they get that basic concept right, I don't care what else they know about computers.
Most of us on /. know that using alternatives like Firefox, Thunderbird, etc gives us a better chance of keeping out computers free from infection, but the average user (e.g. my dad) is already stuck when you mention their names. He hears Firefox and doesn't understand why it can be better than Internet Explorer because he thinks Internet Explorer IS the Internet. Most users have no concept of what an application is anyway, and when we throw in names that do not immediatly indicate the function of the application, the user is lost from the start.
What's a book?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I think you should teach the *basics* of programming. This will teach people how computers really work, and give them some intuition about what they can do and what they can't. Preferably you should pick a programming tool that: 1) allows them to do something practical 2) is easy for someone who has no previous knowledge about programming. 3) is easily available Windows Batch files seem to be a good first try.
People need to understand what the magic blue smoke is, where it is kept (inside computer components...duh), and why when it gets let out of the computer, the computer stops working.
Register the editry.
For the average Joe, I'd say that they are unable to read at a very complex level (I read somewhere that 60+% of Americans are functionally illiterate-- of course I may have misunderstood that *hehe*).
If I have one pet-peave it's that people don't understand size (is a mega-byte bigger than a kilobyte?). How big should an email attachment be? How fast is fast for an internet connection? I get those questions a lot. Actually, I try to make them understand that their 2.5MB email sent to their entire family (most of which is on dial-up) is uncool, but they don't get it-- ever.
Good Luck
How to resize a digital photo to an appropriate size for email or web use.
Why is there a persistent expectation by people in "our" fields, that "users" should be required to understand computers? I put the key in my car, it goes. I put money in a vending machine, I get a coke. I press a button, the elevator arrives. I'm not expected to understand ignition timing, solonoid switches, or counter weights. Sometimes I can't believe the patience and persistance of non-geeks in their pursuit to learn and use computers. If it was half as difficult for me to use an elevator as it is for my Mom to install software, I would be in great shape from using the stairs!
Most computers, operating systems, and software applications are HORRIBLY designed. Almost all of them require the user to adapt to the limitations of the design. The USER shouldn't have to adapt to the machine, it should be the MACHINE that adapts to the user! Yes, this is a very difficult approach. Yes, it's VERY difficult to anticipate what every possible user will try to do. But the pressure should be on US to invent things to make our lives more productive, NOT on the users to learn IT jargon.
I should be able to take a picture with a digital camera, go home, set the camera NEAR my printer, wait a few seconds for the camera to ask me "Would you like to print today's pictures to your HP LaserPlane 9000?" and say "Yes please." All of the individual technologies for this scenario exist, it's just that product development teams don't tie it all togeather. And worst of all, Joe Public's expectations are so low that they accept the fact that they have to muck around with cables, install drivers on their PC, select the right paper that's currently loaded, etc. etc. etc...
This one gang kept wanting me to join cause I'm pretty good with a bo staff.
I really wish people would learn this: You aren't going to break your computer.
/fail/ to do those things. But they won't be any worse off.
Attempting to fix a software problem when you don't know about computers can do just as much damage as fiddling with the radio when you don't know about cars.
Teach people to try doing things. They will
Yes, it's possible to make some things not work the way they worked before. It's POSSIBLE. But you actually have to try. Don't open up a random screen and type in random values into random fields. Do look for anything that looks mildly related to your problem and try fucking with those for a while.
And then they'll call you can get you to fix them.
And then one day they won't need to.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
while i agree that most of what you're saying should be put in a book, a company already has a comprehensive history of the internet and the technology used to create it at Ironbound Press. you should give it a quick glance just to make sure you don't double it ;)
Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. - Aldous Huxley
There are 10 type of people in the world. (yes taken from the thinkgeek shirt). 1. People who want to learn and use computers 2. People who want to just use computers. You can't help the people who don't want to learn something, they just want it to work magicly.
Rob
I suggest you cover four primary topics:
- The physical computer, how it's put together, and *how to take care of it* ( even if this latter includes only "ground yourself," "blow out the dust!" and "check your connections".
- What a computer does - the physical components, the OS, the applications, and the network.
- How to use a computer. This is simply a "what can it do", how to find an application, find data, and where to store your information. It should *definitely* include a chapter on data preservation (i.e., store your data in a place where you can find it, and back it up on a separate media).
- maintenance and care. this should reiterate how assess a problem (hardware, os, application, or data), steps to fix, cleaning, and backing up data. realistic figures for migrating to a new machine, and a chap. on data formats and portability would be useful.
OK, now I can already hear the flame wars starting, and I know the above *seems* like a lot. But many people are mystified by what's going on behind the screen, and I think some basics, no matter how "wrong" they may seem to the keeps (analogies only go so far) would help a lot of users. If all they learn is "back up your data," that's a major victory. How many of us have spent time trying to help people solve problems that could have been skirted entirely if they had a backup copy?
I'd suggest you consider two primary guiding factors in organization: 1) Think about it as a text book. Pick your level (is this grade school, high school, college? I think grade school, but you should identify some target audience). Also, it helps to realize that there might be attendant home work, study aides, etc, which could be on the internet, or in a classroom. 2) Ask yourself, what do I wish people knew before they bothered to call me?
$.02
neil
Is make the users read the prerequsite book "Users that actually want to learn about computers" before your book "THE ULTIMATE ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME BOOK ABOUT THE COMPUTER FOR THE FRIGGIN COMPUTER RETARDED" How many techs out there try to explain to the users what is going with their computer but the users could care less? ....Ok, now everyone can put your hands down.
All you need to do is explain the metaphors.
It's called a "Desktop" because it's like the top of an actual physical desk, which is the work environment most of our parents are familiar with.
Windows Explorer isn't named as well as the old "File Manager" from 3.1 was, but you can say that each Drive is really like a filing cabinet... and folders are like folders... and the internet is like a library with URL & IPs taking the place of Dewey Decimals.
Take it back to the Old School, yo.
geeks are cats who dig a certain kind of cool
I think the first thing everyone should be taught is that memory is not the same as hard disk space. My mom once received an insufficient-memory error in an application. . . so she began uninstalling programs and deleting her old emails.
Also, I notice that some people have no idea how email works. Someone once tried to send my mom a file that was too big for her ISP mail account (so it was bounced back to the sender). . . my mom's solution was to delete old emails in Outlook to make more space. I once knew someone who refused to reboot their computer, because Outlook wouldn't be able to receive their messages while it wasn't running and she didn't want to miss any.
And someone should explain to the world what cookies are. A lot of people seem to believe that every cookie is a malicious spying tool.
Wow. . . I'm a grumpy old man.
Search Amazon for "Fluency with Information Technology : Skills, Concepts, and Capabilities" by Lawrence Snyder.
...biggest thing that gets me is how every time I talk about email viruses my users say 'I don't get viruses because I don't open attachments from people I don't know'. ARG! If when the virus infects you it goes out to your whole address book, by DEFINITION you'll often get it originally from somebody you know!
I've found the best way to explain what the parts of a computer do, is to relate them to body parts.
ie... the stomach is the harddrive, the ram is your mouth (that chews up data), cpu is the brain, etc.
* What is a computer? (Hardware: monitor, computer-case, keyboard, mouse, printer, etc. Software: Operating system, programs you can use, the Internet)
* How do these components work? (shows you a "user interface", contains the actual computer, allows you to type in text and commands, let's you move the cursor around)
* Explain the terms just used (What is a user-interface?, what's in a computer?, What's a cursor?) Do not expect terms to be obvious.
What you want is for people to know the use of a harddrive, of system memory, *cards (sound, network, graphics, etc), of various drives, of the keyboard (shortcuts!) and of the mouse. Explain it in terms of responsibility: the monitor shows you a 'user interface'. Graphics cards are used by the computer to show a user interface; some cards are very good at showing graphics intensive games, so the card can usually be replaces. The mouse makes the cursor move around, and is used to click on things (explain clicking!). Etcetera.
All in all, keep it very basic. Look at a computer as a user would, and look where questions might arise. Answer those questions while pointing to components they can look at, or by having them do stuff with the computer. Include pictures, so that if they're brave enough to open the side of the case, they can see the DIMMs and processor and harddrives and such.
Explain the basic uses of Macintosh and/or Windows. Explaining concurrent tasks is important. Point them to a Knoppix CD, assuring them their computer will be safe. But keep the focus on Windows-only or Windows and Macintosh, since that is what they will be using anyway.
Point out that other software than the defaults exist, and can be used just as well. Explain why the defaults exist. Point them to Firefox (PLEASE! I do tech support. Spyware kills my soul.) Explain the use of the most common programs in program-independant ways.
When teaching someone about the internet, make sure to start with the big picture. Provide simple comparisons of scale. For example: "Everything that Shakespeare ever wrote will fit on a few floppy disks"[*] and "The amount of new information appearing on the internet every single day will fit on a stack of floppy disks that is as high as the Empire state building"[**].
:-)
I would be very interested in a nice catchy explanation as to the types of information that can be found on the internet. Something along the lines of "There is very little control over who offers what type of information on the internet. It ranges from the latest images by NASA from space probes of the outer reaches of existence all the way to minute to minute gossip from Gina, a 16 year old blond girl experimenting with her sexuality, who in real life is a 41 year old bored and frustrated computer nerd living in his parents basement". Yeah, I know...I'm looking for something better then that.
[*] read that somewhere 'on the internet', can't remember where
[**] made that up entirely
Do you have to be a mechanic to own a car? Darn few of us are, and we manage to drive 'em OK. I know there is still an elitist mentality out there (I'm guilty of it myself), but who here recalls the days when we the geeks thought that EVERYBODY should have access to computers? Anyone? The '70s were wonderful time, and this magical box would soon be ubiquitous. Now that it is and everyone who has a few nickles to rub together *does* have access to computers - or, more to the point, the internet - some folks are cranky. Granted there is damn little common courtesy out there, and a lot of ignorance, but the industry brought that on itself by making it look as though the 'net and computers were mature tech, usable by anyone. We know that''s not true, but truth doesn't sell product. What is needed is a basic book - there aren't many out there for the layman that brings everything together. I'm not sure that it will sell, but the idea is right. Writing it so granny can understand it is going to be a trick. Good luck - I want a signed copy!
I personally could not agree more on the wikipedia thing. That random button is soo nice. You either read some boring statistic about a small town in rural nowhere, or get a stub about a person you have never heard of. And all the while you are still happy to click for another round, or think up a way to discredit this unknown person that the other wikipedians would not notice. Wikipedia is fun!
2) How to use a restore disk or make one. All manufactures (HP, Dell, Compaq, Gateway, etc) either include restore disks, have a partition on the hard drive to restore your computer or give you blank CDs/DVDs to create your own restore disks. DO THIS! Then when the computer breaks, save yourself some money and try to use the restore disk before paying to have your computer fixed (a.k.a. the computer tech using your restore disk).
3) Realize that you cannot physically break your computer unless you physically abuse it, pour water in it while its running, or something of the likes. If your software stops working, re-install it or look at #2; use a your restore disk and make sure you are following #1 and keep your important stuff backed up!
Then again, if people followed the above 'rules' then I wouldn't be able to make money off them. But they should still learn it!
Click Click Bloody Click PANCAKES!
The most common statement that I hear from users is "My memory must be full" or "I'm out of memory". What they really mean is Hard Disk space. It seems like No one outside the IT community understands the simply difference between Hard Disk and Memory...
Perhaps that just goes to show there's no market.
Don't get me wrong, I wish there was, but I'm a bit skeptical about it.
Any sufficiently advanced libertarian utopia is indistinguishable from government.
Pronounce GNU with a hard G to avoid horrible confusion.
an ill wind that blows no good
I'd say that you should stress how and why software on a computer is made up of layers. That there is a program called a driver that controls the hardware directly, which is controlled by an Operating System, which does work on behalf of an application, which does real work. Layering is obviously important for security and it also helps to describe how a computer gets things done. It just starts with very simple tools and builds increasingly complex tools on top of them.
"The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine" -Abraham Lincoln
You need to teach them that the computer isn't a fragile box that'll break with the slightest wrong click while at the same time not to mess with the registry, rename file extensions, etc. You need to give them the desire and the courage to figure things out on their own, otherwise they'll never progress beyond "casual user".
Ordering is a bit tricky, but I mostly started learning from The Secret Guide to Computers (somewhere around the 12th or 15th edition), and I think it was pretty good.
The fact that there are *two* places a computer can store information -- the hard drive ("Like an LP -- data is physically written on it. It's slow but can hold a lot, and the data won't disappear if the the computer is unplugged") and the RAM ("It's where the computer stores stuff that you are actually working on at that moment -- Fast, but is essentially just a bunch of electrons zipping around. If your computer is unplugged, it's gone.)
It's important to actually understanding how to use your computer (Save vs Save As, etc), and it's one of those things that makes perfect sense to a power user, but a newbie has no clue about.
- AJ
Conversation from last week:
Me: Ok, now that I've installed your first DVD player and shown you the play and stop buttons, let me explain the menu.
My Mother-in-law: No, I really don't need to know about that.
Me: Oh, it's simple, you just move these arrows around, and you can select the scene you want to jump to, and so on.
M-I-L: No, I think that will just confuse me.
Me (remembering that she didn't know how to work the thermostat after her husband died): Yeah, OK, maybe all you need to know is the controls that work like the VCR: fast forward, rewind, play,...
M-I-L: Which, frankly, I never really understood...
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
...computers. is that they are our overlord masters ;) http://www.imdb.com/Title?0133093
I, for one welcome our new computer overlords.
I think this problem is compounded by "conventional" computer GUIs somewhat. Information is _copied_ from place to place. The primitive operation is "copy", not "move". To "move", you copy+erase. almost all the problems I've seen with people using computers stem from them misconceptualising a "file" in a computer as some sort of physical thing.
"Your hard drive is a mix between a record player and a tape player. It has an arm that moves around the record, but all the tracks are magnetic rather than little grooves in the record."
Second, a pictures is worth a thousand words. Showing the insides of a hard drive is far more effective than explaining it.
Third, keep your topics short and clear. Harried users had long, dense text. They get frustrated and stop reading. That's bad. Treat your book as software. Test it against users as you write it. Find out what works and what doesn't. Your touchstone is EFFECTIVENESS. Everything that you do in this project must be about end-user effectiveness.
I can't tell you how many times someone pointed at the screen saying: "That's the computer"
;)
And then pointing at the case (whereever it might be positioned): "This is the harddrive"
They need to know what's what.. =)
Maybe also some kind of guidelines for how to cooperate well when you're being helped by support/child/friend etc...maybe we all want it in different ways though
/* We dance to the sounds of sirens and we watch genocide to relax*/
Bottom line is most people only use computers for a narrow, limited purpose. The rest start investigating on their own.
I have been listening to the Computer Science E-1 Harvard podcast. It does a pretty good job of building up from 0 to medium understanding without getting too complex. The beginning is a little bit slow if you know anything about how computers work, but it does a good job of filling in some of the gaps. I have not finished the series yet, so I am not sure how far it goes, but so far I can imagine my mother/grandmother understanding what is going on without too much difficulty. A book based along these same lines would probably work well. http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~cscie1/?page=podcast&t ype=static
If it's made of matter, it will break. Dubbly so for moving parts.
Make backups.
People should know nothing about computers,
:)
just like most know nothing about a phone/TV/car/radio/battery etc...
The computer should work and be secure by design.
But i do admire the intend to write a book for 'the people'.
(Make sure they know that a virus is just another application,
written in a programminglanguage by a real person.)
cheers,
pol
European Linux user, living in Antwerp
...makes people who _are_ otherwise good communicators respond with variations of "RTFM--how the hell do you think *I* learned how to do this?" You assume and treat them like arrogant, yet ignorant, people who can't communicate, yet you insist on asking them questions about things you admittedly don't understand but take for granted that they do--and scoff at anything short of exhaustive, encyclopedic knowledge as evidence of incompetence, no matter how trivial your query--well, suffice it to say, you get what you give, sweetheart.
I think people need to know about things that will help their computer experience go more smoothly, or will make things easier for them or faster, or just more fun even. All too often, the only thing someone knows how to use is Office, and then they ask how to do something encredibly simple, that anyone who would spend some time messing around would figure out on there own before long, but people don't know how to do simple things like this. I think people need to be educated a little on just general useage stuff, how to customize some things to your liking, make things easier or faster, software or platform recomendations, maybe a collection of checklists a user should go through if they're having a problem with a certain type of thing (not application or platform specific really if possible). I know a ton of people who think you have to direct connect on AIM to send a file or picture, and thats A: a security risk, and B: has problems with other clients. Simple things like that people need to know how to do, or they need to be kindof tought how to better fish for what theyre looking for.
I worked in a call center supporting customers who purchased extended warranties for various consumer electronics: printers, computers, digital cameras, scanners, etc. I came to the conclusion is that the only thing people should know about computers is they are too stupid to own one. Most of the time I punished the end users by replacing their printer with a crappy refurb or making them reinstall their OS. Though, I was one of the few techs who actually told the customer they'd lose all their data.
It would be nice if retailers put up a sign that read You must be this smart to buy a computer. It would have a picture of a geek complete with pocket protector and thick glasses. Oh and he'd be holding a sliderule.
When I was done with the call most of the time I'd notate their account with PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair).
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
More like..
/.'ers please provide the content?" :P
"i have an idea for the book, but can you
Don't waste your time. Before all you mods flame me down as a troll, hear me out. What's your target audience? The people who need it fall into two group - those who can't understand, and those who refuse to. Your mother falls into the former - the benefit of knowing the difference between a firewall and a hub is outweighed by the cost of learning something completely alien. The latter group is that obnoxious guy you overhear at the counter of your local CompUSA, blithering on about how you HAVE to have a 3.4 GHz P4 with hyperthreading, else you're obsolete. You can talk to him until you are blue in the face, but he knows better because he read something somewhere.
Lastly, if you CAN attract people like your mother, you'll be doing a disservice to your fellow geeks - you'll basically have to refer to things like switches as "splitters" and operating systems as "Windows" - VASTLY oversimplifying things. This results in disbelief and outrage when broken things start costing real money - in effect, you'll be turning people from group 1 into the people in group 2.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Books are a terrible format. But if so follow the steps to success below: 1) Avoid step by step instructions - remember that crick in your neck you get from looking down at a book and then at the computer screen, over and over again. That's why that crazy computer doctor and his CD is probably a better answer to learning computer than your book. 2) Advocate that the computer doctor is a qwack. 3) Have your friends give you a great product review on Amazon, because 10-1, people will think your book sucks no matter how hard you work on it. 4) Do not start from square one. Start with emailing somebody a message with an attachment in a different language. Most people who don't understand computers in the US have english as their second language and want to communicate with their relatives across seas, and the rest of their family members refuse to show them how to use a computer. Believe me, you can write a whole book on it, and I think that's good enough for Newbies. 5) Write the book in a different language, for the same reason as above. 6) Don't refer to other chapters. (Please refer to chapter 8 - noone goes here) 7) Use a character, write in the first-person illustrating the mental process, and somehow throw some adventure and sex into the narration. 8) Crack a non-computer joke, every 5 lines. 9) Do not give credit to anyone except those who helped you in the book. 10) No political commentary, but George Bush is a liar. 11) No business political commentary, who gives a hoot about sun, microsoft, google, I just want to send email damn it. 12) Proof-read the book, by a 55 year old poor immigrant. If he can understand it, you have succeeded.
Chapter 4: Understanding the file system.
d er\filename.ext. (Maybe explain file extensions, the ability of Windows to hide the file extension from the user, and why they might want to disable that feature and look at those extensions themselves before double-clicking a file).
A "file" is data or a document of some sort. It may be letter, a photo, a song, a video, a shopping list, a piece of a program, a piece of the operating system, a piece of adware, an insurance form, a contract, or whatever. A "folder" is a container that can contain many files, can contain folders, and can be found in a folder.
A file has a "location" in the file system. When you save it, if you know it's location, you have lots of power. For example, if you save a file in Microsoft Word, and want to start using Open Office, you simply need to know the location of the file. If you download your music in iTunes, and want to listen to it in MusicMatch Jukebox, you must merely know it's location. If you don't know the location of your file, your geek won't be able to find it either, so don't bother him until you know.
You describe the location of a file by listing the folder where the file can be found, the folder in which that folder can be found, ad nauseum, with the "backslash" character ("\") in between, and the drive letter followed by a colon before, so a location looks like d:\outerfolder\middlefolder\middlefolder\innerfol
You have my permission to use any or all of that, verbatim or modified, and take credit for it as your own.
My mother cannot grasp the concept of folders. She puts every document relating to one theme in a single file; she prints out whatever pages of that file matter for a single document. It's a terrible system.
No non-geek understands file locations. Even semi-geeks may only partially understand; I can think of two or three people who know where their MS Word files are, but don't even understand that eMule or iTunes keeps their music in files located in the filesystem.
On a separate topic, maybe the concept of email delivery would be useful (user clicks "send", his computer attempts to deliver mail to server [post office analogy]; then server attempts to deliver to destination server [post office analogy again]; then receiving user MUST connect to server [post office analogy again] to retrieve their mail). Oh, and the difference between a web address and an email address (the "@" signifies a person's name "at" a place, while a web address is just a place).
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
Sorry if this is redundant, but the best way to go is big, close-up pictures of things. Then at least they'll finally know what they've been talking about. Also compare computers to humans, like short term memory=RAM, etc.
find me at haszak.org
To be able to operate a car well you really need to know an awfull lot of stuff. Oh sure not in exact detail just as I don't need to know wether my PC is big endian or little endian I do not need to know the exact air to gas mixture in my engine. Just that it needs air and a lot of it.
I use the word "operate" because there is a huge difference between operating a car and just driving it. To make use of your car driving is enoug. To continue to make full use of your car you need to do more. You need to be able to take car of it, to meet its demands.
So with computers. Anyone can surf and browse and run apps and install crap. It is when they have to do so for more then 1 day that the problems emerge. What people need to know is that a computer needs to be taken care of in the same way as you take care of a car.
How you teach people this. I be damned if I know. About 3 weaks ago some dipshit fueled a van (small truck?) with diesel because trucks run on diesels don't they. Well not this one dipshit and it says so on the fucking fuel opening.
Is this the same behavior that leads to the installation of spyware? Perhaps it was the reason about 3 years ago a developer who took over from me at a job deciced that in order to be able to remotely connect to the database the easiest option was to disable the hardware firewall completly.
Frankly I don't bother anymore with trying to explain things to people. I feel like a doctor telling a person coughing up his lungs in chuncks that he might want to cut back on smoking. Except I am not doctor and I don't remember taking an oath.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
My problem as an IT guy is this: There's a fine line between something thats a real tech support issue, and something thats a matter of you having a vague idea of what you're doing.
Not saying that anybody who touches a mouse ought to be a geek by our standards. What I AM saying is that if you're in a somewhat high position working in an office, you should know how to print.
It takes a certain (small) amount of knowledge/skill to even consider yourself 'qualified' for a job. Correct? Well, if you work in an office, you should understand that you click File -> Print to print a document. That's not me having unreasonable expectations of your knowledge of the inner workings of your PC. That's you not being totally useless.
Han shot first.
It's not a cup holder, it's a CD player.
Seems to me the hardest question to ask yourself, for this book, is what aspects of software you will talk about.
For instance, will the book be operating system specific? Or will it be generic enough (or hardware oriented) so as to apply to most any consumer computer (mac/windows).
Personally I would avoid talking about any software in specifics, but describing what a hard drive is and how it holds your files (file cabinet analogy please?)
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
Computers should be the same, IMHO. Sure, something is lost when you design the interface for the lowest common denominator. But you get a huge gain-- people can DO something with their computer! If a problem comes up, bring it to a technician. If you're a power user, don't mourn the loss of flexibility in the OS-- use a more powerful OS. I really learned what I was missing when I was introduced to UNIX in college. Is UNIX for everybody? Definitely not.
Computer makers/software designers have a long way to go to be on par with automobile designers. Computers are vastly more complex, so I don't blame them for taking so long to get there. But we need SIMPLE and RELIABLE. That's it. At work the four main applications are 1) email, 2) word processing, 3) spreadsheets, and 4) the web. Users at home need essentially the same thing. With the exception of the web, have our needs changed that much in the last 20 years? We need a toasterized version of the PC that can do these things. Gaming consoles are a great example of this principle in action: a specialized computer for games.
When someone wants to look under the hood, then they can go for a general-purpose PC with a flexible OS. I would hate to see the general-purpose PC go away, but unfortunately, it's too complex for the vast majority of people out there.
As for the book, forget it. People who care enough to learn about how a computer works, will. There are lots of great resources out there for beginners already.
I think a chapter should focus on how to be safely connected to the Internet. Explain the importance of antivirus software and firewall, and what they do. Also explain that just having them installed does not mean they are functioning (virus definitions need updating, etc). I do a lot of fixing for people who have let their definitions lapse or the software has failed for some reason.
And an explanation of email and viruses in general. Just because an email appears to be from some address you know, or even yourself, does not make it so. Once they understand that the system is inherently insecure, most people are more apt to be more careful with email attachments and check that antivirus software regularly.
Of course, there is no substitute for reading and attempting to comprehend the messages your computer gives you. When their antivirus warns them that their definitions are out of date, they should not just ignore it and assume the computer will magically fix that for them. So I suppose another section could be devoted to explaining that a computer, like an automobile, needs regular maintenance in order to continue to run properly.
If you can write a book that helps this kind of person, you will get hundreds of sales from me:
User: "I can't change my password, something's wrong."
Me: "Well what does the error message say?"
User: "It says it can't change my password."
Me: "But what does it SAY?"
User: "Oh. It says 'Your new password must exceed 5 characters and be'... oh. I see. Never mind."
"Glad I could help."
People think whatever the error messages say are for trained computer people only, not them. Get that out of their heads and you win.
GnomeSkull
http://jdouglasmedia.com/
At this point in the developement of consumer computers, she shouldn't need to understand IT speak anymore than she need understand Maxwell's equations to use a television. A book about the size and in the format (i.e. tasks and trouble-shooting) for that TV should be sufficient. Obviously, programming and advanced configuration would require more.
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
One question that I get a lot is "do I have enough memory to run x" (that's x as a variable, dingus) I've found a lot of users don't understand the distinction between available virtual memory and storage memory. They look at the size of the executable for WebShots and think that's how much memory it takes up. They then click "My Computer", hop over to their hard drive, and see that they have 80GB free. Wheee, I can load all the Anne Geddes screensavers I want, plus that little purple ape and so on and so on. As a side note, I really want an OS indicator for disk reads/writes so that my wife, mom, uncle, etc can tell at a glance where the bottleneck is on a system at any given moment. I've taught them how they can check the virtual memory and the processor utilization, but I got nothing for disk thrashing short of hoping they have a really loud HDD or a poorly-insulated case.
Great idea if you can do it. My problem with helping users who have little or no understanding of computing or the cyberworld, is that they don't understand the consequence or value of what they have. Additionally, that it needs maintenance like your car does in order to continue functioning properly. Sample conversation
User - My machine is too slow.
Tech - You appear to have spyware on your machine.
User - It didn't used to be this way. Why did IT let that in? Don't we have anti-virus stuff?
Tech - Yes but this is different. It is not a virus and it won't be detected by that product.
User - Why do I pay for antivirus if it doesn't work.
Tech - You pay for AV because eit will stop most viruses but it is not 100%. First of all you have not updated it in quite a while. Second It is not a virus.
User - Why can't it do it itself? I don't have time for this.
Tech - It is a tool and you need to take care of the tools in order to have them function properly. You would not leave your lawnmower out in the rain/snow over the winter and then expect it to run properly. Same is true for the computer.
User - Make it work the way I want it to.
Tech - I can't.....
You get my point. If the user could view it as a tool maybe they would take the time to learn how the tool functions. Maybe that is the approach you need to take. One of function versus instructional.
Hope it helps.
If everyone has that kind of attitude, computers would be different. However, computers today are a "time sink" basically running broken software. Unless you are a specialist with adequate training, computers are a waste of most peoples time. Use a pencil and paper, calculator, and typewriter, it is more efficient. Sounds silly? How many times have you had to tell someone how do use a word processor? And how many copies did they print (waiting paper), before they got that hanging indent right (using spaces) only to find that when they change the font and the document falls apart. Need I continue...
HPC for Primates. Read Cluster Monkey
behind the computer, puffy cloud=internet, small insignifigant boxes=router/modem/firewall, then make a enlarged drawing of the PC, outlining the main compenents, hd, memory, processor, cd/dvd rom, free cell shortcut, floppy drive, on button(pc and monitor)...
Sig Hansen?
I have but two words for you. ANY and KEY.
Just today I saw "50 brand new, free programs making your computer safer!" on a billboard. Maybe people should realise why an old program, yet still actively developed is preferable to a brand new program suffering from child disease, especially when regarding computer security.
Sorry about the previous formatting, all the other forums I use have plain old text as the default entry method. Yes, I'm lazy, unobservant, and still complaining...welcome to Slashdot.
All you need to do is refer your mother/grandma/pa to
p e=pdf&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=62709421&CFTOKEN=30 573549
e nd/endtoend.txt
http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=363143&ty
and http://web.mit.edu/Saltzer/www/publications/endto
That would be a nice "oversimplified" start!
I ran into a similar situation when my sister bought my 79 yr-old mother a Windows PC.
Soooo, I wrote and published a book!
"Computer Secrets I Taught My Mom" ISBN 0-9773105-0-7 Published by SmartGuy Press Jan. 2006. It's available now for US$18.00 from amazon.com, bn.com, B&M retailers as well as directly from www.smartguypress.com.
It's selling great and my Mom is quite the computer enthusiast these days.
The book covers common fundamentals of PC use, and goes on to talk about security, OpenSource software, OpenOffice, with extensive sections on installing Firefox and Zonealarm.
What really irked me about almost every PC book I looked at for my Mom is that they fail to properly explain that understanding a PC is really all about files; what is a file, different types of files, and most importantly, how files are organized. I wrote extensively on understanding the hierachical structure and provided several tutorials.
Take care,
Michael Shannon
Author "Computer Secrets I Taught My Mom
Author "Computer Secrets I Taught My Mom"
this is a good reference... Feynman's Lectures on Computation Seriously.... several things about computer science became clearer once I had read part of it...
First is to let them know that all those little icon thingies in the task bar (blue bar at the bottom of the screen) are actually running programs eating up computing resources (memory, processor, and etc...) This basically slows down the computer.
Second (tied to the first) is to teach them about msconfig. You know start - run - msconfig. Teach them that certain pages in there are never to be touched ( I usually tell them to only mess with the first tab to choose selective start up, and choose the start up tab (to get rid of any oddball things in there as well).
Third would be to teach them about the three finger salute to get to the task manager and choosing which programs to end task on. If Win XP then they can't shut down critical system processes (and it will tell them so), so don't be afraid when shutting down these items. I usually have them do this if the PC is running slow to ensure it isn't simply an AV, or other program that is eating up all the resources.
I know I go into some more detail than is needed, but that is why you are writing the book right! To identify where to draw the line. Also I used to be really good at putting things in laymans terms when I first started getting deep into IT. Now I have trouble doing that (advanced too far, so I can explain to a newb IT guy, but not a layman any more with out some difficulty). It might be beneficial if you find some one that is just starting out in IT to review the content in your book (or DVD). I would have that person review it, and a few laymen as well. Your just starting out IT guy may have some insight on how to relay the information to the laymen.
I also find it is use full to tell users what not to do more often than it is to tell them what to do. Perhaps you should devote a whole chapter that one. Things like don't mess with the registry, don't mess with other tabs in msconfig, don't go deleting files in the windows directory, and so on.
The biggest problem I see from most users is that they have absolutely zero understanding of the file system. They don't understand what a file is, let alone where it is on their hard drive. They don't understand folders or paths. They just don't get files *at all*.
One problem is that most people don't care what is going on inside the box.
No one ever asks me, 'how does the ethernet card talk to the cable box?' They ask me 'why is the Internet down?' History of the Internet and hard drive internals are not going to be what the average layman wants to hear.
A book that would really be interesting to your target audience should black box the inside of the computer and focus on tasks and troubleshooting based on what they will see on the screen. And yes, they are going to be interested in tedious tasks you will hate to have to explain like setting up a group entry in their email program, setting up an EBay account, etc.
Then you have your second problem -- lack of standardization. Even just looking at Windows there are enough variations on email programs (Outlook Express, a couple of variations on Outlook, GMail, etc.) that no one set of instructions will do.
And that leads us to the third problem -- you will be out of date by the time the book prints. By the time the book is out there will be a new EBay, Google, and Outlook.
My advice, write your book after Moore's law runs out and computers become as standardized as rotary telephones. If those two events ever happen.
But I do wish you luck.
-- I browse at +5 with stripped sigs
Rule number 1 is: You can make it as simle as you'd like. If it is thik, most mundanes will stear clear of it.
www.aleo.no
What is a book?
Someone please tell people how to turn off the computer when windows forgets how!
;)
:)
hehe, pet peeve needed petting
Good idea but sounds intimidating, good luck
My biggest wish is that people would actually report problems when they have them. This is how hardware and software is improved: users say what's wrong with it.
One of the things I hate to hear techs tell non-techs is that "all computers crash". Too often, when I worked in tech support, I had people let real hardware problems go until the warranty ran out because, well, "don't computers all crash?"
Also, how best to report problems. Error messages are important, even if you can't understand them. Copy and paste them if you can, or do a screen dump if you can't. While it's true that if e-mail is most important to you, then "I'm not getting any e-mail" is a valid description of your concern, it isn't going to help tech support help you when the real problem is that everything is frozen and you can't even move the mouse.
I suppose then you've got to have a section on dealing with tech support.
I would also recommend some reference to the expert effect: if you rely on advice only from tech geeks when purchasing hardware or software, you'll get hardware and software that only a dedicated tech geek would enjoy. King Ludd.
Jerry
The site is just pointing that those phrases you mentioned are not in the constitution verbatum. Some similar ideas may be expressed or implied in parts of the constitution as you said, but those exact phrases are not present in the constitution.
From the site:
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
This phrase is commonly attributed to the Constitution, but it comes from the Declaration of Independence.
Of the people, by the people, for the people
This phrase is commonly attributed to the Constitution, but it comes from the Gettysburg Address.
Things you think are in the Constitution, but are not.
... and it may be repititious (I don't really have the patience to read the zillions of replies to this post). If I were to write such a book, I would sit down with my 85 year old grandmother (in the early stages of dementia) and try to take her through whatever problems she seems to be having. As she keeps asking questions (as she undoubtedly will) take notes on those questions (don't bother taking notes on the answers you give because they will most likely be too complicated for poor granny anyway). Take the questions home and think about how you can answer them simply and without confusing g'ma. Do this enough times with enough grannies and you should have a plethora of questions.
You should not write this book.
...I would like to see everyone move away from an 800x600 screen resolution and use something other than Internet Explorer!
'Document' and 'file' are both misleading though. An image might not be a document; it might just be a part of a document. The same is true of a sound. I really have no idea what a 'file' is supposed to be - I've never encountered one outside of a computer context. I am not sure what would be a good term to use here. 'Page' might work, or 'sheet,' since I tend to find pages or sheets of paper inside a folder. I quite like 'object,' but you need a better operating environment than most systems currently provide for this not to be misleading.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
In other words, I don't see how you can do much more than barely scratch the surface when writing a "general purpose" book like this, and probably that scratch will be virtually useless to 99% of the people out there.
At what point do you stop explaining? How many options will you cover, if there are half a dozen perfectly usable tools available to do something as basic as printing a letter? Do you tell them to go install OpenOffice, Emacs, Vi, MS Word, something else? Do you explain how to do THAT, too? Hell, those are just the options on Windows, too... there's probably a dozen or two more readily available on Linux, and I have no idea how many options there are on OS X, but I'd guess there's quite a few there, too. Do you see where I'm going yet?
I think there are too many choices to write a useful all-purpose book for everybody. Most every-day users don't care that much about how the hardware works, so long as it DOES work... so I don't think you're going to have a terrifically high readership in that market segment. My best advice is, write a book titled something like, "How To: 50 Things you can get done today with your new Dell Windows XP PC." Keep it focused to a specific OS, set of hardware options, and applications. If you're going to cover a particular app, it either better be pre-installed on the hardware, or available for install from the CD which accompanies the book.
Keep it task-oriented. Sending & receiving email using Outlook Express or Thunderbird. Browsing a web site. "Five things you absolutely SHOULD have running on your system at all times" -- something along the lines of antivirus, spybot, backups, firewall, automatic updates, and explain how to set it up with some good default settings.
I think you're undertaking something that's damn near impossible as you described it, or virtually unreadable if you do manage to finish. Without keeping it very focused, you'll drive yourself insane.
While the above discourse on location is quite informative, I'd like to add one point which needs clarification: the difference between the location (folder/pathname) and the application.
I get so sick of asking people where foo.doc is and being told "It's in Word."
Word, (Excel, et.al.) is a tool, not a place.
The physical world equivalent would be asking
"Where do keep your screws?"
"In my screwdriver."
And you, madam, are very ugly. In the morning, I shall be sober.
I was at fry's yesterday. There was a very attractive lady and her friend looking at computers. She had a piece of paper with the statistics of a machine on sale at Best Buy. Being that my knowledge of computers is about the only thing going for me in these sort of situations, I offered some help. Words like Gig and Meg caused her confusion because she didn't understand their roots. I explained that Gig and Meg were just amounts. I explained they just meant you added 0's to the amount. Once she realized they had nothing to do with what the part actually is, she was able to focus on the words hard drive and memory. I wonder if vendors have realized that confusion means better sales and embarrasment means fewer returns.
Sales people also hindered her. They were referring to machines as "the hard drive" and sometimes "the cpu". When she looked at one of the machines at fry's its statistics listed "CPU: AMD Sempron 3400+". She turned to me and asked, "I thought this CPU was an HP. Why does it list cpu and hard drive". It took very little time explaining to her the sales people were not as technical as they put themselves up to, and to ignore their jargon.
She didn't give me a phone number but at least I felt good about de-mything the machine.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
Exactly.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Half the trouble in diagnosing friend/family computer troubles for me is just trying to figure out what's really going on, it's gotten to the point where I just tell them to unplug the whole thing until I can see it in person because so much time and effort is wasted trying to extract relevent information over the phone/IM/email.
For example: Ethernet, Internet, IE, ethernet cable, modem, NIC are all DIFFERENT things, yet most laymen refer to them pretty much interchangably.
Related to this a great chapter would be on some basic troubleshooting skills for simply explaining/diagnosing a problem. Saying "the internet is broken!" means nothing. Does the browser open? Does it open but you get an error? Is it a hardware issue (e.g. no connection status light)? Is it a problem with the cable modem or the router? People seem to just give up describing the problem once they express what end-level task isn't working.
Also people need to take note of what's going on when a problem occurs, half the time I'm treated to blank stares when I ask what they were doing before or during an error. Did you have 26 broswer windows open? Were you running Doom minimized? Did you get a popup warning? When an error occurs people seem to just turn off their brains and forget any information that would be helpful in figuring out what caused the problem in the first place.
And finally, related to the above, is convincing people that a computer is not a magic box that does things at random. It is in fact a purely logical device and will follow orders even when it's not a good idea. Problems don't occur for no reason, there is cause and effect, although it may not always be completely obvious at first glance. People need to keep track of what they are doing mentally, and if they're installing software or making changes they need to WRITE DOWN EVERYTHING that they do. That way when they change some widget setting in firefox and suddenly a day later they notice that flash functionality is broken they can say "what has changed that might cause this?" and figure it out instead of deciding the computer simple broke for no reason and not having any idea where to start.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Of course, this means that you can't write a book for a wider audience, but maybe that's what you really need to do.
1) "Understanding Computers: For people who live through The Great Depression"
2) "Understanding Computers: For people who have always had one at work"
3) "Understanding Computers: The extra stuff you need to know to help your parents"
and so on. My point is that most people understand complex things best when they see it in terms of something they're already comfortable with. That's why we get "horseless carriages" and "wireless phones" and "paint programs."
But someone in their fifties, for example, might be best helped along with the library analogy. Or, when people say it's too hard to tell one behavior from another, remind them that they already know the difference between the phone ringing, the doorbell, and the smoke alarm going off, and that they just need to take their time.
A typical consumer machine has more moving parts (so to speak) than all the other stuff in the household combined. Sooth some nerves by saying that you wouldn't expect someone from 100 years ago to be able to walk into your house and immediately know how to use the stove, the thermostat, the alarm, the phones... let alone know which pieces of postal mail that show up in the box are worth reading and which are best thrown away. But even 50-year-old computer-phobes tackle that sort of complexity in other forms all the time - they just need to break it down into pieces, like everything else they've learned.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I don't know why people make this complicated. I worked at a computer store in the 1980s back when buying a PC was a major thing and we actually had free training services. I didn't do training, but I'd take a customer to a file cabinet and say "This is your hard drive" and I'd open a drawer and say "this is a directory" and I'd pull out a file and say "this is a file." Got it? Of course.
"I remember having to go through contortions to explain the concept of a "file" and "directory" to my mom."
Yeah. I had to explain (so she could understand it) an n-tier client-server application to a clinically trained nurse who had been working in phychology for the past 10 years. After that she wanted to understand relational databases and data normalization.
I kept expecting to get a bill for all the time she spent trying to understand these concepts.
And that goes for WindowsXP too - no wonder so many people have problems with it!
...not necessarily how smart you think they are, but how much effort you think they're willing to put in.
/etc/inittab to set initdefault to 0?" "Exactly how far would rm -rf/ go if I hit Escape after about two seconds?" Worth trying.)
I have an older sister, a biochemist, who's extremely smart, but who had never really used a computer at all until very recently. She emailed me a while ago and asked, "How do computers work?"
I thought about it, and decided to explain it so she could really understand it. Over the last year I've been sending her mid-length essays explaining things in stages. For instance, start with binary numbers; then a short primer on Boolean logic; then a simple explanation of Claude Shannon's paper on how Boolean gates could be physically implemented using electromagnetic relays. Then explanations of semiconductors, why silicon, why boron, why phosphorus. And so on.
It seems to me that most people aren't really good at sustained systematic study; I'm not myself. Instead, I start by learning a fact pretty much at random, then another fact, and so on, until I have a large enough collection of facts that a pattern emerges and I can grasp an underlying principle. Once you understand the principles, you can learn anything about a system fairly easily.
That was how I learned Linux--after asking a number of people and receiving various replies, all of which were a variation on "Don't start by doing X," until I had to conclude that there just isn't any good way to start, so I might as well start at random. It helped that I had a laptop I didn't need, so I could install any distro I wanted and if I screwed up beyond my ability to repair it, I'd just re-install. That turned out to be handy, since you can do stuff people warn you against. ("What actually happens if I edit
It's a book by Charles Petzold that explains very well how computers work: http://www.charlespetzold.com/code/ The rest depends on how apt your grandma is at grasping concepts.
For example, explain the concept of a window and then describe the functions that are available from the menu attached to that window. Many years ago, my father was introducing me to a word processing suite (on an Amstrad 1512 IIRC) which was new to me as we had previously only had DOS to play with (Nascom, Compaq 8086 etc). One question he asked me while we were sitting in front of the screen was "if you wanted to visually change the way you were working with this program where would you start ?" Of course the answer was/is you go to the "View" menu item. Simple stuff, but people generally think thats too simple or don't even think to try it.
Which brings me to my second point. Explain to people that they actually have to read what's on the screen ! The answer to all their questions is going to be there, if they would just look and read what it says. Which brings in another aspect - the GUI. Maybe it's a good plan to itemise each part of the GUI, desktop, taskbar, system tray etc. A friend of mine phoned to ask how to change the size of all the text on his computer because it was too small. I guessed he was after changing the resolution rather than specifying a larger font size for all the apps, so I asked him to right click on the desktop and click properties from the menu that popped up. I spent 10 minutes waiting for him to accomplish this ( I could hear random clicking over the phone, but it went on for far too long) and in the end I asked him what he was doing. He replied that he was looking for the folder called "desktop" so that he could right click on it ! I had to tell him to close all the open windows and then what was he was left looking at was called "The desktop". Oh yeah, he said. He's not dim by any means but this is the problem. One way I used to try and help people was to tell them "right click gives you options - left click makes things happen".
I could go on for days about this subject, but I think that once you have the GUI and the concept of reading what the screen says embedded in their minds, then the only cautionary thing you ought to impart is " Crap in - Crap out ". If the computer comes out with something unexpected, then 10:1 it's because you put the wrong data in.
The internet is a whole new kettle of fish, but once you can get the user to be familiar with their surroundings, and be a little confident in their actions, then common sense usually kicks in. Hopefully then, they will notice when their pc slows down due to spyware, and they will learn which sites to avoid because of popups and not to download anything just because its "free".
I know one thing, it's got to be easier to write a book about it than deal with the people face to face. Sometimes it's very hard not to lose patience when something is so obvious, but that's just me ;-)
(Sad but true - once when I was about 19, a friend of mine was given a smallish astronomical telescope. Nothing too special but you could get a good look at the moon with it. Anyway, after a few weeks I was visiting and he was in a foul mood for some reason. I asked him what the problem was, and he said he'd been cleaning his telescope when he decided to clean the mirror. He had been using AutoSol, an automotive chrome polish, and he said "the bastards put the silvering on the wrong side of the glass !" Of course, he polished the mirror right off the glass. I couldn't believe anybody would be so dumb. It never occurred to me that maybe not everybody knew about optical mirrors and the refraction problems caused by glass. I've always remembered that day, and I'm still a little ashamed about how I reacted. But it is hard to relate (gracefully) to a lesser understanding sometimes.)
People need to understand the difference between memory and hard drive. My god. And good luck on this one, because I know some people who still get it wrong, 30,000 explainations later...
The file system is the most misunderstood thing I find among laypeople. I'm tired of, "I saved it in Microsoft Word," or the slightly more informed, "In 'My Documents'" answer to "Well, where is your file?" I would encorage users to use the desktop explorer/shell/file manager for a week to find their files.
Please write about the file system!
I actually bounced this frustration off of my friend Z and he had a good analogy:
I thought it was pretty good and the idea of non-technical analogies that people will already understand is a good inroad to computer education, in my opinion. A pat answer, but I don't think it can be overstated, especially since the "file cabinet" analogy is about as old as computer files (and is used in nearly every file/folder icon) but many people still don't seem to grasp it.
On a tangent, this specific difficulty does lend credence to the idea of a metadata/type file manager. (And that's something I'm reluctant to admit.)
Printing images confuses people. Much of that is that often even the people they turn to for help don't understand the difference between DPI and PPI. I find that people click when it is explained as "it takes many dots to draw a single pixel, since a combination of four colours of dots, plus the white space between them, needs to be printed in order to produce a colour at a location, ie a pixel". Image resolution also needs to be conceptually seperated from print size, since any res can be printed at any size, but might look poor, or conversely, make the computer chug.
Another one that no-doubt you'll already have covered, is the difference between memory (ram) and memory (hard drive). To many people, there is only "memory" in their computers, measured in Mb (or Gb), and they make poor upgrade decisions because they have heard that more memory will fix their problem, so they go out and buy the wrong kind, or they delete things off the drive to free up "memory" when RAM is their bottleneck.
Another one: "The upcoming version of Mac/Windows/whatever is so revolutionary it is going to crush the other" has been said every year for 20 years and beyond. It was rubbish then, it's rubbish now, and twenty years from now it will still be rubbish, yet such words come earnestly from the mouths of many experts that people turn to for advice.
Give the readers some tools to realise when the supposed expert's own ideological blinkers/commitments are unduly influencing the advice and suggestions they give.
A long time ago, I was a teaching assistant for a CS course hell bent on teaching incoming frosh how to use a computer. Part of the course dove into the internal workings and how a computer gets things done -- this included lecture/labs on binary numbers and arithmetic, logic gates, processors, RAM/ROM, hard drives, video cards, etc. etc.
I always held the position that this was a complete waste of time and did not serve the purpose of the course. I held that you don't need to completely understand how something works (in some cases it requires no comprehension) to make it useful. To illustrate the point, consider color television. I don't know how color television works and don't care to know. I don't know the history of television technology. My ignorance, however, doesn't keep me from using the TV or enjoying it.
[At the time, cable TV was a novelty and the TV analogy was wrt OTA signals. Then again, I don't know (or care to know) how color TV with cable works either!!]
My point is that any effort towards authoring your book and making it useful does not necessarily require a history of computing or explanation of how it works.
disclaimer: all analogies and metaphors are useful for illustration, but do not necessarily prove anything.
I think a better description of a file is:
"File" is not an intuitive idea. And if someone doesn't get these fundamental concepts right at the beginning then they may nod and agree but they wont understand.
My 2 cents worth anyway.
Bitter and proud of it.
I know exactly what you mean! My girlfriend asked me the other day "how do computers work"? She was genuinely interested, and that launched me into full geek mode. I started at the top, but she just kept asking "How?". Pretty soon I was drawing a circuit diagram to add two small numbers. Then, after I had gotten as far down as possible (for me at least), she asked how that circuit diagram makes the pixels on her screen light up.
I think most people don't know how much abstraction is involved in computing, and how much hand waiving you really need to do to understand anything.
The real surprise is just how long it's taking to get past this point.
Why is that surprising? On the one hand, you have commercial software that is the equivalent of a car with the hood welded shut and a dealership that wants to sell you a new car every time there is a problem. And on the other hand, you have users who are convinced that computers are beyond their comprehension and they are entitled to unlimited hand-holding for their $500 that they spent on a new Dell. Not surprisingly, what we get is computers that are disposable, just like everything else that might take lazy stupid Americans more than ten minutes to repair.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Who is the prime minister?
Of course it gets help from wikipdia.
The Messy Room Analogy
Why RAM is important, or What the Major Components in a Computer Do
Ok you have a messy room, clothes everywhere, all over the floor. The floor is your hard drive, it stores your clothes, the data. They are randomly distributed and can be randomly accessed. You need to bring your clothes to the washing machine downstairs, for processing - your washing machine is the CPU. To get your clothes there you must put them in a basket, the basket is your RAM. You will get your clothes done faster (process data faster) by a) having faster washing machines, but if you can't get your clothes there as fast as you can wash them (ok, breaking from reality a little now) then there's no point so you should b) have more RAM because then you won't have to walk to your room so often (acess the hard drive) which takes up a lot more time because you have to walk around picking everything up, not just dumping it from the basket into the machine. So there comes a point where you don't need a much faster processor unless you also get more RAM.
Of course, with a bigger hard drive you can store more clothes, but it won't necessarily have any effect on the speed of your computer because that's dependent on how often you need to wash your clothes (how much processing you need to do) and how fast you can get your clothes to the machines (basket size, amount of RAM)
By defragmenting you effectively take all your clothes and rearrange them to be sorted by color or whatever, maybe instead you fold them, I don't know. In the end it makes it so you've ordered the clothes so that they can be found faster, and will be typically picked up in the order found and not require running all over the room. Your floor gets messy because you toss your clothes wherever you happen to be standing when you take them off - eventually this reordering is required, typically on a monthly basis or when you feel that it's become overwhelmingly difficult to find things when you need them. Some filesystems used on other operating systems (methods for keeping the clothes in your room, on the floor, in shelfs, under your bed) have a nice method of also putting clothes back where it found it, and keeping externally maintained tabular lists of their locations, so that this regular reorganization of the clothes is unnecessary. Checking the lists against your drawers or whatever on a regular basis does become important though. go ahead, have fun with this, it can go forever, believe me, i've taken this way to far
So, I'm sure by now you can tell what kind of room I kept (and keep) and who I was dealing with when providing this metaphor - none other than: your target audience, Ma.
If software seems maddeningly inconsistent and is difficult to figure out, that's because it really is: it's not because you're stupid.
People (and 'bots) on Slashdot tend to be so immersed in the arbitrariness and foibles of technology that we don't see how opaque and difficult it is. Take a look at (Wall Street Journal's) Walter Mossberger's disclaimer and the start of Cooper's book ahref=http://www.cooper.com/content/insights/newsl etters/2004_issue02/Inmates_Foreword_excerpt.aspre l=url2html-17034http://www.cooper.com/content/insi ghts/newsletters/2004_issue02/Inmates_Foreword_exc erpt.asp>
to get an idea of some things you should keep in mind.
Mossberger's Disclaimer
(Also from Mossberger recently (Protecting Your Computer/January 12, 2006; Page B3): There's no other major item most of us own that is as confusing, unpredictable and unreliable as our personal computers.)Different people have different ways of understanding but don't underestimate the value of simple diagrams. Also, it's helpful to repeat things in slightly varying ways as some people will understand one phrasing but not another. Re-iterating an important point with a few examples also helps drive it home because multiple views of the same thing help place it in perspective. A multi-media approach might prove its worth because some people have visual memories whereas others remember more "by ear".
Specific things to point out are issues like (when entering information):
Case sometimes matters but sometimes doesn't
AND
Spaces and punctuation can be inordinately important
[aside] Why do web pages asking for credit card numbers usually refuse to accept it in the more-readable and easily-checkable format as it appears on my card? Many forms require the number to be entered with no internal spaces - is it really so hard to have the code deal with these? [\aside]
There's probably only one or two things you'll be doing with your computer and you can learn those things even if it's by rote.
Lastly, but most importantly, find someone who understands this better than you do and pay him lots of money. Worship him like a god.
When they were young, things like computers were not apart of their world. They may not know how to understand how computers work. Either they get it (and therefore won't need to read your book), or they don't, and these I believe are who you are trying to reach.
In other words, they need to understand what using computers means to them, in their world view. They need to see the really, really big picture (the one that seems super-obvious to the rest of us).
I would think such a book would be more about people you're trying to reach, not the technology. Perhaps tell moving, lightly but technically detailed stories about people who have used computers to help complete some part of their lives where something had been missing before.
Anyway, even I would think that would be more gripping and entertaining then a technical reference on computer parts.
and DON'T make the "history of computers and the internet" the first chapter.
Nothing annoyed me more throughout my CS courses than that each textbook decided that it had to re-teach me the history of punch cards and vaccuum tubes. Make that crap an appendix and keep it out of my way. If I'm looking for a practical guide to computing, finding that the book's most valued factoids concern how many rooms the first computer took up gives me little confidence in its remaining pages.
Here's a few of my favorites:
1) I've seen a few other folks mention it, but it's worth repeating - A computer (keyboard) is not physically fragile, and most programs run just fine even with abusive usage patterns - put another way, you can't hurt the computer just by using it.
2) Computers are not "smart" - they don't know anything, they don't remember anything, they don't know who you are, it's just a tool. I'm sure you could put that more eloquently.
3) Almost every non-computer person I know uses computing term incorrectly, correction, ALL OF THEM do this...
- They use the term "Memory" to mean hard drive space ("my computer has memory left, why won't it go?")
- They use "The Internet" to mean any information they can access via computer.
- They use "hard disk" to mean the CD drive, yeah, I know it's a disk, and I know it's hard... but it's not a hard disk !!!
4) When they have trouble accessing a web page, they say "My computer is broken" - please explain to them that their computer is probably just fine, the site they went to is "down" (yeah, and explain down to them while you are at it).
5) Explain to them how to save, and then FIND files... if I had a nickle for every time someone couldn't find a file that "the computer lost" only to discover it among 200 other "lost" file in 'My Documents', I'de be rich.
Good luck by the way !
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
My grandparents are under the impression that doing ANYTHING is a virus. if i change the desktop, its a virus, if i install something, its a virus. etc, etc. you should specifically explain all the types of malware, and their differences, and what isnt malware
120 GB, when I ask my dad how much memory his computer has.
These books seem to cover what people really need in order to use a computer. Of course, there are no books of the kind "Get to know bits and bytes", or even "Get to know PCs"...
It isn't entirely unlikely that the market is somewhat at fault here (favouring books describing well-known products, and favouring books from a common series "Get to know...", "... For Dummies", etc.
But I also think it's a fault of the consumers. The thing is, "stupid" computer users aren't rational. They want a computer, but have no idea what they are going to use it for. Having bought a computer they don't need, they refuse to learn how to use it. And when it all breaks down, they complain about it, instead of sitting down and learning the basics that they should have done in the first place.
The thing is, computers are general-purpose machines that people need to learn how to use, in order to get any benefits at all from them. Even more so, if it's your private computer, you also need to learn some basic maintenance, since there is no IT department to blame. If you are not willing to invest this time into learning the basics, you have no right to complain when things go wrong. Part of the problem is that smart salesmen are always telling the buyers the exact opposite.
If I were to write the kind of book you are describing, the previous paragraph (or something very much like it), would be the blurb on the back-side of the cover. This is not an easy book to write, but it's a useful one.
On the other hand, a book explaining bits and bytes for laymen has been sitting on the shelf in the local community library since 1981. It has been lent out 4 times (one of them was to me).
I don't know how important it is for the layperson to know the difference, but it always drives me nuts when people try to describe a problem to me and constantly confuse RAM and Disk space.
I will say that when I trained our sales staff on some basics like this so they could start selling software services they all seemed to really like understanding a bit more than they did before.
I usually use some analogies to explain the difference between RAM and Disk space, like "RAM = the top of your desk, HARD DRIVE = your filing cabinet". I finally got my mom to stop asking if she needed more memory before she could install a new lineage tracking program.
Computers are evil devil boxen hellbent on taking over the world!
How ya like dat?
However, now I'm thinking: If this is how people think, maybe the OS should present things to the user like this. Why should files and folders concern them? These common users think they've already got a good system: pages. So why don't we computer geeks give them what they want? Eventually computers are going to have to become easier than they are now, in the same way that cars got automatic transmission. Perhaps one of these concepts will be a more natural way for people to "manage files". Computer files and folders are not natural. No ordinary mortal thinks of files and folders. Getting a "fresh page" is more natural. So future operating systems should head in that direction rather than trying to get people to think of files.
Outlook Express will kindly run whatever hacker scripts the luser is sent. Have them get an HTML email account and access it via the browser.
I think that the best way to explain something to someone who has absolutely no idea what you are talking about is to use metaphores and / or analogies. For example, to explain how the file structure works: "Think of your computer's hard drive as a filing cabinet. In a filing cabinet, you have individual drawers, and inside of the drawers you can have green folders, and inside of those folders you can have vanilla folders. Your hard drive is almost exactly the same, the main differences being that it can store much more then a filing cabinet, and that you can have an infinite amount of nested folders." Or, you could go with the tree aproach, and explain that the main trunk is the drive, and each branch is a folder, and each leaf is a file, and maybe have a picture of a tree, but with the trunk / branches / leaves labled.
"I cant show you what the matrix is...."
You've never seen a file cabinet?
Answer: Because they empower the second industrial revolution.
/.ers but one I think a lot of people who don't work in cubes don't appreciate -- particularly mothers and other such older folk who might hark back to when the U.S. was a manufacturing hub that still made "things".
Steam engines allowed reliable manufacturing and transport beyond anything manpower or horsepower could imagine. They augmented muscle.
Computers allow research and information flow beyond anything people could imagine. They augment brains.
As the steam engine released an extraordinary flood of products, computers will unleash an extraordinary flood of discovery -- and that means things like cancer cures.
A "big picture" thought presumably obvious to
Back when I was working tech support for a national ISP, I often was left trying to explain computer concepts to some befuddled blue-haired lady. The problem wasn't that she was stupid, or wasn't listening, but rather that it was so vastly different to anything she had Real World experience with. She was left with no frame of reference, no way to get a handle on the basics. Every acronym I used cut comprehension by 25%.
What I would do is explain the hardware and core functions in terms of monkeys running a library. The CPU is a monkey in the librarians office. That animal is very very fast and good at following simple instructions. S/he only has so much deskspace (L1 and L2 cache) to work with however. Thus, there is a front counter (RAM)staffed by very Rain-man like apes whose job it is to fetch information and recipes from the main library shelves. (HDD)
By extension, I could describe the video card as an artist, the NIC as a loading dock and so on. A virus was then easily explained as a bad recipe planted surruptitiously by a vandal. I found that there were very few concepts I couldn't explain at that level. Using this system, I have successfully taught grannies the concepts of Routers, bandwidth usage, Remote Desktop, SSL, why her email ended up on her daughters computer and hence why she can't read it on her home computer and many other things.
As others have said, the your challenge will be providing the right balance of simple explanations and important concepts. Your question, however, was what concepts I wish my users knew, so here is my list:
1) a computer is like any other machine, it needs maintainence to work at it's best. (removing unneeded apps, regular defrags antivirus and antiscumware scans, vacuuming out the killer dust bunnies from the CPU and power supply fans etc)
2) actually read what the computer tells you. (error messages, those "are you sure" alerts, and of course EULA's, but I know that last one is a forlorn hope)
3) when it comes time to make a purchase, pay more attention to the guy who will be supporting it than the guy who is making a commission on the sale. (do you hear me mother-in-law? I told you you needed a 20$ cable for your camera, not the 2000$+ new camera the sales guy talked you into! me bitter? oh, a bit)
4) RTFM! almost every piece of hardware I have ever seen comes with instructions, most Windows apps come with Help files. Before you call me in the middle of dinner for the 3rd time asking me about the same keyboard shortcut you can't remember, check the manual or Help files. Or for that matter, check the post-it note I left on your monitor the last time I came and showed you hwo to do it.
5) Most problems you can solve yourself using Google, *if* you are willing to try.
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
How to use a car is not in a glove box. Do they describe threshold braking? Road signs for your region? Counter steering techniques? The differences in handling between front-wheel and rear-wheel drive vehicles? How weight distribution and centre of gravity affect handling? How about proper shifting techniques, what to do if your clutch line is broken, or emergency driving techniques?
How about driving to road conditions? Clearing off all external debris on a car (leaves, snow, etc) before using it? Regular adjustment of mirrors and the circle check? How many people do these things?
Very few people can operate a vehicle, just like very few can operate a computer. They can use a car much like they can use a computer: they basically get going in a direction, and manage to follow enough rules that they don't get into an accident!
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2005/08/10
Computer Lib/Dream Machines is one of the classics, but is hard to get and doesn't discuss recent (= in the last couple of decades) developments.
But, Russy-poo has done the job for you. The Secret Guide to Computers is kept up to date, and while it covers many things and thus can't go into much detail about them, it does a good job and is fun to read. (I'm not associated with Russ Walter, save to the extent that I admire his work.)
Please for the LOVE OF *insert deity reference* teach people the difference between a hard drive and a case. The amount of times people say 'my hard drive died' meaning "the box in the corner which is my computer just stopped working correctly". Just because it annoys me sooooo much!
Simple people talk of people, better people talk of events, great people talk of ideas.
My users don't really have a problem with this - they just click the "'X' thingy at the top" to make the questions go away.
P.S. Is there an emoticon that expresses uncontrollable, curled up in a fetal position, sobbing?
I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.
Memory built into the cart for storing user preferences. If (when) I dig out old SNES or N64 carts I still have all my old stats... and I know where they are (till I loose the cart). I can take that cart, place it in another computer and have my "environment" back.
This could however introduce a few problems when upgrading versions of a package. You'd have to export and import the data. Something along the lines of
Insert Version 1.00
Hit Export (app "hangs" waiting for V2 cart
Remove Version 1.00 and Insert 2.00
The only other issue that springs to mind is the number of software dongles I'm going to need. My laptop has at least a dozen "apps" that are frequently in simultaneous use.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Mine only does one hundred and thirty three million things a second you insensetive clod
There's lots of legacy concepts on computers today that might be confusing to a layperson but make perfect sense with a little bit of explination. The "Floppy Disk" that's not floppy at all (3.5" floppies) comes to mind.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Macmini_OriginalU serGuide.pdf
I'm currently TAing for a class called "Introduction to Information Fluency" which is based on teaching the bare minimum required for non-technical people to not be helpless in today's society. The book for the class was directly created in response to the study by the nsf: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321357825/qid=11 37537623/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-843497 8-5059017?n=507846&s=books&v=glance
I recommend people who actually care about the study just check out the TOC of that book. Also, the task is not at all as hopeless as people make it out to be.
-T
...Then they wouldn't understand. Most of the family members/friends I have "helped" would ask me a question, then once I gave the answer would never ask again. They just wanetd their computer "fixed", they could care less about how it works, why it works, what a OS is, etc. And its not that bad doing it for free, since its family/friends. The part that sucks is sitting down with a windows PC thats 2 years old, and some bright user thought re-installing windows on it 6 months ago was brilliant. They did it by themselves, and are proud to let me know. I have to sit down, install a firewall (zonelabs), and aniti-virus(grissoft, avg) and ad-aware, all of which take significantly longer to load on a computer which is chock full of virus', spyware, and who knows what else...(amazing which relative like the pron, they dont know i know..which can be very odd sometimes, i wish I didnt know most of the time) So make a picture book for kids, with high level drawings/snapshots. i.e. Here is a computer, here is a mouse, here is how you plug it into the wall...it will save you a lot fo grief, cause once your name is on the book....you'll had second cousins from step uncles hunting YOU down, asking for your help...
#include bier;
Illustrated is the way.
Dont forget to mention the difference between a monochrome printer and a color one. And why their color picture printed out in wondrous grayscale.
It's a tool for doing something.
A hammer is used to pound nails into wood. If the hammer hits your thumb it's your fault, the hammer can't think, it didn't do it because you looked at it funny (well maybe in this example it could have!).
A computer system is an information tool. If you lose your data it's your fault, the computer system can't think, it didn't do it because you looked at it funny.
A tool will only do what the person using it makes it do.
There's an old saying: "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime." (There's also an alternative version: "Make a man a fire, he's warm for a while. Set a man on fire, he's warm for the rest of his life.")
The problem here is that most end-users just want you to give them a fish. Then, a week later, they want you to give them another fish. Then another. And another. And another...
Many end-users I've dealt with say things like "Just tell me where to click." That's what they want; they want you to give them the "magical incantation" for them to follow, and they want you to give them a new "magical incantation" every time their operating system, computer, software version, mouse, condom brand or tie tack changes. They don't want to learn, even if they spend hours and hours a day in front of a computer just like us geeks.
What us geeks need to do is simply refuse to just dole out "magical incantations"-- you know, the stupid-assed instructions written out on yellow sticky notes, or even typed into icon titles (e.g. "Foo Program-- DOUBLE CLICK ON ME FIRST!"). We need to teach the users to self-teach. This means teaching them to be unafraid to experiment within reason, and it also means teaching them what (in the context of computing) "reason" means. (I.e.: Actually read messages if you aren't 100% sure of what you're doing, don't tell the computer to "delete" or "erase" or "format" anything unless you want it gone, etc.)
At one point, my mom had a sticky note by her computer reading "PRESS ENTER". Without that note, she wouldn't know how to log on to Windows 98.
We shouldn't tolerate this crap unless we're being paid by the hour.
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
People should learn about the problems with software patents.
http://outcampaign.org/
There is a usage in the paper-files world that uses "file" and "folder" interchangably: there is no distinction between the collection of paper and the paper device grouping the papers into collections.
If you really want your book to work, don't approach it as a reference manual or even a tutorial. People with the inclination to read such material probably already have.
The trick is to write something engaging that just happens to be sprinkled with tidbits of the basic information you're trying to get across. A classic example is "Soul of a New Machine". In that book Kidder does a magnificent job of telling a story. Yes, along the way he has to provide simple explanations of things like microcode and wire-wrapped circuit boards, but it's the story -- the reader's desire to find out what happens next -- that pulls them through the technical bits. The technical bits are explained in a way any average person can understand, but its the fact that knowing them helps you follow the story that provides extra motivation for non-technical readers. If the book had just been a collection of briliantly simplified technical explanations, few readers would have ever made it past the first chapter.
A different approach with a similar objective would be to use humor. A book relating humorous stories from the IT industry (if done well enough) could entice non-techies to read it. As you relate the stories, you'd have an opportunity to sprinkle in the technical bits needed to see the humor. Definitely a challenge. The humor would have to be more "Reader's Digest" style than dry Dilbertesqe sarcasm, but I think a really tallented writer could pull it off and potentially have a big seller.
"Software should be free!"
Please include that "Letter wrote on 1/17/06.doc" is not a good file name. The sad part is that I have seen some programs accept this and found file "06.doc" in directory "17"
I agree. People understand the concept of a notebook that has lots of pages, so let them have one. :-)
I also think a lot of the default UI elements on modern desktops (scroll bars, icons, and overlapping windows for starters) are overkill for a significant number of users.
If they don't ever use two programs at once, and if they have a large enough screen to view a whole page at a time, then why confuse them by scattering strange graphical elements all over the screen that they might never care about?
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
For example, it is a revelation for some people that if you save a picture from Photoshop, you can open it from Paint Shop Pro. It's an even bigger revelation that you can move music files from the "My Music" folder and still play them with Winamp.
The lack of understanding of the file system is at the root of both of these problems. The same can be said for drives, peripherals, etc. etc.
>|<*:=
It's also been said that the sum total of human knowledge doubles every four or five years, depending of which study you review. In either case, it's unreasonable to expect people to know a little bit of everything, because the number of subjects has multiplied out of control.
We are now a species of specialization.
Unfortunately, some people tend to specialize in nothing.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
First off - I wish you great success in publishing such a book. It is sorely needed. Sadly, our experience echoes the suspicion of several posters who feel that no one would read it.
Most users have no desire to read any sort of printed documentation. Consider that when we introduced the Macintosh in 1984, a major aspect of the advertising campaign was that Mac is so easy you could operate it after reading a 65 page manual. A modern computer user interface is significantly more complicated than that of the '84 Mac, and yet the majority of users are unwilling to read even a single page of instruction before operating their product. Many large companies will not upgrade to a new OS unless the training cost is essentially zero. That is one of the reasons why in Windows we invest in integrated help and just-in-time assistance rather than printed documentation.
There already is a design model for Windows - the entire set of concepts that Windows exposes to the user. It is actually a graph of concepts, as some concepts are specializations of other concepts (for instance, you need to know about hard drives and RAM to understand Virtual Memory). We try to use this model when designing features to make sure that the subset of the model exposed by the feature is reasonable. For instance, if someone is transferring photos from their camera to their computer, they might have to know about folders but they shouldn't have to know about virtual memory.
Of course, most users do not know the design model. Instead users have what we call a "user model" - their own independently formed conception of the computer. For many novice users, the user model is just a route memorization: "plug in the camera, wait for the little box to show up, click the third button, now click the second button, now click the OK button." This is too bad because in general the closer the user model is to the design model, the more successful the user will be in their computer experience. If your book can help them do it, it is great. However, it is worth nothing that as long as the user model works, it does not have to match the design model in order for the user to be successful.
I am sure many readers of Slashdot have had the experience in which someone - maybe a parent or grandparent - who appears competent on Windows cannot perform even simple similar tasks in Linux. This is because while the design models are somewhat similar between Windows and, say, KDE (both have files, folders, etc.) the user's model breaks down due to the route changes (the button is in the top left instead of bottom right, etc.)
We see this even between versions of Windows. We actually weigh the cost of seemingly minor things like icon changes, knowing that there are X million people who are invoking that feature solely by looking for that little picture. For instance, many people only recognize the regional settings control panel because it is a globe. If you don't have the globe, 10 million people won't be able to change their language settings.
Someone pointed out that no one reads their car instruction manual and yet people can someone drive. This is true, and while a car is conceptually much simpler than a computer, we do strive to keep the design model as simple as possible. However, I would point out that you are required to pass a licensing exam (both a written test of rules and theory and an operating test) before you can legally drive. It is interesting to think about what such an exam would look like for computers and if we would ever get to the point where we require such a license (for example, running an email attachment called "MERRY XMAS - FUNNY.exe" could be an instant fail..)
- davevr
I'd be sure to cover some major concepts universal to computing: representation, abstraction, memory hierarchies, analog vs digital, etc. These are useful concepts to understand and don't involve any specific implementation. Knowing how a hard disk works isn't really going to help anyone. Knowing it's random access, faster than a CD, but slower than memory, might help.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!
This is the conclusion I have come to: When it comes to computers, if a user is going to buy/use almost ANY piece of equipment or software then they need a license/permit in the same regard you need a license/permit to use a car. If you have a permit, then you can use this equipment only if a licensed user is guiding/helping you. I saw this as necessary when people would install firewalls without understanding how they work and the user would click on the "deny all" button just once and the little idiots would promptly call my helpdesk expecting one of my employees to help them get back online which, depending on the client's awareness could take several days if they didn't know what the firewall's tasktray icon, etc. looked like. This was especially common with many of the "Internet Security Suites"...ZA, NAV, MAV. Or the wireless routers that people would buy and upon hooking them up, leave it wide open so anyone could connect.
Local libraries already give free classes on computers so I'd put more funding into the libraries to give the classes/tests. Tests could be taken first so the skilled wouldn't have to be sitting in class wasting time and money. And enforcing it should be easy enough; equip every computer, etc. with smartcard readers or biometrics. Get caught leaving your card in a system so that someone who doesn't have a license could play unattended and that person causes problems, like getting infected with a virus and spreading it, and your license is revoked in realtime and they idiot would forfeit their chance of ever getting one, so it'd keep it very honest because nobody is gonna risk losing their right to use a computer because Uncle Joe wants to browse porn sites with his pants down.
Besides, if we make it like it's a special club that only an experienced few can join, everyone just might suddenly have the willpower to take some of those classes, just like we did with drivers' education classes in high school. If it's treated like anyone, no matter how dumb they are, can get and use one then they will not treat these machines with the respect that they deserve/demand much in the way that anyone can have a child and thusly we have lots of problems with child abuse, neglect, etc.
Let it be known I'm against government regulation for the most part but it's typically the idiots who escalate the problems with virii, etc. I mean how many times have you heard "I got an attachment from someone and I wasn't expecting it. When I tried to open it a window popped up and then nothing. That's not why the ISP cut off my service claiming I was sending spam email is it?". Why should they be allowed to waste a company's money for "tech support" that more closely resembles idiot support? After another generation, this won't be an issue as computers will be a part of everything and most of the idiots will be dead(most of our problem clients were in their 70's) but for now..we should let this make some tax dollars that can be used to, say, put muni-wifi in cities, etc. and get these people an education or off the damn internet.
And just so you will know how bad it can be, here's a little ditty...it really happened to me.
I'm trying to get a woman who is using Win98 back online and the easiest solution was looking like powering all the way down, turning the cable modem off and then turning everything back on. This is how it sounded:
"Ok, I need you to go to your start button on your desktop and power down your computer"
2 seconds goes by.
"It's off."
Thinking she pressed the sleep button I said,
"That was quick, ok, can you turn it back on for me"
2 more seconds
"It's back on"
Knowing that the computer cannot possibly come OUT of sleep mode that quickly I slowly and step-by-step walk her through the shutdown procedure, I hear the logoff tune and we get her back
0x09F911029D74E35BD84156C5635688C0
Metaphor is often a great way to reach the minds of the masses. I've done a lot of teaching, and writing, and it's a great tool to have at hand. Recently I've been using the metaphor of human anatomy to break down what's in the box - cpu is the brain, motherboard's the nervous system, ram is short-term memory, hard drive is long term memory, etc. It has both good possibilities and bad gray areas as an extended metaphor - what's the OS? Your culture? (Expatriates are dual-boot systems...) But I could still see an extended metaphor as a thread through the whole book, something to hold on to in the mind when people don't have experience actually holding the components. Anyway, I don't know if that's the kind of thing you're looking for, that level of simplicity, but in my experience, people respond well to the metaphor. It has helped things click for a few friends. Try it out on your friends. Hope it helps.
//anagram is just another anagram of ragaman
The way i told my mom to use computer is...
... all i am going to do is ... format/reinstall (i am actually planning to get a dummy harddrive and make an image of it. so i can just restore the image.
/. to them... Personally i am in an IC design company, which should be FILL with geeks, and i heard some ppl during lunch said /. is too geeky for them ..@~#@!#!!
just use it whichever way u wanted, if u have important information, send it to yourself via email (i get her a gmail account, and i learn from mistake that i SHOULD know her password) dont' keep anything important in your computer. and just USE it! browse whatever site u want.
having said that, my plan is.. if it got any adware, malware, virus, whatever
and of course, all my other computer block anything from her IP, in case she got worm.
one thing i would say is.. skip the history part... they won't care.... and i think it should be OS oriented (assuming will be M$ windows XP) just focus on ONE OS, and tell them how to boot up (or better, turn on the computer), how to hold the mouse, how to click, how to double click, click what to "go to the web", pick an email service and explain how to use icon by icon (unfortunately, in this case, i think hotmail will be better cuz you won't get question on how to get invitation from other gmail user!), how to read the content of a webpage (my mom did ask me what to do after she got to bestbuy's website! she just stare at the main page, and stucked!)... explain EVERY tiny detail that you and i might think is OBVIOUS/NATURAL!.
good luck on the book, once u done some preminliary work, i guess we (/.er) can comment on more!
PS: don't even bother explaining how great
Second, it's a tool. It's not good, bad or anything in between; it can be used for good or bad, much as any tool can.
Third, it's different from other kinds of tools. Most tools throughout human history were created to modify matter in some way. Computers modify information. More importantly, they can take certain types of information (instructions) and follow them to become a more specialized tool.
Nathan's blog
The stuff they really need to know about is how everything is just bits and the computer is mostly stupid. A friend was today amazed that a spell checker just compares text to a list of words. He thought it knew spelling. Persuade them that the box is a robot that learned how to spell. It's close enough.
Hardware changes and is becoming increasingly hidden. Aside from the power switch and the fact that more money is needed to buy more bits, ignore it. Otherwise you'll end up teaching them the quantum mechanics of silicon transisters.
What they need to know depends on who they are and what they are trying to do. By and large the user community should only be forced to learn to use the content tools they need to manage their email, novels, photos, videos, music, pirated films, and so on.
Beyond that, all they need to know is that it's all a bucket of bits and it needs to be backed up. And you don't know if the backup is any good until you try to use it. Oh, and don't be scared of it. The only kind of damage you can do, if you don't set fire to it, is erase the data. That's right, 99.99% of all damage is data erasure. The bits are still in the hardware but they've been all turned to zeroes or "De-allocated" as we like to say.
Consider the ethics of teaching them about DRM and it might be wrong to steal.
And teach them to run the security programs that they need but aren't supposed to.
I18N == Intergalacticization
The concept of Email might also be necessary to cover. In depth.
I used to work woth a woman (mid-60s) who printed out every email she got, and stored them in a filing cabinet under the sender's name, in date order. Occasionally she'd call us in the tech department to ask us to help her find emails she remembered, but couldn't locate in her filing cabinet. After a couple of such calls, with the blessing of the head of IT, we sat down with her and told her that we could only help her if she was using electronic mail. Not filing cabinets.
It took a few weeks of training, but we finally got her to understand how the search function worked in her email. She made great use of this, and was finally able to become productive, because she could figure out where things were....in her filing cabinet. We called that a success, since she stoped calling us about her "email" problems.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
If the history of the internet comes first on your list of things to put in your book, you're probably not the person who should be writing said book. You'll have a hard time finding a customer with the patience to get past chapter one.
1.Viruses, Spyware and Trojans. What they are and why they are bad. Talk about Internet Explorer and the security holes therein and why you should consider a more secure browser like Firefox. Talk about how this stuff will make your computer slower and more likely to crash and why you dont need to buy a new computer just because it has started to feel slugish.
:)
2.CD autorun, how to disable it and why you would want to. Talk about the Suncomm MediaMax and First4Internet rootkits and what they can do to your computer.
3.Spam. What it is. How to recognize it. How to avoid being suckered in.
4.Scams (including Phishing). How to recognize a scam. How to recognize phishing scams and identity theft (i.e. "Your bank, ebay, paypal, amazon etc will never send you an email asking for your personal details, any such emails should be ignored)
Use an analogy like this "If someone phoned you claiming to be from your bank and asking for your account number and pin number, would you just hand them over without checking further first? Probobly not. So, doing the same thing in response to emails claiming to be from your bank is the same"
5.Identity Theft, credit card fraud & online security. When it is and isnt ok to post your personal details online. How to recognize that a site is secure vs not secure. (with the little padlock icon in the corner) Who to give passwords for sites like banks to. (i.e. no-one)
6.Firewalls. What a firewall is. Why you would want one. How to get & install one (talk about broadband routers and firewall boxes as well as software firewalls including the built-in XP firewall)
7.Security patches. How to install security fixes and software updates. Talk about Windows Update and how to use it to keep your system fully patched. Also mention Windows XP Service Pack 2 and why you should install it (security upgrades to IE, better firewall etc). Mention updates for anti-virus and anti-spyware programs (with tips on how to find & run the auto-updaters most of these have).
8.Buying stuff online. Tips on making sure you get what you pay for. How to recgonize possible fraudulent auctions on sites like ebay and avoid getting ripped off. (this could cover stuff about paypal and similar sites too)
This is my list of topics that I consider important for a non-geek to know about and which arent immediatly obvious to a non-geek. (and which could be harmfull to the computer or its user). Not sure if that is exactly what the OP is looking for but a book like this to educate the masses would be a great book to see. Something that helps novice computer users avoid or fix those things that can harm them or their computer. (there may be more topics but this is all I can think of right now
Why bother? THAT's the first question to answer. The answer is: because you can say whatever you might have to say to every single person alive and connected to the Internet ON THIS PLANET! Speak up! You have been around for awhile. Perhaps you have learned a few things, perhaps you remember when.... My father, age 84, acts as an editor at the Melrose Silver Stringers, thanks to a reachout effort on the part of MIT: "Any of you Seniors care to participate on the InterNet? Yeah, sure, I'll try that." I have attended editorial meetings of this group, among whom age 70 means newbie. The experience remains with me, warm, powerful, encouraging. The point here is that if the Web is made available to Seniors, they'll jump on it, and they will party, and show us disaffected adolescents, among whom I count myself at age 56, how folks can just get together and have a grand time once they have outlived their youthful excesses.
Do you work in IT support?
my password really is 'stinkypants'
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Honestly, one thing that gets me is people getting angry because of a users level of knowlege. Its one thing if you're a computer professional.
:)
Not everyone is interested or has the right temperment for computers. Just like not everyone is good at music, math, mechanics, art, accounting, medicine.
Thats why we have specialists. I'm not going to perform surgery on myself, I'm going to pay for someone else to do it. I love music but I let the musicians to the work.
Just because someone has to sit behind a computer doesn't mean computer enthusiasts should expect anything more of them.
Besides, how am I supposed to make a living?
Quack, quack.
You really expect these people to read about such boring stuff? The key to actually having an impact is to make learning entertaining. So teach through a passive animated video; just don't exceed people attention spans and make it longer than an hour.
Bits, bytes. Registers, memory, storage. Machine instructions, compiled languages, and interpreted scripts. Concepts of a file system. Kernels, operating systems, and API's. Then virus's, worms, trojans, spyware and rootkit backdoors. Second half hour should be about networking concepts. The basic concepts can be covered easily in an hour. If it goes longer than that then you've gotten too specific. Don't overwhelm, your just out to build a foundation for comprehension. Then in later lessons you would teach it all over again, and again, each time going deeper into specifics.
To go along with this, one key point : "Yes, it really is just ones and zeroes"
I think that a lot of people have conceptual issues when trying to accept that it is all just information. People I know are completely floored when they learn that they can do the same things to any JPEG. Whether they downloaded it from a web page on the internet, or scanned it, or got it in an email, or shot it on a digicam, etc. They are somehow convinced that the computer thinks it is something completely different, depending on where it came from. My friend recently got a scanner after having the photo developer give him a CD of JPEG's. He was convinced that emailing the JPEG's from his scanner would be a completely different process than emailing JPEG's from a CD.
Once you can convince people how simple it really is, how stupid the computer really is, how all the information is in a file, and all the files are just information, then you have come a *loooong* way in improving their ability to interact with the computer.
My dad seems basically unable to really grasp this. It comes up in sort of odd places, and catches me compoletely off guard in conversations. It really doesn't occur to me to make a distinction between a video file I captured from my TV card, or downloaded, or rendered, etc. The fact that I can use the same video player utility to play BBC programs as I use for ones I recorded here in Colorado is stunning to him. It just sort of won't fully integrate in his mind.
Please let me know when this book is available as I think most of my family needs this. E.g. my father has been using computers about as long as i have but still has problems with the whole copy/paste process. Good luck Geoff.
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a reference to Godwin's Law approaches 1
Others have already (accurately) pointed out that you're setting a Herculean task for yourself, and I wish you the best possible fortune in your efforts.
With that said: Something I've noticed by its absence in the 'Computers for Beginners' books that I've looked at is, for lack of a better term, encouraging the reader to excercise common sense (and SPECIFYING what some of those common-sense items consist of), as well as encouraging 'healthy' paranoia.
As one example: Any experienced computer geek knows that it's just Good Common Sense to choose a hard-to-guess password that has nothing to do with a pet's name, a relative's birthdate, or any other easily-guessable info. While many beginners books say to do this, they don't say why in terms that strike home with the reader.
EXPLAIN why! Explain that the world at large (including the Internet) is indeed a place where Bad Things WILL happen to you if you let them and that, contrary to what they may believe, there exist miscreants who are indeed "out to get" anyone that they can in any way that they can.
More specifically: Explain that doing things like picking a tough-to-guess password, enabling security on a wireless access point or router, or not clicking on file attachments on first impulse, is no different from locking your house when you leave or locking your car when it's parked in public areas and you're not going to be in it.
In other words, you should emphasize that properly using a computer and the Internet is simply an extension of taking and accepting FULL RESPONSIBILITY for one's own actions.
This includes taking responsibility for knowing that anything with a power cord on it needs to be plugged in to an active power outlet to work, knowing that power strips don't work when they're plugged into themselves, and that NOTHING works during a power outage (unless you're tied in to a UPS with a battery bank the size of the local Wal-Mart, or a backup generator).
That responsibility is, I think, the most critical lesson that should be taught. It's also going to be the toughest to drive home. Given our current culture, you'd probably have an easier time teaching your readers quantum physics!
I still think there's hope, though, for those who "get it." With that in mind, please try to install at least SOME sense of this in your readers. If they can adjust their mindset along those lines, the rest will come much more easily.
Happy typing.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
My father is a Dr. of sorts, however he cannot grasp many things within a personal computer, but I try to influence him that it's impossible to understand everything, so concentrate on what matters. Some things are not meant to be understood inherantly, and that's OK with us. You do not have to understand exactly how everything works, just as long as you can comprehend why it's not working and what technologies it relies on to make it work.
Ah, please no! I've been using computers since I was 6 or 7... I'm 24 now. Personally, I've always felt that files and folders were intuitive. Even when I was a kid, it didn't take much for me to figure it out. (To clarify, few people would label me as a "geek", I've just always used a computer.)
.02
I think there's a difference between simplifying software and dumbing it down. If we program for the lowest common denominator we're going to end up with junk. We could do the same with cars... Should cars prompt you before you turn on your turn signal? or warn you that using anything other than "Premium Unleaded" is a bad idea when you fill up with gas? Maybe if it's raining hard they should just force you to drive 20.
I see more and more effort put into catering to people that don't know or understand things. Have any of you ever used or seen any software designed for small kids? Imagine your entire OS being designed like that. It would be AWFUL. Simplification/dumbing down isn't the answer. I think educating people (like this guy is trying to) is a better solution... You can't tell everyone to use only addition just because some people can't figure out division.
well, that's my
-John
The history of computers is not "there were punch cards, and then Bill Gates (or Steve Jobs) invented Windows and we had modern computers".
Computer history should start with the transistorized computer, or even later, and explain that they really work almost the same as the first electronic machines, just much much larger and faster. Too many people way underestimate how old things are. Too many people do not realize that people were typing to computers and looking at graphical output on screens in the 1950s! I am shocked at how many Slashdot posters do not beloieve computers existed before 1990, including Microsoft fanboys who do not even seem to remember that Bill Gates was writing software for hobbyist computers. Please explain that everything we use today was invented before 1990, and that the computers and internet we use today was completley predictable in 1970 or earlier.
Explain that computers and software are not perfect gifts from the gods, that they are compromises and design mistakes, like cars would be if they were forced to look exactly like Model-T's because otherwise they would not work on the highways built for Model-T.s. Explain that the true genius today in the current systems is in figuring out innovative ways to remain compatable with 50 years of mistakes, and still make it better and useful. Explain that making the software "better" also means making it "different", unless you work REALLY HARD!
Explain that a search that does not find anything will take at least as long, and probably longer, than a search that does find something. Try to explain why. People seem to lack insight that many of us consider completly obvious, which is really why they cannot understand your instructions on how to use a computer.
My parents had no concept of file extensions.
All their documents are {BASENAME}.PEN or {THIS}.ME or whatever. They were/and-still-are using WP6 for Windows, which let you ignore extensions. Why did they use WP6? It came with their first PC back in '95 and they were used to it, so my dad installed it on new machines when they got them.
Now my dad has passed away, and finding docs and figuring out what they are for my mom is a royal PITA.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Lots of stuff about spyware and backup and such. Pointless. All that is expert stuff from this perspective.
Be shure to teach the following:
1.) Computers are more a new cultural technique rather than just typewriters that can make nice pictures and show video. They are -and this is the most important thing EVERYBODY needs to understand before they do anything else - they are devices that automate tasks that only humans can understand. They are - for the lack of better explaination - extremly primitive thinking devices.
2.) Surfing the net and editing files on a Computer in an effective manner is like playing Beethovens Moonshine Sonata on the Piano. AND YOU CAN NOT,NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO, PLAY THE MOONSHINE SONATA WITHOUT PRACTICING CORDS AND SCALES FIRST!
YOU HAVE TO LEARN AND UNDERSTAND THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE INNER WORKINGS OF A COMPUTER AND ITS USES BEFORE YOU CAN USE IT IN AN EFFECTIVE MANNER!
Be shure to repeat that sentence something like 10 times in the first chapter.
3.) A list of things then following:
->Automating mind tasks - the history of computers (a short overview)
->Modern Micro Computers (a super-short overview).
->Volatile (Chips) and non-volatile (HDD) memory 101.
->Operating Systems - The programm that runs programms and why such a thing is practical. The CPU and it's friends on the motherboard.
->The File systems and their metaphors and what's cool about file systems. The HDD and it's friends in the opto-drives and USB sticks.
->Putting stuff in computers and getting stuff out, brief mentioning of the CLI.
->The modern GUIs and their metaphors and why they are a good thing.
->The name of the keys on the keyboard and how they are used.
->How the different keys on the keyboard are called and what they do.
->How to do different things on a computer by pressing different keys on a keyboard of a computer.
->The hold-down keys and how they influence the function of other keys.
->Why some keys (mostly hold-down keys) are to be found more than once on a keyboard and how that indicates their importance and the suggested frequency of their usage.
->The concept of the clipboard.
->Computers are really good at copying and pasting stuff.
->Computers where built to copy and paste stuff.
->How copy and paste works on all GUI operating systems since the mid-80s.
->How to use your keyboard and that invisible thing callled clipboard to COPY AND PASTE stuff.
->Keyboard key naming and functions, refreshment chapter.
->The concept of focus in modern GUIs.
->There is a thing called focus and you have to know where it is at all times and how it got there and how you can move the focus of you input.
->Thourough keyboard GUI and Edit Widget navigation chapter. Explain Selection, deleting, cutting and refresh copy and paste. Explain cursor navigation, the cursor keys, back and forth with cursor keys, up and down with cursor keys, selecting with shift and so on.
->Modern Mouse navigation and CUAS (Common User Access Standards)
->What the mouse cursor symbols mean.
->There is more than one way to do it, find your style (time for authors personal advice)
->The concept of focus, refreshment chapter.
->Modern programming languages (brief overview), some simple exaple of a computer programm that everyone can relate to (simple find and replace in a text in Python, Ruby or something)
->Computer Networks, the internet and the web.
->Computer File system refreshment chapter with additional network concepts.
->Ready made software, closed and open source software (brief summary), cool things computers can do for you today.
->The computer as a computer.
->The computer as a communication device.
->The computer as a toy.
->The difference of all three above, the significance of number 1 and why all three are cool.
->Authors
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
The thing is, all of this information is easily and widely available on the Internet. For free. N otrip to the bookstore/library required. What might be more beneficial is to publish and revise every year or so a book of links to helpful sites (TheElderGeek, Annoyances.org, etc.)
I've found that non-computer poeple think they _should_ automatically know and understand the computer. They feel stupid and left out and maybe a bit embarrassed that they don't.
I think explaining that the various metaphors ("desktop", "file folder", "trashcan" etc) were made up helps. The naive user can learn early on that if something doesn't makes sense it might not be their fault. This is a logical move towards getting people to experiment. They discover which metaphors the computer programmer was using, and experiment to find out how well the programmer succeeded in their implementation.
To borrow an example from the mac world sometimes the trashcan works to delete something and sometimes it doesn't. How is somebody to know which it is? You gotta try! Creating some junk, deleting it. Experimenting etc is a totally appropriate thing to do.
And what you're doing is not "being dumb" but rather figuring out what the orignal programmer was thinking. This helps peopel relax a little bit about their failures.
I would guess 99% of all people don't know the difference between memory and a harddrive. I once gave a speech about the basics of computer hardware and I found this analogy useful (although somewhat limited).
Imagine you are going to solve a problem and you have no long term memory. You have only a notebook, a calculator and a library.
- The CPU is like your mind and calculator: Fast enough for simple problems but you can't do everything in your head.
- The Cache is your short term memory. You don't need to reread things in the front of your notebook over and over.
- The Memory is like your notebook. You can look through it fairly quickly but it can only hold so much.
- The harddrive is the library. It holds vast amounts of information but takes a long time to find what you need. Once you find it you can photocopy things and add them to your notebook. If your notebook is full you will throw away old papers.
You can expand on this analogy to say that some books hold information while others hold instructions and references to other books.
"Haven't you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclaimation?"
"I don't listen to Hip-Hop!"
Start from the information that is important to the user about how the computer works and then move on to describe the individual tasks that the user does on a day to day basis.
I would start with a basic description of the bare bones system and what each part means in very general terms (The video card tells the monitor what to display, keyboard allows you to input information that your computer can use, etc.) and leave them at these simple explanations until later chapters where each part is discussed in a bit more detail. Also talk about the structure of inputs and outputs and how they relate to the rest of the computer (in simple terms).
I have to agree with other posters that most basic users who are simply curious don't want to know everything, just enough to get a general understanding. If they want to know more they can find out on their own or you can put the greater detail in later chapters and refference them in the basic descriptions.
After talking about the basic system I would move into individual tasks within the computer and a general idea of how it works. Everything from word processing to browsing the internet and playing a 3d game. Organizing the information in terms of common everyday tasks keeps the reader interested because explaining by concept is far less important to a basic user than explaining the things they do with a computer one by one. For example, no non-nerd wants to read 5 chapters called "NTFS and FAT32 File Structure" "3D Rendering" "Video Codecs" "Text Encoding" and "TCP/IP Protocol" (Although I admit those sound rather interesting to me ^_^) but they would easily catch on to "Saving Information" "3D Gaming" "Watching Movies" "Word Processing" and "Surfing the Internet" which would contain all the same information in a different "How ______ works" sort of format.
The browser is different from the OS. You don't have to double click links in a web browser. God. It pisses me off when my parents do that.
is to write a book on using an office suite or about esoteric parts of the OS rather than actually introduce the concept of a computer to newbies. For lack of a better analogy, think of a baby, fresh to the world. Now try to explain physics to this baby. Too often the instruction gets bogged down with calculating the trajectory of a ball or using particular tools to get common jobs done, rather than explaining the underlying forces and how they interact. If the former is done, you get people who can do a narrow set of tasks rather well. With the latter, the person is equipped to observe and learn for him/herself as new and unforseen situations arise.
There are two distinct groups of people you could be addressing this book at: 1. My grandma, who doesn't understand the difference between HD and RAM, or that I can't use VNC to fix her computer if her Internet is broken. 2. My boss, who wants to spend 30 minutes explaining to me why he thinks his problem is having a full HD or needing a defrag when really: the 10Mbit hub he bought for using desktop & laptop at the office is slowing his access to the share drive.
To press any damn button you want, alter any setting you want, and that I only charge $20 an hour.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Anyone that thinks women understand women any better than men do, hasn't spent much time around women. The fact is that women are incomprehensible by either men or women. I've as much as been told this by my wife. The only difference between men and women in this regard is that men seem to think that you should be able to understand a woman, women don't think this. It's like a man and a woman are going on a walk, and the man says, "Where are we going?" The woman says, "For a walk". The man says, "But where are we walking to?" And the woman says, "We are just walking". Understanding a woman is like getting to the destination, but with a woman, there is no destination. There is just the walk.
:)
Stick that in your new age pipe and smoke it
Things that continue to surprise me about Joe Computer User:
- calling the monitor the computer
- calling the computer the hard drive
- but I didn't drop it (said about the powerbook with dents on all 8 corners)
- but I didn't spill anything on it (said about the ibook that reeeeked of beer)
- yes you have to plug in the laptop occasionally or it will keep shutting off like that
- it says I need to restart my computer. what should I do? ("toss computer out of window?")
- backups? no. what do you mean it's all gone?
- but I could buy a new machine cheaper than fix this one ("yes, I was getting to that")
- my printer isn't working. here's my computer. (OR here's my printer)
- my mouse isn't working. here's my mouse. (OR here's my computer)
- my monitor isn't working. here's my monitor.
- I don't know where those are. Do you REALLY need the disks to reinstall?
- my internet isn't working (which "internet"? almost always www or email client is broken)
- yes it has wireless internet, and no you cannot just take it home and use it. buy a wap and get a cable modem.
- everytime I try to use my phone I get kicked off the internet (two variations, dialup and 900mhz cordless+wifi)
- everytime I leave the computer alone for awhile I come back and the computer is off. (I usually have to hit the power button twice to start it back up again)
- just because it fits doesn't mean it belongs there. now remove the phone cord from the ethernet port and plug it into the jack with the picture of the telephone above it.
- yes you can use the windows mouse on your mac
- yes that was good of you to unplug power during the storm, but you really should work on the phone cord first.
- that'll happen whenever the rest of your house loses power. can I interest you in a UPS?
- smoke is not a good sign (nor is melting plastic)
- call me back when you get home and are in front of your computer
- have your friend call me to discuss their computer problem
- eject the floppy and restart again.
If I hadn't heard it at least three times it didn't make the list. Honorable mentions for less than three hits follow:
- that is not a cup holder (yes, that really does happen)
- don't put CDs in your (5.25") floppy drive. yes I know they fit, just don't. And if you do, don't try to close the door.
- when shopping online, don't insert your credit card into the CD ROM drive
- I'm selling this computer, can you erase the memory?
- but my master's thesis was on there... (ouch!)
- just press the space bar (you KNOW what this was the answer to)
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Ideas and Information, by Arno Penzias
http://www.bell-labs.com/user/apenzias/books.html/
Say hello to my little sig.
OMGWTFBBQPWNED!
My mother cannot go to the bookstore and pick up a book that will make her understand the strange language that we IT people speak, or why her computer would be susceptible to a virus. So, I intend to write such a book.
Right. Nobody has ever been able to write such a book before, and you're just the person for the job. Spare me, you arrogant twit.
I sink my own email, thankyouverymuch ( *points to TCP port 25 on his mail server* ).
There's something wrong with a world where the flesh-and-blood mailman delivers mail to a wholely insecure metal box outside my home, but my computer has to "get" mail from the electonic equivalent of a P.O. Box.
No, I won't relay your spam.
IMNSHO, when you buy a house it should come with a routable /28 subnet, at least.
You could've hired me.
I don't work in I.S. but somehow, among family and friends, I've become a goto guy for a computer malfunction. (Maybe it's because my machines are running slackware and linux from scratch). Questions I get in response to my attempts to diagnose problems might give some insight.
Problem: Lost my paper, photo, etc.
Me: "What was the name of the file and where were you storing it?"
Them: "I don't know the name. It was stored in my computer"
(note: that wasn't "My Computer").
Me: "OK, Open up a file browser and let's look for it."
Them: "What's a file browser?"
Me after getting them to open windows explorer: "What type of file was it? A jpeg, Gif, bmp, tiff?"
Them: "I don't know. It was a picture."
Problem: Lost email.
Me: "Was the email stored on your computer or on the server."
Them: "I don't know. I opened up my infolder and it's gone. "
Me: "Is the 'infolder' something you click on in a web browser?"
Them: "What's a web browser?"
Attempting to find out what type of hardware they have.
Me: "How much RAM or memory does your computer have."
Them: "20 Gigabytes"
Me: "I think that's probably hard drive space. I mean working memory, RAM."
Them: "I don't know. It's a DELL."
Me: "Do you have any Paperwork that came with the computer?"
Them: "I think it's in the garage in a box behind the water heater."
Don't get me started on trying to find out if they have the necessary drivers.
What this is telling me is that, somehow, people are using computers without understanding basics like file types, and file systems, or whether the information they are viewing resides on their own hard drive or on the internet. It amazes me that they manage to get as much from their computers and the internet as they do without comprehending these basics. I think the mistake is allowing them to use the computer at all without having just a few of these ideas under their belt. You don't allow someone to drive without knowing that they might have to put gas and oil into the vehicle or that they must stop at red lights.
Tell her that her hard disk is sort of like a file cabinet. Inside a file cabinet are lots of pieces of paper, perhaps arranged in folders, which contain all of her records and things. A hard disk contains all of her electronic records and things -- "files" -- in much the same way. Folders can be used to subdivide and organize everything, and the drive can be "partitioned" or split into several chunks in the same way a file cabinet can have several drawers. Programs are just special files that have instructions in them that tell the computer how to do things.
Of course, in order to do anything with those files, you have to take them out of the cabinet, which is where RAM, or memory, comes in. That's sort of like your table. The larger the table, the more pieces of paper you can lay out side-by-side. Likewise, the more memory your computer has, the more files (and programs, which are a kind of file, remember) you can have open at the same time.
Once this metaphor is in place, the nature of files becomes much clearer.
not the entire history of computers and how they work internally - well, enough of the basic internals so they dont get screwed over on their next purchase - "a processor is the main brains of a computer, the higher the speed, generally means a better computer" and the different classes of processors, such as the difference between a celeron or sempron and a pentium 4 or athlon. Like I said, just enough to keep em from gettin screwed over - any more than that and they may think its an "advanced book".
That said, the rest of it should be pretty much as you said, describing what spyware is and why they shouldnt disable anti-spyware disable their anti-spyware just because they dont like how it pops up with a warning that is trying to protect them while they are looking through crappy fan-sites of their favorite 60's rock bands (not that the band would be crap, just most fansites usually are) with a crap host that has no morals as to loading spyware on a surfer's comp.
When my mom gets a window asking her to "save this file to disk" she thinks it means a floppy disk.
Hey guys! I've got a book idea. Help me come up with content for it! ;)
history of the Internet
Most computer users couldn't give damn about that.
how computers talk to each other
Most computer users don't care how it works just that it does.
what a hard drive does
Again, most computer users don't care. They don't want to care. All they want to know is there "stuff" is on the computer "where they can find it". Where exactly? Doesn't matter to them. Just so they know where it is.
http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal
the hardest part for the lamer is the terms that we use. once thay understant that then thay will figerit out. thats what I think.
You should most definitely including something about internet culture, and how its possible for people to band together and like/love eachother. This seems to be a very foreign concept.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
1) computers are always pointing to things; 2) if you are asked to create a file, you'll need to know where it is at least once; 3) computers should never have been called computers. If they had called toasters computers when they first came out, then people would still be having problems making toast.
Acctual conversation between me and a legal secritary:
Her: What is the difference between a file and a folder.
Me: Your a secritary, right.
Her: Yes.
Me: *goes over to file cabinate, takes out folder, takes file out of folder* THis is a file *puts file back in folder* this is a folder. Her: I mean on the computer.
Me: Same thing.
Her: Hu?, oh, wait (think dumb blond here), how do I tell the difference between them.
Me: The little yellow one, that looks like a folder.
Her: yes
Me: That is a folder. Everything in it is a file.
Her: This is hard (crying) Don't be mean to me.
(I just walked away)
My mother cannot go to the bookstore and pick up a book that will make her understand the strange language that we IT people speak, or why her computer would be susceptible to a virus. So, I intend to write such a book.
You say the book is aimed at people like you're mother, why don't you spend a weekend/week/month/whatever teaching her about computers (assuming she wants to - if not find someone who wants to). Make notes about the type of questions she asks you, what topics she finds easy to understand, what she finds most challenging, maybe even record your sessions so that you can so you can analyse it retrospectively.
I recently spent some time explaining networking and the internet to my mum, she uses computers daily and did a Post-degree computing course, and used to write software herself (back in the days of computers being room-sized) however, as that was very much pre-networking, I had to start from square 1. It was very different explaining it to someone who was actually quite interested in understanding the details of how it all works - compared with teaching people who need to know (I used to support/train people to use web-based CMS systems, and many related tools for a large company). Don't be afraid to use Jargon, make sure it's explained on it's first use (possibly even it's first use in each chapter if the book likely to be read unsequentially) and make sure there is a very good glossary (with page numbers where the concept/background is explained in more details). Don't be afraid to use a word, and then explain what it means afterwards. (This sounds strange, but giving someone a context the word will be used in before a definition, will get people thinking about it more, and help with the understanding of the concept.
I've contemplated offering training on this topic before, encouraging people to understand computers, but still being at university, I spend enough time explaining things to my fellow students/family/friends/etc... I'd rather just stick to my own education at the moment. Maybe when I'm unemployed later in life
Don't be afraid of examples! Examples that get people using their computers are very good. Get people to open a command prompt (or Terminal for Mac users - I assume you're not aiming at linux-heads!) explain how you can use it to tell the computer to do something (run a command), then you could use it to explain a bit about networking, get them to do "ping www.somehost.net", explain how it looks up the IP address, explain what some of the numbers mean, and what their significance is. If you do this properly, and explain it clearly, people will gain in confidence (and consequently like your book) if they can understand something cryptic very quickly (ping output is very cryptic if you've never seen it before!)
A few other people have posted about users not needing to know about the workings of a computer. Keeping these things hidden from them is for their own good - while on some level this is true, I think that this line of thinking breeds its own problems. Lack of understanding causes curious people to investigate. To go poking around on their hard-drive and deleting system files, configuring applicaitions, then not knowing how to get it back the way they had. It breeds the frame of mind which mean people are only able to use certain programs. If people have a better understanding of what it is they are doing, they're more likely to go exploring in the places where it is GOOD to explore. Such as exploring features of the program they are currently using - exploring options which could help them configure the computer in better/more productive ways. You're probably an OSS advocate (you read slashdot -it's a given), want people to start using firefox/other OSS app? Who's going to do that if the message they're constantly given from the geeks of the world, is "Don't touch that - you don't know what you're doing". Yes it runs the risk of people getting too happy go lucky with the things that they install, collecting crap on their compu
.sigs are for losers
People should treat IT just like they treat the medical science.
If you have a mild headache, you just take an aspirin. However, if you have a somewhat more serious simptom(sic?), you go to a doctor. Just because you know how to pop open a case of aspirin you don't fool yourself that you know medicine.
On IT, people think that just because they can move the mouse around, they know computers. And that is where all the problem comes from.
With that in mind, I find your proposed book a VERY serious problem. It will give people the flawed idea that by reading your book they know computers. There are other books like that around.
I know you have the best intentions possible, but please don't do it. Unless you are doing it just for the money. In that case, there is nothing I can say. But, then again, if that was the case, you would not be asking around here, would you ?
morcego
Interesting. I know that it is really hard to actually break a computer, but lots of folks with grandparent level knowledge can do all kinds of things that will 'break' the system as far as they're concerned.
Example: Grandparent has difficulty with mouse operation (assume arthritis etc.). Goes to start favorite word processor, accidentally clicks and drags a chunk of the start menu onto the desktop.
Now assuming that grandma has no idea what she's just done, or that programs can be started from the desktop, she's just 'broken' her computer.
There are countless examples of this - the movable start bar, the hidable start bar, drag 'n drop in the start menu, customizable menus in , clearing the history in the web browser, Firefox's habit of creating a new profile if the old profile is locked, etc. etc. etc.
I suspect that there might be something to be said for being able to flip a system into 'grandma' mode: all GUI parameters are locked, recent documents cannot be cleared, and the only thing you can change is the contents of $MyDocuments, which is automatically backed up every reboot.
Maybe you could use kiosk mode to do this - I haven't spent enough time trying to keep 31337 teenage brats out of a deptartment store wedding registry computer.
has an entry on PEBCAK
or PEBKAC, as the case may be
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Brain changes occur as we age. It is normal to mostly stop learning.
Young creatures are meant to learn. Old creatures are meant to breed and support offspring, using behaviors that are known to work.
Apes in general, and humans especially, are less this way than typical critters. Our learning shuts down later in life, and doesn't shut down as completely. Still, learning goes against the way the older brain is meant to work.
It's all supposed to be this way. Curiosity can be a hindrance when you need to get stuff done.
I'll have a crack at a basic outline of what should be taught to newbies:
1. Basic hardware functions (RAM, HD, CD, CPU, keyb, mouse, monitor, etc.)
2. Basic logic: The CPU uses digital instructions to manipulate digital information. Processing occurs in volatile RAM. Describe system units (bits, bytes, K/M/GB).
3. Filesystem on HD: heirarchy, paths and supported operations (create, copy, move, del, open, close). Folders vs files, and examples of file formats (executables, different document types). HD is nonvolatile, like a file cabinet.
4. Using mouse and keyboard. Using the GUI (windows, icons, menus, etc.) to do a few basic tasks like run programs, browse and handle files, switch between programs.
5. Everything that I missed (like the cupholder)!
All told, it should be teachable to mildly-interested people within an afternoon.
Since I support my mother's computer she always had what I had -- first a WinPC, then a Mac. She mostly works with text and spreadsheets, and, having come to computers late in her life (and having no geek-strain whatsoever in her personality) she's always had problems with "the computer".
It got a little better after I switched her to Mac OS X --- a system I hated at first because I couldn't figure out where all my beloves quirks, hacks etc. (that I knew from OS9) went. She took to it like a duck to water.
Last year she started bugging me about a digital camera... she really really wanted one. So (nice kid that I am) started to research the possibilities... Camera was a no-brainer (CANON), but how on earth would I get her to actually transfer, view and manage the pics on a computer?
I had a look at iPhoto and it was hate at first sight. Remember: I'm a Graphic Designer, I can operate Photoshop almost blindfolded. Where are all my options? Why am I forced to store/order pictures in a certain way? I had a look at other programs... Photoshop LE (or whatsitscalled) etc... Finally I gave in, and we presented her with a shiny new CANON and I promised to sit in with her as long as it would take to come to terms with iPhoto (my estimate: 2-3 weeks, and constant phone-support from there on).
I was wrong. Not only wrong, but w-r-o-n-g. Remember duck/water? Same here. We plugged her CANON into her iBook for the first time, iPhoto starts, I explain the basics --- and that was it. She was able to use a program (actually: a file-managing-concept) within minutes.
All those Photoshop-features I use every day? She doesn't need them - doesn't even miss them. Crop? Check. Red-Eye-Reduction? Check. Print the picture in [whatever] size/quality? Check. Find that picture from [whenwasitagain]? Check. Anything else? Missing -- and a good thing, too: less confusion.
Is iPhoto the panacea to parental digital photography? Of course not. She uses iPhoto 2.x on a G4/400/768 MB RAM and an iBook/G3/500/ 300something RAM (both with Mac OS X 10.4) --- with a library of over 1800 pictures iPhoto is starting to behave rather badly (slow, even a few crashes). So soon we'll have to get her a newer version of iPhoto, and (preferably) a new Mac. Also she still makes mistakes.
But still... whatever those people in cupertino were smoking when they designed the user-workflow of iPhoto --- it must have been some righteous stuff. Getting my (beloved, albeit bloody boneheaded) mother to understand (and productively use) a piece of software she's never seen before within minutes is a feat I never believed possible.
sig? Oh, that sig...
The subject says it all. It is a philosophical point I've been trying to make to my friends, family and all who listen.
Let me put it in context: I work with tile for a living. I install ceramic tile. I use tools. I can modify those tools if I have to and the company doesn't get pissed. Marshaltown (one of the largest trowel manufacturers) does not make me sign a EULA. My hand tool manufacturers could care less about what I do with a tool after I buy it, so long as I don't re-sell them pretending I'm an official representitive of their company. I can sell knock-offs, but not under the same name. I can call a notch trowel I make Petertown trowels, and probably get away with it.
The tools I use are an extension of my hand. As with most people that use tools for a living, I'm loathe to lend them out lest the get damaged, lost, stolen or otherwise abused.
The computer is an extension of my mind. The implication I want people to understand is would you let just anyone into your mind? Is it right that you buy a computer but the likes of Sony, MS, Uncle sam, ETC feel it is their right to go rooting through your toolbox--which just so happens to have personal items therein?
Also, along the same vein, I want people to know if they let the IP laws run as amok as they are now there will be nothing for their children to do to earn money. The way everything is getting patented now if Junior wants to write a better browser he runs the risk of having all his work taken because he had the same inclination of a previous designer in algorithmic execution. Is this right?
I am tired, and I probably articulated my point poorly. The argument could be made that my hand tools are an extension of my brain.
What I feel needs to get across is the internet connected computer, unlike previous tools, has the capacity to reveal more of the mind of the user--shadows and all--than any other device. How we deal with that as a society now will have implications far into the future that just aren't being discussed.
Really, people should have to have a license to use a computer, one that expries every three years and a base concepts test will be given to renew the thing. That way, when people who claim to be in IT and call me up at the helpdesk i'm on with a problem, they can properly relay the correct information and when i say they need to copy a file or change their printer settings they dont aks me how to do it! and no, the license would not automatically be assigned to those with an MSCE
I say it as a Computers Teacher: What a hell is a file (all types: regular file, program file, directory or folder, pipes, sockets, devices, etc) and different file extensions What is the bloody difference between software, hardware, program, plug-ins How the system works in general Some history to eliminate the missing "why's" Whit this information any user must be capable finding documents and understand books, or he/she is not suitable at all to have a computer. \m/
\m/
me: so blah blah blah and blah blah blah ... the internet ... blah blah
user: so, is it on?
me: is what on?
user: the internet
me: is the internet on? Ah yes ma'am, it's on.
...how to program a computer. Not how to use Firefox or MS Word. Simple.
Yep. It's amazing how far some people get with computers without understanding what a folder *cough* I mean directory is.
I remember explaining the concept of a folder to a user once, and being amazed at what an instant and massive difference it made to them.
I still find it hard to imagine what it must be like trying to use a typical windowing GUI without understanding what a folder is.
The moral of this story is "it's very easy to overestimate how much a user understands" (and waste a lot of effort trying to teach them things when they don't have solid foundations).
"JUST BECAUSE ITS ON THE INTERNET, DOESN'T MEAN ITS TRUE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that is the exact quote that I would add, theres been so many times where I have argued with people that think since they found it on the internet it was true, I hate that. Its worse than helping windows users!!!!!
I wish people would stop thinking that since i studied CS it makes me uniquely qualified to help them formatting their Word document of searching for a site for them.
I mean, i could probably figure out the interface of a program i've never seen before by trial and error, but so can they.
In general i would like people to know stuff like the basic outline of the scientific method and formal logic so they don't ask meaningless questions.
And the fact that everything on the computer is basically a string of bits.
I can bring down their website and completely trash their entire ERP with my trust level.
Why? Because I administer the system for them. :)
But I don't have local administrator.
Hilarious. I'm considering rooting my own box just to grant it to me, but everyone will get all huffy even though (suckers) they never made me sign any sort of computer usage agreement.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
I think that the most important thing for everyone to know is the definitions of RTFM and STFW.
how to transfer money from their bank to my bank, or my paypal, or my son's piggy bank....
Anything anyone needs to know about computers they can get from watching Tron.
And I'm a computer programmer!
Every system I work on has been loaded with so many mods, filled with so many performance tweaks and hacks, had everything overclockable overclocked, that nothing I touch is stable anymore. Sometimes I wish I didn't know about any of this stuff just so that I wouldn't ruin my system and have to do an OS reinstall monthly. I'm a living testament to the dangers of knowledgability, or rather, the dangers of being a user that thinks he/she is knowledgable.
To all of the computers I've destroyed, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I thought we were both having a good time... Until you died.
Ah yes "My Documents".. By default, Windows Explorer doesn't even display the full path in the address bar, only the current directory, e.g. "My Documents". Double-click the directory "My Pictures" inside "My Documents", and the contents of the address bar is, "My Pictures". At least in Win2K you can see the folder tree on the right side. in XP it's "Activities!", where they put ads like "Print photos using an online service!" (if I may exaggerate.)
This is trying to simplify the computer for the user? Of course they had to do that because otherwise the directory would be C:\Documents and Settings\Customer\My Documents\, although, come to think of it, it doesn't sound so scary anyway, in any case it's better than C:\Windows\Profiles\Username\My Documents.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
A sudoku puzzle, when complete, contains more digits than it does when unsolved. Yet there is only one solution to a given sudoku puzzle. So the starting state, which contains far less information, implies a larger volume of information which is unique to that starting state. Thus you can express the outcome of 81 digits using only some small subset of it, and applying rules to retrieve the rest.
I'm a goddamn genius!
I suppose you can start with the basics, what sort of file we have is determined by its 2 to 4 byte header... okay so that's ~80% of the readers confused.
;-)
Actually Windows uses mostly file extensions to determine what program will be started to open the file. Luckily most programs use the header information so a "me.bmp" that begins with "JFIF" will go through the JPEG-parser.
Anyway, I would try to explain how an image is stored as a file, taking the uncompressed BMP as an example. Say, BMP files begin with "BM6", and the header (or "beginning of file") contains the width and height of the image, and the next bit of information is a number that represents the brightness for each color (R,G,B) for the first dot of the image, then for the 2nd dot. I wouldn't start talking about bytes and pixels yet, that would confuse them! The reader should also be informed about how colors can be produced by mixing the 3 primary colors.
Then you can get to the basics of compression using the GIF format by saying "Of course describing each dot is a wasteful process, we can also say 'The first 400 dots is black, then there's 40 white dots.'". As for discrete cosine transformations, well I'm in 5th year CS and even I don't understand it.
Hopefully the submitter keeps on it and makes a good book out of our ideas. Hmm maybe I should write one myself.
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
The "for dummies" line of books is intended to cover exactly the material you descirbe. Not only that, but it is already well established and popular.8 66/ref%3Dpd_sl_aw_bnag-1_software_9783603_6/002-65 19826-3681646
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/727
Chapter 1: Water and other liquids are bad for computers
Chapter 2: So are magnets
Chapter 3: Installing everything you find on the Internet is bad
Chapter 4: Yelling at your kids when your infested computer stops working wont help anything
etc.
There's no way my mother will understand that there is a hard drive and a floppy drive and that they both store data but they are different. I think if you want to make a book anyone can understand you have to make it far more simple than HDD and RAM.
"I see undead people" Warcraft III - Necromancer
It isn't often you get to see two people at each other's throats over the same point.
I would suggest that the biggest point to make, at least initially, is what expectations the average user should have regarding a PC. For example, would you (i.e., the end user) be comfortable after a 2 month driver's ed course with going down to the local scrap yard and building a new car? Or even going to the local NAPA and rebuilding the carbeurator? Of course not. For some reason people think that they should be super users 5 minutes after getting home from Best Buy. There's a lot more I'd like to say about that but it's 11:30pm and my brain is vetoing it. You get the gist. or not.
Which...judging by most people...is ZERO.
Your mom doesn't try to diagnose a drivability problem with her car, she takes it to the shop.
Your mom should do the same with the PC.
Just make sure you find her a reputable shop.
I mean, if people can't be bothered to understand a relatively simple CAR...
Blar.
SO... I guess one thing I would include would be to work hard to distinguish the difference between (for example) Windows and Office and Word. Windows = Operating system. Office = Application Suite. Word = word processing program. Yet somehow teach the reader that all of this is software at the same time. This isn't an easy task in a Windows-centric world (since Windows is document-based, rather than application based like Mac OS X). Good luck to you! I look forward to buying your book for my parents next Christmas.
I've always thought that if you can't explain the halting problem in clear english you shouldn't be allowed near a computer. If I ran the world, I'd require everyone who wanted a license to use a computer to write a simple, 5-10 page essay on the halting problem. I'd require everyone to get a license to use a computer too, as you might have been able to tell from my previous sentence. And those who don't speak english? No license for them.
Eg, "Are you sure you want to overwrite this file", and I get queries about it (unfortunately work in close proximity with users). How the fuck should I know, are you saving over something you don't want anymore?? :D
Or the typical messages about LAN cables not being plugged in. It's like "is your blue cable plugged in" and 9 times out of 10... "oh, it's not plugged in - would that help?"..
Once they get over the whole "reading" thing, then it's a matter of copying messages you don't know into google, and voila... you're about as skilled as your typical level *2* outsourced support desk idiot :D
smash.
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
I have dealt with the public every single day for the last 10 years. And not just end-users, but their parents and granparents. Just when I think I've heared it all, someone says something else that surprises me. So here are some things I want people to understand:
1) The 'hard drive' is a part inside the computer, it is NOT the whole computer.
2) The 'Computer' does not include a printer and a monitor, those are part of the 'computer system'.
3) The 'monitor' is not the 'computer'. It is only one part of the 'computer system'.
4) 'Windows' is NOT the 'computer'. It is an 'operating system', and it's not your only option.
5) The 'operating system' is special command and control software that makes your computer actually do something like allowing you to use 'application software'. It is the FIRST and MOST COMPLICATED software to be installed on your computer, and can not be un-installed without affecting every other software that is installed on top of the 'operating system'.
6) Windows does not know about every piece of computer hardware in existance, and can not possibly know about hardware that will be made in the future. That's what 'device drivers' are for.
7) 'Plug-and-Play' does NOT mean that it just works. It means that it can identify itself to the 'operating system' so that the correct 'device driver' software can be chosen by the 'operating system' without you needing to know any technical details.
8) Printed manuals are not common. Electronic informaiton is common. 'readme.txt' should not be ignored.
9) You did not buy 'Microsoft'. You did not buy 'Microsoft Windows' or 'Microsoft Office'. You bought a 'license' to use 'Microsoft Windows' or 'Microsoft Office' under specific conditions.
10) No, I can not just give you a copy of your favorite commercial software.
11) Yes, free software does exist.
12) No, a DVD burner does not mean that you can easily copy your lastest commercial movie rental.
13) If you choose not to READ what's on your screen before you click 'yes' or 'next' then don't complain if something bad happens.
14) When asking for help, DETAILS are very important. A history of the activities that led to the problem, or information about how to recreate the problem are VERY IMPORTANT.
15) If you see an error message, don't just ignore it, WRITE IT ALL DOWN. Simply saying 'There's something wrong' is not very helpful, and can waste a lot of expensive service time.
16) 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' is NOT the internet. It is a web brower that allows you to view web pages which may be located somewhere on the internet.
17) 'Microsoft' is NOT your e-mail retrieval program. 'Microsoft Internet Explorer' is NOT your e-mail retrieval program.
18) Your ability to access information which may be located somewhere on the internet is restricted by the weakest link in the chain of other computers between your computer and the computer from which the information is available.
19) Your local computer service professional does not need to know that your chemically dependant, recently divorced pregnant cousin's computer is working fine when your computer is the one being serviced.
And there's more that the end-user needs to understand, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.
- James.
- James
The most common problem I've noticed that users have with heirarchal systems. They don't know where "My Documents" is because they presume folders are all flat, there cannot be nesting. I've heard many of my coworkers (I do low level computer support) use a file cabinet as an analogy for the file system. That is no good, when was the last time you had a folder in a folder in a filing cabinet? If users understood nesting, they'd probably get the whole file system thing pretty well. Then they might poke around to look for where their stuff is.
I can't say how often I've been asked to find a missing document. And I wish to hell windows had a pre-installed updatedb/locate feature.
The fact that fact that computers are ubiquitous means that most people feel like they should know something about them. The problem is that computers are complicated and change fairly rapidly. I use to put PCs together many years ago but haven't kept up on the changes. When I put together a PC recently I was scratching my head for a while before I finally figured out what some of the new BIOS features meant or what a SATA cable looked like.
Only people who work in the industry are going to learn enough about computers to stand any chance of doing the right thing if an error that's not spelled out in the owner's manual takes place. It's like the people who aren't mechanical/automotive engineers that start tinkering with their car and usually learn the hard way what not to do. A computer is too complicated for the layman to do more than identify the major components and run their application. I'm happy when the person I'm talking to knows the difference between the monitor and the PC chassis. The people that are the most dangerous are the ones who THINK they know something because they read a book on computers once.
I think it's a complete waste of time to write a book about computers for the laymen since there are already plenty of books that give the right amount of detail now. (Usborne Books) Trying to get Grandma to understand what a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) is just an exercise in patience. As computers become more reliable and more consistent in their interfaces, there will be less and less demand for any understanding of what's going on inside the computer by the layman. Like a car or a microwave oven, as long as they work and we know how to get what we want out of them then we're happy.
If you want to write a book I would suggest writing about a specific application or about the social impact of computers. Something related to computers that doesn't make the user think he/she is ready to write a rootkit or hack a Linux kernel driver.
"Meaningless!, Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless!"
Also keep in mind the reader's goal. For the casual computer user, their goal is not generally "to use the computer." Any interested in learning "how the computer works" is likely is search for explanation of why when they took out the CD, Windows asks for it back and refuses to move on with it's life even after pressing the "Ignore" button. The computer is just one of many possible tools. The reader has goals more like "to share my pictures with my friends" or "see what's on tv tonight" or any of the thousands of other things you can "use" a computer to do. But using the computer isn't the goal. Help people reach their goals and become better computer users along the way.
What should they learn? I have been using computers almost all my life and I can open up pretty much any application and "use" it to do the most basic tasks it was designed to do (assuming I know what that task is and perhaps even if not). I don't generally require a manual or training until I start to get into the more complex tasks. You should figure out how I can do that, and how to impart that knowledge to others in a book.
My thoughts, I know how to "try out" an application. I know starting up an app and hunting through the menus and trying each one isn't going to break anything. I know how to uninstall the crappy software if it does break seomthing. I know to take a look through all the options in the preferences. I know to try stuff out in a new file. I know about undo. I know right-click changes depending on where you click. I know about click and drag. I know the computer militaristically enforces a ridiculous hierarchical file system and presents me with outrageously varying interfaces to navigate this sadistic maze. I know I must comply. I know what tabs and scroll bars look like in all their forms. I know when I see a scroll bar that I'm not seeing all the info. I know to look for a scroll bar if I don't see what I need. I know what a toggle button looks like even though I may not have always been aware it was called a toggle button. I know how to find out if the computer is actually doing something or not. When I look at a typical interface I know where to look. When I get an error message I know to paste the error surrounded by quotes into google to find some ideas to the solution. I know if I drag the Gmail link to my links bar it will make my life easier.
So I think you should get people interested in learning the basic skills they need to do fun stuff with the computer by helping them reach their goals and making them smarter along the way. Computers make people feel stupid. Nobody wants to be stupid. Help them understand that it's the computer that's stupid.
My mother used to use a mechanical typewriter. She was an excellent typist, but because she was so used to the way typewriters work, it was hard for her to learn how to use a word processor efficiently. Some things that took her months or years to get used to:
Part of the reason (3) and (4) were hard for her is that she was afraid to highlight text. She's gotten used to it now, but she used to react to the appearance of highlighted text as most people would react to a large spider crawling onto the monitor.
So, I try to not patronise, and I try to not oversimplify, as that only leads to problems in week 7 or contradictions with Bob in Basic Computing, where you have to go back on your original lie (anyone remember their physics classes from age 12...complete bullshit).
What I do though is make heavy use of analogy and visual cues. I always keep class notes in a bright yellow folder, that is remarkable similar to a Windows folder icon. "This yellow thing is a folder, inside is files with information" is usually only needed once after they've renamed a folder to index.html. I also always carry a newspaper to class. I've found these two tools to be the most useful teaching aids possible.
I think you miss the point entirely. Your post contains vast amounts of fluff. Techies will know all this. Non-techies won't get further than "A "folder" is a container that can contain many files, can contain folders, and can be found in a folder." and people in-between will get bored while trying to find the things they don't know in the cruft.
Don't bore the user with applications - they won't know what Open Office is, or care. If you're writing a book, they'll also be out of date in a year.
Something more like:
Files are like bits of paper - they contain your actual data. Folders are where you keep your files, just like in a filing cabinet. Unlike normal cardboard folders in a filing cabinet, you can nest folders inside one another, as deep as you like.
Instead of telling people what to do when they use a computer, give them a list of things NOT to do. The point is, most people are so afraid to break their computer that they don't explore it. The list of things not to do is actually pretty short, if you think about it: don't mess with your system files, don't change your network settings, etc. When people realize that there actually aren't that many actions they need to avoid, they will be less afraid to explore and learn on their own.
The most important thing you can do to make people understand computers is to drive it home that they're actually incredibly simple. They're as simple as a toaster - they're just a hell of a lot of toasters shrunk to microsize and wired together. Start with a light switch: one and zero; on and off. Wire three light switches together and there's a way to count to set them to eight different states. Wire them differently and they're different kinds of logic gates. Wire some more and you have NAND gates. Millions of switches later shrunken down to atoms make a chip. The rest is convenient tags we label groups of ones and zeros with to make it do anything useful. Build your way up the programming toolchain from there. [NOTE: see replies to this post for errors I made here, but only if they can compact the improved explanation into the same number of words.]
Take that paragraph (lovingly polished by the rest of the community), but DON'T LET IT GROW TO TWO! Take the wisdom of Abe Lincoln into account, who always insisted that reports from generals be entirely contained by a single piece of paper. Use that paragraph for the seed to your book, but keep it a Bonsai book. Be a revolutionary pioneer and give people a computer book they can LIFT for a change, and maybe they won't be scared to read it. I suggest 25 pages, large print, not counting illustrations. (NOT diagrams with labels and arrows everywhere. Illustrations. Like in a children's book.)
Anyway, I would try to explain how an image is stored as a file, taking the uncompressed BMP as an example.
I like that strategy.
Total newbies interested in computers often start the conversation with "So computers are all ones and zeros?", I'm not sure why they choose that line so frequently. Without showing them an example of converting 'normal' information to binary, they are eternally lost at how the computer can actually hold such wildly different objects as a video and an mp3 in binary. They must have a very mixed up mental picture of storage, it would essentially be magic to them.
But rather than start with the BMP header I would show an example of converting a tiny 2d black & white digital image to a string of binary (no mention of bytes or hex etc., of course). Perhaps then introduce 8 bit color storage format showing how each 8 bit combination represents and arbitrary real world color etc., still without introducing bytes explicitly on the first lesson.
I know my stupid friend won't read the book, he'll be too busy being too cool to shut down his computer properly. And too cool to wait for that irritating blue XP-scandisk screen. And it won't prevent my mom's heart attack when it comes time to eject the USB-stick and the infernal XP taskbar eject button's gone missing. But maybe someone I don't know, somewhere far, far away, will finally attain some basic level of common sense regarding what can be ejected/turned off and when (and maybe, god forbid, why).
If not, then fsck them all.
I can understand why users get confused about computers. I still talk and think about a "directory" rather than a "folder." This makes explaining things to my mom hell whenever I forget that someone decided to change the name. Minor changes like this are extremely confusing for users who never completely understood the concept of a "directory" and now suddenly have a "folder" thrust on them.
I don't know if this has been addressed - there have been so many comments to this thread. I have a problem explaining to people how some e-mail accounts (AOL, for instance) keeps everything on their servers, while most e-mail clients using POP3 will keep files/e-mail locally on the client computer, and delete off of the server. This is a major problem for some users to understand. Other issues include WHY using Microsoft IE is such a bad idea, and why it's a good idea to avoid websites that can only be accessed by IE. Most computers that I've had to clean up were messed up by ActiveX that allowed malware into the system. Just some problems I've encountered. Thanks.
I think the biggest danger with new computer users, (or n00bs) are those who are slightly informed.
We in the industry throw words at people like virus, spyware, popup, IP, upload. The people as a whole dont really understand these words.
I can't count the number of times i've told people "When this box pops up, put your userna..." Client: "I cant go there if it has popups. They're bad."
I've had people tell me theres a problem with my server because they put in a bad email address.
I find a few rules to always be true:
-People expect all hardware to be able to run any program. Regardless of hardware or software limits.
-People are trained to click "Ok", "Yes", and "Next". No matter what the computer is trying to do.
The things i would have you teach, is be vigilant. Read messages and requests before agree. If you dont understand what the computer wants, find someone who does. Teach them how the internet really works.
So much to say. You'll probably not ever read this. To many replys.
ClientCopia.com Good examples there.
You sir have absolutely no empathy for people who do not pretend to understand every facet of their existance. There's plenty of people who live in really small parts of the world, who really never got a chance to see much; its really not their fault they didnt have the exposure to all the 21st century whoonanny any "properly civilized person" has. Or even smaller things, like say, literacy. You'd be astounded the unliteracy rate of some places in the US. Its not just desire to learn, its how our brains have been programmed. Some brains just dont have the patterns to digest what their seeing, and its not like sitting down and explaining something slowly and with good metaphors is going to suddenly make a light bulb go off. There's enormous interia to overcome. Many of these things are just non-integrable into people's existing conception of reality, there's simply no existing rules or patterns to start from, to begin to even understand the faintest thing about some of your obvious concepts. Knowledge is a pyramid with a very very wide base my young paduan. And with no one is volunteering to explain these things, to deconstruct the weird rules their grasping brain substitutes for objectively-seemingly-plausible ones, the situation borders hopeless. It just takes experience, it takes experience to build more. But without that core, if you're constantly rebuffed, if rules never make sense, its like a mice or pet cat that gets shocked for doing some objective task "wrong" but cant cognitize what & why it keeps happening... its just random negative reinforcement that builds up until the only solution is to turn off and turn out. Stick with what you know, with what doesnt hurt. Be glad you can eat ok. Worship your false icons. Life does what it must to survive, sometimes there's just not enough light left to flourish.
Computers especially are non-intuivite systems, criticizing people for not understanding is sub-human; being able to screen scrape and guestimate your way through menu-driven systems is like diving through a perpeutally changing rabit hole. A computer at 1024x768 updates 2000 words 75 times a second, a single menubar hides ninety different buttons which each spring up entirely different dialog boxes. Sometimes a couple mechanized processes to do basic tasks really is a stellar achievement. My dad, a wonderul and insightful craftsmen, always exploring new techniques and building styles, cant do much more than mechanized computer work. He gains familiarity with a couple facets of a couple systems and works with what he knows. He picked up quick, his mental model and experience allowed him to run mechanical task-based routines through computers reasonably well reasonaly quick with a little assistance and a little improvisation, but by and large his improvisational and navigational skills are really limited. But he doesnt do well with configuration or settings at all, he doesnt understand what to look for. I dare say, he'll be able to do what he wants with computers, but I doubt he'll ever really understand or intuit how computers work. Telling him to sit down in front of a computer and "play around" would do nothing. My mom on the other hand was much slower to learn, she could never automate the process of finding what she was looking for. So she's developed a strong ability to screen scrape and experiment. She's actually learning how it works, rather than how to do it. She's building the filters to digest what is in front of her. My dad still has to read every character on screen. Not everyone has a mental model to really understand.
------
There's a reason this world is filled with fundie right wing nut jobs. Its because they cant comprehend the world, and because there's these chest thumping self proclaimed liberally educated elite that demand everyone be as cultured and omni-knowing as them. Just do your cause a favor and shut the fuck up. I'm tired of loosing elections already.
Some day there'll be a world where the raison d'êtr is some wonderful
Dual core processors and system specs in general. A lot of consumers are intimidated by the many terms used on computer boxes. Rule of thumb is that higher numbers mean better, but things like dual core processors are exceptions.
State that there are often superior, free alternatives out on the web for various programs, direct them to Opera and Firefox, OpenOffice, Foobar, Thunderbird, GAIM, Gimp et cetera.
Many decades ago, the refrigerator-sized box that contained the whatsits that did logical operations (it was not a "microprocessor" back then) was called the CPU. It was the Central Processing Unit, because it was the unit in the center of the room where all the processing was done.
As time progressed and technology advanced, this refrigerator-sized box shrank to the point where it could fit underneath a desk. Eventually, it could even fit on top of the desk, and had enough empty space inside to accommodate storage devices. But historically, "CPU" is the correct term for the box that holds the whatsits, however small the actual whatsits inside have become.
The US free market: two halves of a government-granted duopoly are free to set the market price.
Why the hell anyone would do that?
Darling, we feed on other's ignorance. Don't take away my job.
I forgot to be anonymous.
Teaching people always requires more work in the short term, but less in the long term. I taught one friend of mine about computers while we were roommates, and we had some pretty good laughs about the mistakes he made. Within one week, he deleted system files off of his windows machine twice that required a reinstallation each time. That was the short term... he was constantly yelling for me to come help. And I did, and as I did, I taught him more. Now he's pretty good with computers. He can fix his own problems now, and I haven't had to help him for a long time. There is a "danger zone" in knowledge about computers, but once you get past that, then things improve quickly, and soon they are teaching others about computers. Moral of the story: patience. I too killed the operating system when I was learning about my first computer... it shouldn't surpise me too much of other people do to in an effort to learn. But in reference to that book? First thing you should teach them is how to back up their important data. After they do that... let them do whatever they want to their computer. It is theirs afterall. And if they break it, then it will be their challenge to fix it, and when they can successfully do that, then they are on their way.
This is truly classic, isn't it? This fellow is self-confident (or arrogant) enough to think that HE can write The Book that everyone else has failed to effectively write (or so he says). What's his first action in pursuit of that goal? He comes here, to Slashdot, soliciting free advice and ideas, from which he intends to pick and choose for inclusion as his own ideas in his own book, from which he will monetarily and perhaps even culturally profit.
Dude, that ain't how open source works.
Free (and legal) online version of "The Secret Guide to Computers" by Russ Walter:
http://www.secretguide.net/
Author's site:
http://www.angelfire.com/nh/secret/
Guy has a great sense of humor, and has been publishing the book (now in its 29th Edition) for several years.
MRH
SARAVA!
The problem is not in how things are explained, but in that as many in these threads have recognised- most older/inexperienced users don't understand what a computer is doing. The best thing my parents did (in their 60's) was do a night class that introduced them to computing. They learned how to use the internet, what viruses are and why they need to keep anti-virus software up to date, installation of apps and some basics of computer management and hardware configuration and purpose. Straight forward stuff that most of us learned so long ago we forgot where we heard it. But for these people - its a new world and its scary.
I have no mod points but I must comment...
Xenu loves you!
People need to learn that their hard drive is not the case with the motherboard, CPU etc. The number of times people have said to me "I need to put my hard drive under my desk" is crazy. While we're on that topic, people need to learn that putting their computers on the floor under their desk is bad for the computer.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people have no concept of a filesystem. Now I'm not talking NetBios and Samba, but just the basic idea whenever you are working on a computer, you are modifying files which are arranged in a tree structure. My Dad has used a computer for years, but still doesn't really understand (no matter how many times I tell him) that "C:" is his hard drive and "A:" is his floppy drive. And when he invokes the strange magic of "Z:" by plugging in his USB flash drive, he might as well be solving the Da Vinci Code. To him, the computer is just One Big Place where information lives. The idea of having multiple documents open in Word confuses him no end. And this is a guy who for decades worked in technical jobs such as fixing cars and working as a factory electrician and knows way more about most practical stuff than I ever will.
"What Should People Understand About Computers?"
Really just two things: 0 and 1.
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
2-(N-1) because N would be the MD5 of the page before it, no?
OK you have stolen the way i was never goning to make my $$
...pull pin..pic of pulling pin..])
i live with a family of computer illitrate people who want to use computers but just do know how
Ive found that the more i explain the worse off everone is, but by showing them what to do then making them go though it. this allows them to get a direction in what they do.
2. YOU MUST EXPLAIN THAT COMPUTERS DO NOTHING EVERTING A COMPUTER DOSE IS SOMTHING ITS BEEN TOLD TO DO
3. MUST EXPLAING FILE SYSTEM
baised on triditional file cabnets. bits=ink bites=leters doc/imgs/etc=pages folder=file disk drive (can be orgnised in diferent ways fat32 anyone? there is a reson you defrag..)= cabnent ram=your hands holding your pages processer=libary staff (finding and bringing requested pages) os=subconcus mind that takes leters on a page, makes sence of them and sends them to your concus mind monitor=concus mind keybord/mouse=pencile and erazor (modifing and changeing info)
this is the best way to describe this info because thats the wasy it was orignally designed because libary file cabnets stored huge amounts of info that could be acessed easly and effintually (Dont break what works...) so they baised computer file systems on them
eg
c\info1\target
would be
witch cabnet\ what file name \ doucment that is required
4. EXPLAING THAT EVERTING THAT IS NEEDED IS ON THE SCREEN (in most cases)
5. FInally USE PICTURES, i cant stress this enough, i personally just spent months lerning how to use knoppix (thats right im not a linix user)you get lost then you are screwed, eventually i found a website that had a few screen shots of where your sposed to be at a sertian stage, this allowed me to have a go and if my screen was different from the stage 5 pix but it was right at the stae 3 pix i knew i fucked up 4
SO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD INCLUDE PICTURES OF EVERTHING, even if you have to have an atorunning cd full of picks do it because without pictures you will fail, (how many manuals for anything to do with the public do you know without the most basic enstructions in litle images[fire extingushers anone
i know this will be repeating pervious posts but i felt that it needed to be said
if any questions worldoffire2000@yahoo.com (title slashdot)
Pizzaboy
GOOD LUCK i will by a coppy so i no longer have to show mum where the fk is her email has gone.......
When you have to explain that "Windows" is the pretty blue screen,how to add an address to email,things are pretty bad. Then there is that real frightening thing to do--cut and paste--the text turns white then it disappears. Windows start pop-up menu and programs? Maybe it is time to re-think the graphical interface????????--and automate a few things like clean and defrag the hard drive.
John W....
Great points. Entirely agreed. They definitely do NOT need all that crap. Here I was writing a long post about how a book should teach people to filter out the stuff that they don't need/want to see, and you come along with a better idea (though somewhat off-topic for this discussion, an Ask Slashdot about writing a book to educate users on how stuff works now): Just get RID of the crap that they don't need/want to see. GUIs can always have easily-switched "Simple" and "Expert" modes for geeks who DO want/need to see stuff.
However, if they must be stuck with all that junk, could we at least make it require knowledge and a confirmation dialog before they can have a window any size other than maximized? I've never seen a non-geek who uses non-maximized windows in any useful way; they're not even cognizant of the size/status of the window.
Unfortunately, they readily understand resizing the window, but not maximizing; they drag the window until it fills the screen, then they ask me where their status bar went, why they can't see the bottom button on the scroll bar, etc. Meanwhile, Windows does a great job of saving the window size and position, but refuses to save it's maximized status when I maximize. I make sure to maximize the last window of a program before closing, I set the shortcut to start maximized, and stuff still comes up in some oddball size and position.
I'm a multitasking geek, who processes all kinds of incongruent data simultaneously, and even *I* rarely want non-maximized windows. I want to see as much info as possible, pull a split-second Alt+Tab, get or use info in that window, Alt+Tab again, etc. I hate having a 17" screen at 1280x1024 and still having to scroll around just to click on a bookmark or some such.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
For the love of gad pound into their heads the difference between RAM and HD space.
"You need more RAM. That's why your computer is crawling."
"But we hardly have any files on it."
*Head to Desk*
I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
True, but it's very close. Fix the slashes and add a little more detail, and "Letter wrote to Alchemar on 1-17-06.doc" is a great filename. "Letter.doc" and "Alchemar.doc" are terrible.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
ian
I've tried to explain e-mail using the postoffice analogy, tried to tell about folders and files using paper folders and trees (that grow upside down) - I failed each time.
The baby-duck effect dictates that if one writes a letter "in Word", it's stored "in Word", since it it cannot be found back any other way (because of numerous other files in 'My Documents').
"So, what's this confusing stuff about trees you're telling me?".
"I can't see your mail when I open Eudora!"
"Did you click on 'check mail'?"
"My neighbor has Outlook - that works!"
(because Outlook checks all POP servers right after it's started)
"I can't mail that letter - there's no option to do that in Word"
Windows' users won't think about concepts, they just want to get things done. I imagine it will be very hard to get them to read any book, as that takes away from getting things done. And unfortunately Microsoft understood that better than anyone else.
Gnome and KDE are just learning that. It seems they're going the Microsoft way.
You need to make a choice: fight an up-hill battle teaching people concepts they do not want to learn or go with the flow and write yet another "practical computer" handbook.
It's because people like to drive a car without having to know where the oil-fill cap is. We're the mechanics - don't write that book for us.
The filing cabinet/desk metaphor is really good for explaining the difference between HD storage and RAM. And, even better, it can be logically extended to... processors, cache and virtual memory:
Imagine you have more than one desk that you can sit and work at, but there is only one of you (one CPU, extensible for multi-CPU systems). So whenever you want to change to another task you have to write the CPU registers and suchlike to memory (ie, write down what you were thinking on a post-it note) and move to a different desk, where you can read what you were doing last and get on with it.
Hence we have multi-tasking systems which repeatedly "swap desks". If there aren't enough desks (RAM) to store all the working tasks, then one of the desks has to be cleared into a special folder and filed away in a cabinet. This cabinet is marked "virtual memory" and accessing it in future is obviously a lot slower than just reading a post-it note stuck to a desk.
This all conjecture, of course, as I've never had a lay person to test this extended analogy on.
the layman's guide to computer science
We often sell our older companions short when we talk down to them about computers, but it is no substitute for telling them what this machine really is. They need to understand that this is a true serial environment, that a computer is doing only what it has been told to do, either by the software, or the mouse, or the keyboard, or some other input signal it is receiving. Once the true nature of this cause and effect relationship is understood by someone, it makes them behave differently with the mouse, with the keyboard, with their overall treatment of the machine. And it is fundamental to making them respect what kind of tool it is when it is kept in top running condition, and what kind of anightmare it can become when we get sloppy and lazy about its proper care.
One important point that is essential in making the book worthwhile will be to be sure, as I mentioned above, not to talk down to the audience. This is, after all, and educational effort, as is the endeavor they are embarking on about learning to use a computer.
The fact that I can use the same video player utility to play BBC programs as I use for ones I recorded here in Colorado is stunning to him.
Given the propagation of digital restrictions management and videos that can not be downloaded, only streamed, it's stunning to me too.
Yeah, I could have been one of those kids, but I don't have the people skills to handle J. Average-s who think too much of themselves.
Your question post particularly interested me, because i had the same idea, and actually i was quite successful in explaining all the essentials about the functioning of a computer to my wife, in about 8 'lectures', and i had an idea about writing a book based on it. Me and my wife both studied biology at university, although i pursued programming career - I've done programming way better than biology ;-). My wife was an ordinary computer user, knowing only how to use MS Office, and sometimes i had difficulties answering questions like
;-)
;), and this questions will be very various, so FAQ just will not help.
"what's you working on now ?"
So i worked out a lecture plan, and invited her to study a computer in depth.
We started from how information presented in computers, from bits to bytes and words, then to CPU - about the addressing, the registers, different number formats, then to CPU instructions, how instructions organized to function as a whole program, and finally, we discussed I/O, and I/O devices.
Next section was about higher-level concepts: how data is organized on external storage, what is a file, how files organized to form a filesystem. Next i explained what is computer program, how programs created (assemblers,compilators,interpretors), and then, based on previous concepts (instructions, files) i explained how program presented on disk and in memory. Then we talked about the OS, about the core, dynamic libraries, standard programs, and what is OS distributives. And finally, we talked about the processes, what they are, their properties, and how processes interact with the OS.
She also done some hands-on exercises i prepared to better understand the concepts.
As i said, it doesn't took overly much time - 8 or 10 evening lessons ( 2-4 hours each ). I recorded most of our lessons in mp3, but promised not to give it out to anybody
I can say what I'm satisfied with result: now i can discuss my work with her, knowing what she at least knows what I'm talking about,
and explaining new concepts like 'how viruses propagate' is fairly easy. She also claims what new knowledge gave her much more confidence when working with computer programs.
This lessons gave me valuable information on things which is hard for novice to understand, like what all what is digital is made out of the same digits, and the difference is how something interprets this digits.
The reason what i said i 'had' the idea to write a book is because then i analyzed my experience on teaching my wife, i realized what it is the live discussion, the communication, quick answers to questions what made this possible. If i gave her some book to read, i think she will abandon it after a hour of reading. The problem with books is what you can't get the answers quickly, and then you don't have a clear picture in your mind, you become bored.
So i suggest what before you starting to write book, you make a plan how to teach someone about computers, and then do that - teach, head-to-head. It will give you comprehension of what you really need to explain to novice.
And talking about how to teach someone about computers without live teacher, i suggest this should be a multimedia application with a lot of graphic/video examples to guard user from boredom, and in the ideal, there need to be a large button , 'Question', and it should provide _quick_ answers, so i think such multimedia application is best organized as a (paid) web service where someone will answer user questions (well, semil-live teacher
For gods sakes, man, please explain to people what the word 'crash' means! I was talking to my friend the other day, trying to convince him he shouldn't use 'bear share' on his new Dell XPS, and I brought up Limewire - which he promptly responded "Doesn't limewire crash your computer?". I just kind of sat there a few seconds and then agreed. No you idiot, your computer crashs when it looses its ability to generate lift and subsquently comes in violent contact with another object! From what I understand, a computer 'crash' is when a software program encounters a critical error, or is otherwise forced to end/halt operation without direct input to do so by the user. Sometimes this takes the operating system out too, which I would imagine is what my friend meant, and sometimes your OS will crash itself - but could you please clearly identify what exactly a 'crash' is?! Also, on another note, I would just like to commend you on the challenge you're undertaking. Computer lingo is praticly like leetspeak (13375q34l - and yes, I don't speak it very well), what with the nearly encouraged variation in phrases. If you could shoot me an email, en mass perhaps, when your new book comes out, I'd like to recommend a copy to my friend! (my email being mw@agfnet.us)
http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/076458958X/q id=1137606062/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/701-173 8833-9089910
Of course, the implications of this for any attempt at creating truly "Free" software are huge...
I've been using computers since I was 6 or 7... I'm 24 now. Personally, I've always felt that files and folders were intuitive.
Now that you mention it... You're right, I can't recall ever having a problem with filesystem hierarchies on the likes of the Atari ST. Strange. I guess it's just a matter of being introduced to it at that age. Or maybe my recollection of those days is just flawed.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Strange. A HTML course to prep them for Canadian employment? How likely is it that they will start out their career creating web sites?
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
Like the Philco consoles of old, PC technology isn't bullet proof, so Grannie is left to fiddle with the knobs to hang onto her station... er, web site. At some point, computer vendors will get their products to the point where the delievery lady from Sears can drop the system onto the kitchen counter, spend five minutes getting it connected/configured, and it "just work".
In the meantime, any system barf or application setting gotcha can quickly evolve into techno-speak la-la land, so there's no book format that's going to be the silver bullet. Until the systems approach what most of the buyers can handle, the complexity of a cell phone say, we're going to be stuck attending the school of hard knocks, whether as students or instructors.
Luke, help me take this mask off
First of all, good luck on the project. Don't get your hopes up on it making too much of a difference though. Most people don't bother to read.
I would start the book out with a brief overview of the hardware, with pictures. Define the terms you're going to be using; basically what the parts are, what they do, and the names that they are properly called. No, a person doesn't need to know the difference between a modem and an Ethernet card, but they should know which one they are using in order to explain it to the tech when something breaks.
Once you have the hardware described, in layman's terms, move a level up from that. If you're feeling ambitious, describe the basic function of a BIOS. Don't get into all the bells and whistles, just what it does, and that its the first step in the control layer atop the hardware.
Then pop into the OS. If you're going for mass market, this will be Windows. Make your statements from that perspective, and bring in similarities between some of the other majors, like OS X and Linux. No need to confuse them endlessly.
On the OS, new users need to understand how it works, especially the file system. They need to grasp the concept that every single program they run operates THROUGH the OS. Something like "You tell the program what to do. The progam tells the OS, the OS tells the hardware." They need to know that, like the old game "Telephone", there is a chance that something, at each level, can fuck up.
On the file system... There have been a LOT of attempts to explain file systems, but the one that works best is the model that the file system is based on, the good old-fashioned filing cabinet.
If you explain that the hard drive is a big filing cabinet, and that each file goes in a folder, which, in turn, can go into related folders, and that those folders can be organized in groups, it tends to be fairly easily grasped. Example: "You're a secretary at a major company and your job involves a lot of correspondence. You send many letters to one other company in particular, so you decide, in order to better organize them, that you put all the letters to this company into one folder of your filing cabinet. This helps you find them.
However, your boss starts doing more business with this company, and does so in a few different areas. So, instead of just dumping all the correspondence into one company folder, you make up 3 other folders for each line of business that is done with that company. Those 3 folders go inside the main company folder, and the correspondence relating to each project goes into its own folder."
Folders and directories aren't hard when you lay that out. Explain how different programs have different "default" folders, but that a user should change these settings to fit their own comfortable system.
Once you've explained the file system, move on to other bits about the OS. Again, it doesn't have to be breathtaking, but in order to change the oil on a car, you have to open the hood, not look under the seat.
Then you should break into software. Explain the difference between "bundled software" and the OS. Now, here I would recommend putting together a sort of "base template" for a general program interface. It's almost universal that various "menus" are located at the top of the screen, starting from the left, like a book. The first is almost invariably called "File"...
If you break down some generalities about these menus, and explain that they ARE generalities, it will give the reader a passing familiarity about where to look for things. Also, I've found that if you can teach the user about those generalities, they are often much less intimidated by a new piece of software. Focus on how things stay the same, regardless of how much changes. There are commonalities between the very latest and greatest software releases and the earliest, crudest examples. Point those out and people tend to be less confused.
I think the best result is explaining the "rules" that exist around a compute
The tolerance of women has always amazed me.
How many beans make five, anyhow ?
i think your intensions are good, but your paving your own personal road to hell, or at least torment. at the end of the day your reading audience will end up being those who really know(or want to know), and your book will end up being really lame. your mom might read your book because she's your mom, but she probably wishes that someone would just "program" a simple, easy to use computer... and she probably doesn't want to waste her time reading about computers.
put it this way, how much does your mom know about automobiles(mechanics, engine displacement, suspension, electrical harness, etc) and how does this information improve her use of a car? how about a TV, or a gas stove, or any other consumer product? most of these object have built in instructions, semantics, to help the user learn how to use the product. computers and software have a long way to go before semantics gets encorporated as much as they have for many consumer products.
three can keep a secret, if two are dead - benjamin franklin
Hi -
Sorry for a delay in replying.
Here's a concept that I never even think about that I have encountered a few times with someone new to computers...
You have to stress upfront that each different software application can possibly have different keys do different things. I know Windows and the Mac have standardized many actions, but many other things are still left up to each app. (Especially the dreaded F-keys in Windows.)
Further, the idea of different applications is also an early concept. Most people want to say or think "I'm using the computer" rather than "I'm using the Opera browser under Windows on my computer"
TWR
Isn't your idea that providing a better-written "PC's for dummies" book solving your Mother's inability to understand IT, as flawed a concept as her getting you to understand why she doesn't want you to use those pretty small towels in her guest bathroom? Rooted in ignorant bliss, your Mother can not comprehend what is missing from any question she may have that prevents you from providing her with that short easy answer she craves. Generally, the public are too non-scientific to understand computers (and Geeks). The public only enjoys answers based on emotions and opinions. Facts and knowledge just get in the way of a quick and easy solution or answer. Where as Geeks are systematically linear individuals, utilizing cause & effect while incorporating it all into a nice framework of how the nature of the physical world relates to a subject, the Public just wants the thing fixed. It is like when you have just provided the best answer possible to her question, yet your Mother is more perplexed than ever. Bridging the chasm between the scientific and non-scientific worlds is difficult because geeks are pressed to provide succinct non-scientific answers and the public refuses to invest any time in something not needed for daily operation. Without proper background info a geek's answer is meaningless. My suggestion is a non-scientific troubleshooting guide so that when the public has a problem (the only time they ever motivate) there would be support for deciding what to do next. Examples: 1) The company that built your hardware system, may not be the best choice for resolving a proprietary software problem. (don't call Dell if your Adobe Photo Album freezes on start-up) 2) The operating systems manufacturer is not a good place to resolve hardware installation issues (don't call Microsoft if you new ATI All-in- Wonder TV card isn't recognized) 3) Your ISP doesn't provided custom solutions to household IT issues (don't call Cox Communications if you want to run a media file server for your music collection) It seems particularly difficult to get either side to even recognize that somehow the other side in not even on the same theoretical planet. Obviously we all posses some amount of both traits, but they do not harmonize very well. Do you think that have over-simplified the correct solution? I would venture a guess that there is probably more involved than what appears initially for the easy solution you had in mind.
Relax, aren't you lucky that it is only my Opinion?
Woah, that's messed up.
We had an old lady employee who would print out her email. To communicate with the department she dealt with she would write the address on a brown envelope and snailmail the printout to them. She got through 100s of brown envelopes.
We showed her how to click on the 'Forward' button to send it on electronically, but it didn't take. A few days later she was printing out email again. Her manager said we should leave her to it. He didn't seem to think it would be possible to get her to change her ways.
Environmentalism is the new Victorianism. Everyone ties on a green corset and pretends we're virtuous.
You may want to checkout Spellbound.
*grins* I've actually read that. Wow... that was a long time ago. ^_^; A good read for sure, for folks who want to know more about their computers from a "typewriter" starting point.
Winged Power Photography