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?"

Comments

More like where do you draw the line?

[eldavojohn]

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!

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[Rei]

People need to understand that computers are magical boxes that run on white smoke and fairy dust. Never, ever open your computer, or even risk hooking new devices up to it; you might cause the spell to fail. Understanding how it works is of course beyond any normal mortal; computer geeks are a different breed of human utterly different than you or I.

All software installed on the computer when you get it is part of a complex enchantment; to attempt to remove any bundled software or to even look at configuration options is to destroy the enchantments and render your computer a worthless heap of metal.

The internet is an evil place where every website is either a lie or an attempt to lure children to molesters. Of course, email from your friends is always safe - after all, your friends would never send you a malicious file.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[Goalie_Ca]

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 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.

Maybe i'm a cynic but I believe that most people don't care about computers for the same reason they don't care about anything else. The average layperson isn't curious at all! Slashdot is full of nerds. We read about nanobots, particle physics, and GPL drafts in our spare time. Besides, when's the last time an average person has read a book? (bonus points for non-fiction) Inquisitive people, like you or I, are the type of people that will read a wikipedia page and then read all the connecting pages until a good hour has been spent. Curious people have enough self-motivation to do their own research and will do so from multiple sources.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[usrusr]

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 ..."

That's a very important point, no matter how much we know about the technical details of computer operation, the biggest difference between "us" and "them" ( = the proverbial mum) remains the mental "spam filter" that allows us to focus on the relevant parts of the UI presentation.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[AKAImBatman]

People need to understand that computers are magical boxes that run on white smoke and fairy dust.

Reminds me of that BOFH issue where the BOFH got a user to fry his power supply. "See that puff of smoke? Your computer doesn't work any more because you let the magic smoke escape!" Priceless.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[poot_rootbeer]

For the majority of computer users over the last 15 years, computing has been a mostly negative experience

You really think so?

Personally, I LIKE having the world's largest information store and community center available at my fingertips, and I wouldn't go back to DOS 5.0, dial-up BBSes at 9600k, or long walks to the library to look up simple facts for any amount of money.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[Eberlin]

You pour a little...and if they absorb, you pour a little more. Most of the material is given through those Gates Foundation grants (I work at a library that received one of them grants a few years ago), but somewhat modified so as not to sound like an infomercial.

My perspective is that most adults are task-oriented and not really of the computer-curious type. They want to know enough to get them running -- being able to type up a letter, look up a few things on the web, and maybe figure out how to send/receive pictures of relatives.

Of course you can't jump directly to "surfing the 'net" until they've got the basics down. Give them a general idea of the parts of a computer and what they do. Don't need to go into mega detail about types of RAM, video cards, and motherboards...just enough that they understand what does what.

When I teach the stuff, I try to organize the hardware into Input/Process/Output to give them a bit of perspective. Keyboards, mice, and other input devices -- then all the processing stuff inside the box, then output devices like monitors, printers, and speakers.

From there you go into UI and the common features of just about anything there. Titlebar, menubar, scrollbar, etc. Then you go heavy on mousing and a little on the keyboarding -- what the keys are good for. Go HEAVY on the mousing. I always stress that for most users, this is like learning the alphabet...you can't move on to sentences and paragraphs unless you have the basics down.

After that, you can branch onto the different task-oriented topics. Internet would include history, a bit on structure, very brief on maybe protocols (just enough so they know the importance of standards), search engines, etc. Here you can also talk about security and various things to watch out for with a networked computer. I once had a more net-savvy crowd and I branched into more "social" issues like censorship, anonymity, file sharing, yadda yadda. Though it was fun, it was a specific audience that knew enough to contribute to the discussion.

Then you've got word processing where you have to stress the concept of highlighting/selecting things they want to work with. You've got to highlight text if you want to format it. Compare it to the old typewriters to establish familiarity, and think up cute little paradigms to help them understand what's going on. This isn't the place for emacs and vi either. :)

So in the end you pour a little, and pour a little more if they want more info. In the end, it's about getting them started, giving them enough confidence so they don't fear the damn things (but fear it enough so they don't go around doing stupid things with it), then letting them know that if they're really interested, there's oodles more information out there.

Good luck. :)

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[ReverendLoki]

I think the key word is "majority", though I disagree with that. I do acknowledge that for many, it is pretty much a negative experience, and for a majority, it is not nearly as rewarding as it could be.

I personally like getting out for a nice walk down to the library every now and then. However, if every time I went out to make this walk I ended up taking wrong turn after wrong turn, ended up getting completely lost to the point I couldn't find my way home again, and just as I'm about to give up and call someone to drive me home I broke my leg, then I might stop trying to walk to the library.

For those who can get to the library with no trouble, it's a great resource - but to those who can't get to it, it's of no use at all.

Golly gee, I hope my analogy isn't too obscure or subtle...

Anyways, that is sort of an extreme example. Most of the public just takes one or two wrong turns on their way to the library. They eventually get there, but it takes them about a half hour longer than it should. Sure it's good exercise, but it's still annoying as hell.

Does that mean we need to redo our entire network of roads, sidewalks and paths? Of course not. But, there are a lot of people who could benefit from a few more maps and lessons in how to read and use them.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[east coast]

The internet is an evil place where every website is either a lie or an attempt to lure children to molesters.

This is also the place where your kids learn to build bombs and shoot guns. According to my local TV station it seems that society went for years and years without murder or bombs but since this internet thing... woo! crimes just everywhere and what motivated all these people to suddenly apply their high school chemistry knowledge? The Internet of course.

They also said that playing video games is bad for your health but it seems that watching TV is OK since they didn't mention it.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[C0rinthian]

First rule of tech support: NEVER ask someone to tell you what they see on the screen, because they will. All of it. No matter how hard you try to stop them.

Yes/No questions are your best friend.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[thc69]

All of the above boils down to this:

My parents must read every character on the screen before they can gather a single piece of data from it. They cannot interact with the computer until they have viewed, thought about, squinted at, photographed, printed the photo of, discarded the photo of, composted the photo of, and grown a new tree out of that photo, of every pixel.

Users can't read you the part you need because, with the possible exception of something that is obviously a cheesecake recipe, everything on the screen is nonsense to them. Maybe Cliff could attempt to quantify and describe the filters used by us geeks to read only the important stuff. Extra credit if you can teach them to correctly operate "OK" and "Cancel" buttons in other languages/broken video cards/buggy software (more extra credit if they can do it ambi-interfacedly -- mouse and/or keyboard).

That reminds me: One thing that should definitely be covered is the 3-way "Save file" dialog that comes up when exiting a program/shutting down, and similar dialogs, that offer "Yes", "No", and "Cancel". This confuses the heck out of many users, and it's not reasonable to expect them to figure it out on their own unless they're geeks. They need to know that "Cancel" is a sure-fire way to get nothing done and be back where they started, and that they need to click "No" if they want to continue exiting the program but don't want to save the file. A sidebar should explain that walking away from the dialog will result in the computer waiting forever, and probably an "End task?" dialog will come up too.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[SatanicPuppy]

Frankly, I am more and more coming to this point of view, as far as users are concerned. Let them think the tiny god could become angry with them if they browse the wrong folders, or tamper with the holy configurations.

You can't teach them enough to be fully competent. If you teach them a little, you just make them dangerous, able to screw up on a much more profound level.

Solution? Teach them as little as possible.

This goes against my grain. I love teaching people things. But whenever I show someone how to do something, inevitably, destruction ensues.

How many user problems arise from them trying to install software? Solution: make it so they can't install software. Give them access to system files? Not if you don't want them to throw them away later, out of boredom. Let them configure their own apps? Are you out of your MIND?

I used to work in my university computer lab. When you logged into a computer, it would build your system profile for you, from stored settings (not thin client, mind you, it pulled down everything you needed and wrote it on the local harddrive). Applications were served from central servers. Files were saved in your serverside directory.

When you logged off, it went through and ran a cleanup app that expunged every trace of your presence, checked all the system files, and replaced any that had been modified in ANY WAY. Five minutes later, a perfectly clean machine was ready for another user. The only real problem we had with it was that it was rough as hell on the harddrive, so the replacement rate was pretty high.

Every place I've worked since then, I've longed for that level of control. No viruses, no wierd errors. Worst case scenario, you replace the harddrive and run a build script.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[hackstraw]

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 ..."

What kind of computer program does that?

Modern computers have a little screen that pops up if the OS crashes, that tells you in 5 or so languages to hold down your power button for a few seconds, and restart the machine. They also ask you on reboot if you want to send a bug report back to the manufacturer so they can fix the problem.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[Jetboy01]

But along the same lines, never ask "Do you see such and such a thing on the screen?" as many people will just tell you what they think you want to hear in order to get you utter the magic 'solution' to their problem.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[SatanicPuppy]

I work with this guy whose whole job is to maintain a legacy mainframe. He can look at an outqueue, just glance at it, and tell you immediately what jobs failed. He'll call me up if the filesize on the input files is off kilter, and can tell from the most hopelessly obscure error message what the actual problem is.

Thirty years experience will do that to you. Moreover, thirty years experience will do that to any of us. We have built in junk filters because we've seen the amazing bluescreen a zillion times. Our eyes automatically zero in on the actual error, because we've trained them to do it, error after error, for 16-19 years now.

The problem is, there is no way you can teach experience. In a way that's good because if you could, most of us'd be out of a job. But in situations like this, is damn inconvenient.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[SatanicPuppy]

That's would be Windows, Jim. Almost all of the NT line started with a line of hex on a blue screen. And XP & ME still had memory registers in hex on the bsod.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[UnrefinedLayman]

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 ..."

Your post was great, and I think a lot of it will help the person that asked. Having said that, it's important to point out that a lot of the frustration that people feel is borne of the feeling that the person providing support knows exactly what they're doing and the person seeking support doesn't.

It's kind of like taking your car into the shop. A lot of people will be nervous in front of the mechanic and not want to describe what the problem is with the car because they don't know the terminology or where the problem could be. Instead they'll say it sounds like the catalytic converter is overheating the timing belt on the radiator exhaust manifold piston: a bunch of useless information. Nervousness breeds uncertainty breeds impatience breeds hositility, and the same is true with computers.

The problem is often that the person providing support doesn't ask the right questions. Some of the best support I've gotten has been from people that led me to the answers. The questions in your example are perfect: "What does the screen say?" and "What do you mean 'it's blue,' what does it say?" Screens don't say anything, they have things printed on them, and when the user gives you an answer, it doesn't help to ask them a ridiculing question ("what do you mean, 'it's blue?'" (hint: they mean 'it's blue')) and then repeat your original question. It gets you nowhere (as you demonstrated). When it's expected that there's a whole lot of useless information (a hex dump) and a little bit of useful information (IRQ NOT LESS OR EQUAL TO), it's the job of the person providing support to lead the user to the answer. Try the exchange:

You: "The screen should be light blue with a white box for a password below your username. Do you see that?"
Mom: "The screen's dark blue and it has a bunch of white text."
You: "OK, there should be a bunch of random text at the top, with the letters A through F and the numbers 0 through 9. Ignore that part; we're looking for the first line below all the random text that has actual words in it. Read me that line."

Like you said, people aren't dumb and they're naturally inquisitive. Leading them through the troubleshooting steps makes support a lot easier and productive. Most of the problems I see with support analysts is that they don't know how to ask the right questions, not that the user is too dumb to understand. Even the dumbest user can be helped if they're willing and if the support person has the right skills.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[Kadin2048]

Actually I disagree. I think most people are curious, at some level, about computers. (Actually I think most people are curious about a whole lot of things.) However they find that asking them questions usually doesn't get them anywhere, and so they learn to treat the computer as a sort of 'magic box' and ignore whatever curious impulses they might have over how it works.

Think of what most people get if they ask a question about computers. If they don't outright get told that there's 'no reason for them to know,' or 'it's too complicated for me to explain,' either they get some sort of patronizing explanation that they themselves know isn't true, or one so loaded with technical detail that they feel like an imbecile for asking. It's either the children's book or the technical manual; there's no middle ground. And it really only takes one bad experience to throw someone off a subject that they're only peripherally interested in.

I don't think this is necessarily specific to computers, though. Most people don't really know how their television, automobile transmission, or microwave works. Every once in a while they might get curious and wonder what's going on inside, but they know that if they ask a really knowledgable person a question (e.g. if they ask a mechanic about a transmission) they'll probably either get brushed off or get an incomprehensible response. So they shrug and go on in ignorance.

Personally I think the internet is very slowly beginning to change that. When you have immediate access to information on practially anything -- and especially technical topics -- it becomes a lot less painful to fulfill that momentary impulse to learn. You don't have to go to a library, you don't have to find an expert, and you can read as much or as little as you like. "More than you want to know about just about anything" is just a HowStuffWorks, Wikipedia, or Google query away.

Just as a personal anecdote, I've noticed that my father (who is in his late 60s, and was until recently of the ardent conviction that typing was for secretaries) uses the internet constantly when he's watching television. The last time I was home, we were watching a movie he saw as a young man (Ben Hur, I believe) and he recalled that when the movie had originally been released, a big deal had been made of how it was shot in "Panavision"; however he'd never been totally clear what Panavision was. So as we were sitting there he grabbed his laptop, typed "Panavision" into wikipedia, and answered a 47-year-long 'mild curiosity' in about ten minutes.

My point in all this is that you have to present information to people in a way that's easily -- perhaps instanly -- accessible. Start simply, and work up from there. Don't try to force anything on them; if and when they want to know something (if you do your job right) they'll find you and satisfy themselves. I think Wikipedia and HowStuffWorks are great because it lets someone who's just mildly curious about something to find an answer to their question in a satisfying way, so that the next time they're curious about something, they won't repress the urge to find out. Plus if they're more than just mildly curious, they both provide ways to learn more about a topic, or about related topics.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[koreaman]

If I remember the definition correctly, all religious texts are nonfiction, because they're intended to be true and are designed for an audience that believes them to be true.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[daviddennis]

For those that don't get the joke, what he describes is exactly how MacOS X deals with the blue screen problem.

I'm sure Steve Jobs scrutinized every pixel of that in countless meetings, screamed at at least one employee who didn't quite get it right, and finally, well, he has the prettiest crash message that exists, yes, in five different languages.

As long as it's not you he's screaming at ... you have to admire Steve. He really does care about these things. I'm a big Steve fan because I love the fact that he worked super-hard to create an environment with this kind of thought and atention to detail.

I was getting it a lot because I had bad memory in my G5. Don't put bad memory in your G5 :-(.

D

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[techno-vampire]

Besides, when's the last time an average person has read a book?

I've spoken to people who have bragged that they've never read a book since they graduated from High School. I also have a friend who's severely dyslexic, but reads more books than most people every year, because he doesn't let his dyslexia stop him. Not only does he read, he reads science-fiction, mostly, and is proud when he can finish a book in under a week and comprehend it. For him, that's a major achievement. What really gets me is all those people who are quite capable of reading, but simply won't. I've taken to call them "pseudo-literate," because they can pass a literary test, but refuse to use that skill, even when they'd profit by it.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[maxwell demon]

Of course, after all, the internet is based on the Total Crime Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), as well as some other protocol building on that like the Hacker Tool Transfer Protocol (HTTP - remember, hackers are evil people who want to destroy your data), the Simple Malware Transfer Protocol (SMTP) or the Fraudulent Transaction Protocol (FTP). Also there are data formats used like the Porn Distribution Format (PDF). You see, the internet is EVIL!

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Well, there you go! They tried to upgrade their RAM at home and ended up with a better computer. A good outcome all around!

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[TomasDK]

I understand your feelings on this, but imo people should be able to at least have the ability to experiment with computers. The only reason I know the things I know now, is because I messed up and had to figure out a way to repair the damage.

Maybe an easy to use version of "system restore" would give people the nerve to try some things, and if whatever they try fails: just push some reset button and a default OS magically respawns. Fear of doing something wrong again after a bad experience with computers stops a lot of people from learning more about them.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[iangoldby]

If you teach them a little, you just make them dangerous, able to screw up... Solution? Teach them as little as possible... make it so they can't install software...

Every place I've worked since then, I've longed for that level of control.

Unfortunately, you give the game away with your last statement. Systems administrators love to have absolute power and it does avoid all those tedious problems of sorting out machines their users have broken. The problem is that unless they are really well resourced they won't be able to do everything the users need doing in the timescales that are necessary.

But worse still, in your effort to protect the unsophisticated users from themselves, you inevitably hamstring the more sophisticated users.

It's all very well saying that all requests for new software have to go through IT support. But then one of your sophisticated users wants some highly specialised piece of software that could just be downloaded and installed in 15 minutes. No one in IT has even heard of it before. It has to be approved and scripted, and while there is one user waiting for this there are 200 clamouring for the upgrade to MS Project. The result is that you're lucky to get it any time in the next 10 weeks. Something you could have installed yourself in 15 minutes if only IT would drop their one-size-fits-all policy and give trust where trust is due.

Sorry, rant over :-)

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[jb.hl.com]

That loud whooshing sound you hear is the joke flying straight over your head.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[nmos]

The problem is that unless they are really well resourced they won't be able to do everything the users need doing in the timescales that are necessary.

Well, it's pretty common to spend 5 minutes fixing the users reported problem and then the next hour or more fixing all the damage they did trying to fix it themselves.

But worse still, in your effort to protect the unsophisticated users from themselves, you inevitably hamstring the more sophisticated users.

I don't know if it works like this everywhere but often truly sophisticated users do tend to get some slack. The thing is the people who think they know what they are doing are the ones that cause 90% of the problems.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[GMFTatsujin]

Ok, so draw the distincton between teaching people what they can usefully know vs. enforcing a correct system administration policy.

The problem with the "teach them nothing" idea is that unless you blindfold them and stuff their ears with cotton every moment of their lives -- and force the enterprising Helen Kellers of the world to wear boxing gloves -- the user will somewhere, at some time, pick up something that they'll want to try.

Consider them contaminated at that point.

In the case of a little dangerous knowledge, the only cure is a lot more *useful* knowledge. Once they know how to break it, you'll have to teach them either why breaking it is a bad idea, or how to fix it when they break it.

I look at my attempts to educate users from the standpoint of being a user myself. No, not in the computer world. I'm talking about in the KITCHEN. Alton Brown is the most influencial reason why I can boil water without burning it, and my cuisine, though not fancy, has improved in taste dramatically since I began to understand how food chemistry works and why food can taste good.

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[jannesha]

What I find useful is to say, "Look at the menus, and see if there's something like 'options' or 'preferences', yeah, ok, click on that, now look for something like..."

So long as you realize what you are filtering out, or zeroing in on, and can put it into plain language, even a novice user realizes what you are looking for, and can learn your thought processes by experiencing them.

Or, that's my theory, at least!

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[kv9]

Slashdot, I implore you. Get off your collective geek asses, take a few clueless end users under your wing and help.

you got a lot of nerve to ask that from a bunch of mostly self-taught persons. there is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when you figure out something for yourself, and i cant help wondering why people need constant hand-holding for everything computer related.

all the information you need is right there at your fingertips. if you `have better things to do with your time than dig around' maybe you should take a course. someone will teach you all this magic stuff.

You and all the people like you, especially the ones who mod this crap +4 Insightful need to get out of mom's basement and actually go meet an "average person".

you and all the average people like you, that dont get any mod points, need to stop *demanding* free advice from the basement dwellers and actually go figure out some shit for yourselves.

i know this might sound flamish, but you are not *entitled* to anything, and especially you cant expect people to take you seriously for pissing and moaning that you got flamed/rejected/whatever by whoever.

also, geeks like challenges. of course they will not jump right out of their chair when you ask them to help you figure out why windows BSODs. but try to get help with troubleshooting some funky netboot process or a pesky router console and see how that goes.

you know, its weird how all these `socially skilled outgoing average persons' have the most problems relating to different kinds of people.

--EORANT

Re:More like where do you draw the line?

[munpfazy]

>This also works beautifully
>for drunken debates at parties.

Just remember to restore the page to it's original state after you've collected on the bet.

After they know about computer internals...

[towaz]

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...

Re:After they know about computer internals...

[codered82]

Google Pack will let you customize which programs are downloaded. The "Add or Remove" software link is at the very bottom-right under the "Download Google Pack" button. From there, you should be able to remove Norton or any other package you want to. I had no idea this existed. Thanks for sharing it, although I'm sure your intent was different.

Re:After they know about computer internals...

[Traa]

I would leave all that stuff out because it is so 'today'. Every product you mentioned might help a user today, but unless they get updated with what the hip anti-malware program is 6 months from now their computer will be a mess again. Educating users about scams and malware in general should open their eyes and keep them open for years to come. My parents emailed me that they have been deleting emails from governament officials in Nigeria offering them money. Not because I taught them about 419 scams, but because I tought them about internet scams in general.

Re:After they know about computer internals...

[smbarbour]

Simple 5 step solution to converting someone to Linux (works best with a tower-style PC with available bays):

1) Get a LiveCD of your favorite distro.
2) Take a cheap CD-ROM drive and disable the eject mechanism (to disallow ejection of the LiveCD).
3) Use the emergency eject buttom to place the LiveCD in the drive and close the tray.
4) Place the CD-ROM drive into the machine (preferably where the user can't see it)
5) Boot the machine and ensure that the CD will boot first.

To upgrade the OS, simply repeat steps 1, 3, and 5.

(This was funny, perhaps even practical. Laugh.)

I got one

[TheRealMindChild]

"What does the general public think they understand, but really don't?"

Women.

First thing's first

[voice_of_all_reason]

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.

Re:First thing's first

[LiquidCoooled]

I've given up with that particular battle.
Use it in context, when the user says "my computer has 40 giga bites of memory" I automatically replace with drive space.

I can understand the general publics lack of understanding regarding computers, but its people in the industry that piss me off more.

Case in point, one of my colleagues (developerish) was really baffled why the computer had 248mb of memory and assumed some sort of none standard memory stick.

Re:First thing's first

[sumdumass]

I went to a comuter show and someoen was selling new computers with a windows XP coperate edition and a cracked version of go back for the restore disk. They said the corp edition allowed them to test and evaluate the computer (demonstrational purposes).

I started asking them about the computers and the sales lady though I was some average user who thinks it all smoke and magic inside the box. She was saying the cpu (computer itself) had a a gforce4 proccesor 80 gig of memory a 10-100k modem and they could UPLOAD Windows Office (?WinXP?) onto it for an extra $25.

People have actualy taken the public's misunderstanding of computers and turned it into a selling point. Chances are, people call things the wrong way because it was presented to them by someone trying to scam them. I remember taking a computer to the shop to get a cdrom replaced once when I didn't have the time. The tech told me it needed a "plug and play card" because it is the reason the old cdrom quit (not because I spilled coffee (or beer) on it when I droped a cup.). I ended up spending $40 just to get my systems back and install a CDrom from somewere else myself.

Know how to drive but not where they are.

[jellomizer]

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.

Re:Know how to drive but not where they are.

[hackstraw]

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.

That is so true. And the reason is to us is that we don't know where to start to fix their problem. My mother actually calls everything she sees on the screen as "Microsoft". Scary.

I don't know how to fix the problem. I mean, most people have no clue what "software" really is.

Man, I've been brainstorming lately.

I was a kid of the 70s and 80s and we had these cool Atari games that came in cartridges. I liked that model for some reason.

If software for new computers come in a cartridge it would solve many things.

1) piracy will basically stop, yes, ubergeeks will still do it, but everyday normal people won't. In fact, if you run a program at work or with your friends without inserting a cartridge, then they will know instantly that you did not pay for it.

2) It will isolate the app from the OS and other apps.

This does not scale too well for little programs. But I'm talking about expensive larger apps that you would only typically need at most 5. More on average 1.

Think about how easy upgrades would be? Throw away or sell old cartridge and insert a new one. Expensive software is coming with hardware dongles already. Why does the program have to live on my harddrive too? Why is it so hard to run the program I paid for on another computer?

Re:Know how to drive but not where they are.

[AKAImBatman]

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.

No, what they need is a machine that's reliable so that if something goes REALLY wrong, they don't feel stupid about calling a computer technician or taking it to a repair desk to fix it.

e.g.:

My Computer is Broken! When When MS Word fails to open.

MS Word shouldn't be so darn fickle. There are hundreds of ways to break it, that will easily put a user out of commission. My favorite? When Windows corrupts the preferences and decides that the Word window should now be located at +100000 by +100000 pixels. (Thank God Microsoft finally fixed that one.)

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.

Users are used to Windows failing. Ergo, the computer must not boot because of Windows. If faults were rare, the computer would go to a repair center and be fixed up quickly and cheaply.

My Computer is slow, I need a faster one! When there are 1000s of spyware apps running

Such programs need to be properly dealt with. Under OS X it can be very hard to install spyware. The primary method of "hiding" it requires sudo permissions. While the user can be tricked into giving up his password, it's much more difficult and bound to be far less legal.

The secondary method would involve installing a program that the user can ALWAYS see. And if they can see it, they can kill it. Ergo, not too much spyware on Macs at the moment. (We'll see if spyware manufacturers figure out ways around this. It would be interesting to see Apple's response.)

Re:Know how to drive but not where they are.

[EEDAm]

"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."

I drive my car every day (in fact 30,000 miles a year) but I know absolutely f$!% all about mechanical engineering. I use a microwave every day but I've no idea how them microwaves are generated or why they stopped when they stopped. The user-engineer is, unsurprisingly, a popular way of thinking for a slashdotee, but think about it - do you really believe the future (or even the correct present) of computing is dependent on people who can diagnose their own problems down to a particular part fault? It's not because joe-consumer doesn't work that way in any part of their life. The real surprise is just how long it's taking to get past this point.

For Dummies

[debianlinux]

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.

Re:For Dummies

[JLennox]

I recall in my youth reading DOS For Dummies and I felt that it tought me the important basics of computing in a very good manor.

An above poster mentioned that one of the importances is that the user understands where the hardware begins and ends, as with the applications, and operating system. I will second his opinion. Most users when they encounter an error from an application (probly the most common error), they will happily blame Microsoft or Dell.

I believe errors such as 'unhandled exception,' and other userland errors, to 'STOP,' and other kmode errors, be covered and be told how to diangose and solve. Not on the grounds that they will replace a well trained computer tech, but enough for them to know that an error in NTFS.SYS means either the files shit the bed or your file system has, then how to attempt to recover (boot to recovery prompt, scan disk).

I'd also fully recommend covering the differnt types of expansion buses. AGP, PCI, PCI-E, USB, Parellel/Serial, etc. Talking about their ups and downs. "An external CD burner is easier to install, but it costs more and sucks balls." Seperating the external and internal installation would most likely be benefitial, but would most likely be proper to make a solid point that they are not that differnt.

Covering the common Windows software would not be bad, either. As well as additional software and where to download it.

Look in your glove box.

[StressGuy]

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.

Re:Look in your glove box.

[rleibman]

I think the car analogy breaks down. Cars are meant for basically one purpose: they are a vehicle to transport people and things, their user interface is mostly the same and you're talking 10 controls or so only, the manual in your glove compartment is more than enough for it, the majority of people don't even need it. Computers have a virtual infinity of uses, and each program/operating system/computer has slightly different user interface to do what it does. Much more is needed than a glove compartment guide.

Not so much a content suggestion...

[sterno]

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.

lost cause! :P

[Klanglor]

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.

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 ;p

I've got plenty of ideas...

[TeachingMachines]

... but I'll only provide them if your book is to be released under the Open Document license.

What kind of questions are you so sick of answern?

[lilmouse]

What kind of questions are you so sick of answering because you hear them every week?

It's broke - fix it!

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

Everything that I learned on /.

[IAAP]

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!

Proprietary Design

[Codename46]

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.

Don't make up shit you don't know

[Sax Maniac]

The big box that you put the CDs into is not a CPU.

Re:Don't make up shit you don't know

[n6kuy]

Of course not. That's the "hard drive."

Re:Don't make up shit you don't know

[pclminion]

The big box that you put the CDs into is not a CPU.

Of course not. According to one of my ex-GF's, that box is properly referred to as the "modem."

Re:Don't make up shit you don't know

[bomb_number_20]

I think "Central Unit" is pretty descriptive, and CPU is the way to say that.

It may be convenient, but calling it a CPU is incorrect. How are they going to know what you are talking about when you refer to the actual CPU?

Maybe defining important terms as you progress through the book is the way to go. That way, you eliminate ambiguity and you build a vocabulary.

"The Computer" seems to be the global term for kb/mouse/monitor/apps/cpu

Keyboards, mice and monitors have nothing to do with the computer. Define what a peripheral is and use these as examples. That also helps clarify which part does the computing.

The idea is to move forward one term/component/concept at a time. By the end, the user will (hopefully) not only be able to do basic things, but, if they find themselves in a spot of trouble, also be able to effectively communicate their problem to someone technical when needed.

Re:Don't make up shit you don't know

[jb.hl.com]

Ahh, ex girlfriends.

My Internet connection once went down, and since I NAT to the rest of the house nobody else could get online either.

So my ex tried to fix it.

End result: I came in, turned on my PC, watched the Win2K bootup screen scroll by and then wondered why the flipping fuck I had Netware on my PC, 2 different firewalls enabled and TCP/IP disabled for the LAN card.

Took about 5 minutes to fix but I never let her anywhere near my PC with admin privileges again.

A Plea for Task-Based Organisation

[Dunx]

A request for the format of your book - organise the explanations by things people actually use their computers for.

- 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 ... 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.

Patience

[pezak78]

Some where, like in the very beginning of this book, should be a simple statement, that you must have patience to use a computer.

Explain that computer attacks are not personal

[Mr. Sketch]

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.

Re:Explain that computer attacks are not personal

[Sebastopol]

Wait: if you said there are four billion locations, and then you say computers can do billions of things a second, why can't a computer search all locations in 4 seconds instead of days, like you said?

See how complicated this discussion becomes....

Re:Sadly...

[Dr. Evil]

I think "general public" includes women themselves....

You must be new here.

Hardly

[bobdickgus]

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.

Starting from a flawed premise

[Timesprout]

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.

Re:Starting from a flawed premise

[pclminion]

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.

A lot of it has to do with the patronizing or downright condescending attitude that many geeks assume while trying to explain things. Believe me -- knowing this shit (or thinking you know it) does not make you Master Of The Universe, nor does it even imply that you are particularly intelligent. When you're having trouble communicating concepts to a non-savvy person, this usually indicates that You Fail It, not that they do.

Using vs. Understanding

[Schlemphfer]

After reading your question it seems you haven't yet made a distinction between the two possible kinds of books you could write. One would be giving the reader a fundamental understanding of how computers work, while the other would be giving them the basic knowledge needed to become either a casual or power user.

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.

PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD...

[brunes69]

...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...

Re:PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD...

[boingo82]

A non-car analogy:

Suppose you're in a big library, books all the way up to the ceiling and surrounding you. This is your hard drive. Every bit of data on the computer is written into one of these books and filed away. The size of your HD determines how big your library is.

Your computer has a table in the middle of the library. Any time you want to work on a project, the computer hauls down all the necessary books and lays them out on the table to read, and write in. This is your RAM, and the amount of RAM you have determines the size of the table - how much information can be hauled out at once.

If your table is not big enough for whatever you're doing, the computer will have to temporarily put back a book, take one down, put that one back, take the first one down, etc. This is "virtual memory", and it is obviously slower than just having a big enough table.

Whatever you're working on is strewn all over your table, and you have the choice to throw it all out when you're done, or to file it in the library for future use. (saving).

The caveat is that your computer will put each new book in the first empty spot it finds on the shelf. Sometimes this means one book here, one there, etc. Next time your computer wants to look at that series of books, it has to check the card catalog, and haul them out from all over the library. This is "fragmentation" - if you "defragment" your hard drive, your computer sorts through the library and puts like books together. It will even put the books you read a lot on the bottom shelf, and the ones you rarely need way up on top.

It's not perfect, but I use some variation on that to explain RAM vs HD to my husband.

My Granny

[turgid]

When I was 8, I got a computer for Christmas. My granny said to me, "Ask it who the Prime Minister is!"

Re:My Granny

[tpgp]

When I was 8, I got a computer for Christmas. My granny said to me, "Ask it who the Prime Minister is!"

Hmmmmn,

If only there was some way to connect your computer to the rest of the world's computers and somehow query them to find out who the prime minister is.

Hey! Thats a great idea - I'm off to patent it ;-)

Re:My Granny

[kruzty1x]

I was working in a medical office building near the front lobby, some teenager walks up to me and points to my monitor and asks "Is my mom in there?"

Re:My Granny

[ch-chuck]

Joke time: An old general, disgruntled over the amount of $$$ being spent on computers in the Pentagon (this was in the 50's) storms into the computer room and accosts an operator. "I want you to ask this newfangled machine, is it going to be peace or war!". The operator, thinking quickly, punches up a deck and puts it in the hopper. Shortly the printers clanks out, "Yes". The general reads this and bellows, "Yes, what?". The operator puts another card in the desk and feeds it in. This time the printer clanks out, "Yes, Sir!".

And what's more...

[Orrin Bloquy]

...he knew how to treat a female impersonator!

joke, waste your mod points elsewhere

filesystem

[danielDamage]

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.

Oblig. Simpsons

[truthsearch]

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!

Zen and the art of microcode

[0xABADC0DA]

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.

ipods, cellphones, TiVO, etc

[peter303]

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.

Understand people first

[lmh2671772]

People don't want to read manuals, and people sure as heck don't want to read books.

Why doesn't this dang computer work??!? Can you fix it for me?

People know how to do that.

Re:Don't have to

[moonbender]

Computers just aren't appliances yet. As such, it's often much easier to work with them if you have some understanding of their internals. This can be shallow, you don't have to be able to, you know, built a computer from scratch. Analogies are bound to be flawed, like your washing machine analogy, but a better one might be a car... it helps to understand that it contains a motor which combusts the fuel you put in it, when you've got a manual transmission it helps to know what that is all about and so on. This is especially true in case the car breaks down, which, famously, they don't do as often as computers.

There are appliances that do a subset of what computers (or PCs) do. Web terminals for surfing, consoles for gaming, media players for MP3 and movie playback (often backed up by a PC). Network routers (usually Linux based). As far as I'm aware MS Office doesn't really have an appliance alternative, though.

Re:Sadly...

[shockingbluerose]

Ok Maybe you do have a point here about some women not understanding myself but I think that just like with most things in life you can't sterotype women this way. As for the going for the looks part, men are the same way as women on this. You have to be somewhat physically attracted to someone in order to date them. And if they want to know where to find all the nice guys a great place to start is slashdot. But that's just my opinion.

Re:Things that I can't make people understand

[Alchemar]

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.

4. How to use HTML or a preview button.

Re:Don't have to

[CatsupBoy]

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

If the personal computer had 10 buttons, 4 options, and three generations of people who knew how to use them, then I would say this analogy was accurate.

Re:Don't have to

[rbochan]

...So in layman's term, computer is an electronic appliance...

I disagree. They need to know that it's _not_ an appliance like a washing machine or a toaster. A computer is a tool.

An appliance like a washing machine or a toaster are different for a couple of very important reasons:
      -- an appliance doesn't normally contain personal/financial information that can be used maliciously by others
      -- an appliance normally can't be used maliciously towards others

People are fond of using car analogies when referring to computers, and in some aspects, those analogies work... especially when you consider that people don't just get into a car and "know how to drive". They first learn how the car works (at least a bit), in terms of user interface (gas pedal, brake pedal, oil changes, etc), for the mere fact that they can hurt themselves or others if the car is used improperly.

The first thing I try to teach people is that a computer is NOT an appliance - it's a tool - like a circular saw or a kitchen knife. And like most any other tool, if it's not used properly and not maintained properly, harm can come to the user or others.

application context switching

[frostycellnex]

This might be a Mac-only issue, since both Windows and most windowing toolkits in Linux have more obvious visual indicator of what application is currently active, but I'll push forward.

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

Screw the Book; Produce a DVD Video

[ewhac]

The audience you're trying to reach couldn't be bothered to RTFM that came free with their machine; what makes you think they're going to buy another book? There have been no shortage of books on the subject, and people are still underinformed.

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

Re:Screw the Book; Produce a DVD Video

[jimicus]

The audience you're trying to reach couldn't be bothered to RTFM that came free with their machine;


I haven't seen a manual shipped with a PC in a long time. Even "Getting Started with Windows" (complete with license certificate glued on the front) has gone, in favour of a license sticker on the machine itself.


what makes you think they're going to buy another book? There have been no shortage of books on the subject, and people are still underinformed.


Why do they want to be informed? Few people are aware of exactly how ignorant they are on any particular aspect of their PC. Frankly, someone who can get their own computer up and running, install a word processor and set up a home network with router/firewall/wireless on their own is probably in the top 15-20% of the population.

There's a reason there are so many PC's inundated with spyware - the computer doesn't always let you know when you've done something badly. So many people have simply no idea when they're doing something wrong, there's no negative feedback, they don't see a problem.

Example: Mr. J. Average has got his shiny new PC and broadband connection, rather proud to have set it up himself, thinking "This isn't so hard - that kid down the road who would have wanted money is taking the mick..."

He's installed the firewall because the computer said this was "recommended", and anti-virus software which came free. There was something on there about "pay for monthly updates" but J. Average isn't stupid - you don't have to update your word processor monthly, so that sounds like a way of conning money out of people. Don't buy the updates, save a bit of money. Clever, eh?

He's heard vaguely of spyware but reckons he's got the firewall turned on (and it says here that makes the Internet safer...) and anti-virus software, so he should be OK.

Two months later and the Antivirus software is hideously out of date. And our friend J. A. receives an email from his friend, which apparently contains a "funny picture". He tries opening the picture and it won't open. Ah well, such is life. He deletes the email and thinks no more of it.

From this day on, things start going downhill, computer-wise. It just seems to be getting slower, and it's only a few months old. J. A. saw some software advertised on one of the seedier websites he sometimes visits which said "Your Computer May Be Running Slowly! Optimize? Yes/No" so he bought that, but it didn't seem to do much. If anything, the problem's worse.

In desparation, J. A. calls the tech support line.

A pot plant in Baghdad answers the phone.

J. A. can't really understand the begonia, but he said something about "spyware... don't support software faults... nothing the matter with the PC". Well, clearly something is the matter. It takes 15 minutes to start up, doesn't shut down properly, his homepage keeps on changing. And he can't let the kids use it for their homework any more (which was the original idea) because more often than not the homepage has changed to hardcore pornography.

Stuff it, says JA. Calls the kid down the road.

Now the kid down the road sees this all the time. Frankly, he's got better things to do than stick spybot S&D on there, wait for it to spend hours going through a painfully slow scan (which wouldn't be so slow were the PC not completely bogged down), then give a lecture on safe internet use which he knows will be forgotten as soon as he walks out the door. So he charges for the work and doesn't bother with the lecture. Instead, he sets up Spybot to "immunise" against everything.

Now Spybot's immunisation essentially means setting a bunch of registry keys read-only. Kid goes home, J. A. finds that a bunch of his legitimate software no longer works properly (because it wants read/write access to bits of the registry which were set readonly) and he can't install software any more (well, he can, but the installer always complains that it "can't set a registry key", whatever that means).

J. A. soldiers on. Makes a mental note not to speak to the kid down the road again. At least the porn's gone and his children can use the computer again.

History NOT

[hisstory student]

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.

It's been written... Different Problem.

[Pii]

The book you'd like to write has already been written. It's called How Computers Work, and it's in it's 8th Edition. (There's also a companion book called "How the Internet Works (6th Edition)".)

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.

Cars and Computers

[vettemph]

>>>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) :)

Re:Cars and Computers

[dotgain]

Bullshit. Analogies with cars will always fall down. And anyway, people don't understand cars any better.

Re:Cars and Computers

[StalinsNotDead]

You're absolutely correct. Analogies using cars work about as well as your average Pontiac Fierro.

Re:Cars and Computers

[Tony Hoyle]

Analogies in general work well.

True story: I was in a major computer store when a perplexed looking man, probably about 60, asked me if I knew anything about the USB keys they had. He wanted to store some letters on it (probably saved from Word.. didn't ask), and his outlook contacts list.

I started with 'well a 16mb is cheap and will do what you need I think' but he looked perplexed.. time for an analogy. '1 megabyte is about 1 floppy, so 16 megabytes is 16 floppies'. It was like watching a light switch on - the analogy had allowed him to make the connection between something he knew (floppy disks) to something he didn't know (what a megabyte was). His next question was, 'ah, so that one is the size of 256 floppies'.. and he was well on his way to making an intelligent buying choice.

Re:Cars and Computers

[default luser]

Right, analogies are key. I also have had great success with encouraging people like my mother to be more outgoing when it comes to GUIs.

Like most people who just "get by" using computers, she is terrified of messing with options, and jumping through menus.

Whenener she has a problem with a piece of software I've never touched (yet I'm expected to "fix"), I make it clear to her that I have no clue exactly how to fix it, but I tell her what kind of thing I'm looking for...a settings window, a configuration wizard, etc. And I explain to her quite clearly that she can't break anything by messing with these options...she can always undo something.

Now that she realizes that many programs offer similar basic features, but just present them in their own way, she is more confident with finding the solution to common problems she encounters (and calls me very rarely about problems).

It is all about the approach. I used to have to install GAMES for this woman.

Re:Cars and Computers

[Hosiah]

You know, if I had one wish for computer literacy, it would be to have the entire population each get a 2/386 out of the recycle bin, and thrash the hell out of it. Since it's a garbage computer with no data of theirs on it, they have complete freedom to open every folder, click every option, move files at random, and even tear open the case and rip out the chips and shiff them and feel them. They can at last *explore*, because they have a sandbox!

I mean, would you have ever have learned to drive if your only chance was a shiny new expensive car, and what's more you were convinced that if you so much as changed the radio volume, the entire car would die instantly and have to be replaced? Fear is all there is between the dumbest newb and the saltiest geek.

Hey, I have an idea! Set up some computers as a business, and actually *invite* the public to trash them (The only rule is, no hardware damage.). Sort of like an arcade. Sell cappuccino on the side. Every night at closing, you zero out the drives and put Knoppix back on them...

"How Computers Work"

[__aadxzo5882]

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.

Understanding is over-rated

[l33t-gu3lph1t3]

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.

Re:Understanding is over-rated

[finkployd]

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).

These people are a cancer on human civilization. That sounds harsh, but seriously.

We have been given (by natural selection, an intelligent designer, a flying spaghetti monster, etc) the ability to learn and the desire to learn everything we can in our lives. Those who grab a diploma from highschool or college and go "well, I'm all done learnin' time to watch some pro wrestling, nascar, and reality tv" end up not only refusing to help push civilization further, they end up being a hindrance. I'm not talking about people with actual learning disabilities, just those who think it is too hard, or that that have learned everything they need and just coast from there.

You know the type, the people who seem positively proud to be befuddled by technology, science, politics, basically the world around them. And when they are not proud of the ignorance, they are angry or indignant that they should be troubled to have to learn anything new.

Now I'm in no way attacking the average person for not understanding the machine code that directs their CPU, but honestly people, take an afternoon and learn a LITTLE bit about how your computer works, especially if you intend to be using it for hours every day. And for that matter, learn how your car works, You don't have to be able to build a fuel injected engine from scratch, but the concepts are quite simple and worth knowing. It seems weird that our society is begining to take pride in what we DON'T know versus what we do. Yes, you can go through life completely ignorant of how the world around you works, but why would you want to?

Finkployd

Re:Understanding is over-rated

[raoul666]

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.

I don't think you need to understand those things, really. As long as you know you can't drive your car off a cliff, or go to the store without taking off your e-brake, or not to drive with your eyes closed, etc., you'll probably do fine. For laundry soap, as long as you know how much to put in, you're ok. If you can read the labels for dry cleaning, it'll work out. Women...well, try and find one that makes sense to you.

My point is, maybe the average person doesn't need to understand exactly how a computer works. The whole transistors - logic gates - boolean logic type stuff isn't really necessary. However, there's a lot of users who don't know you shouldn't connect to the internet without a firewall. Or you shouldn't pull the cord while it'd defragging the harddrive. Or that IE is not the internet. Or why your computer slows down when you open every program you've got. Or why the sony rootkit thing is a big deal. Or why you shouldn't trust anyone on the internet (you know what I mean). All those kind of things can be explained without going into the nitty-gritty detail.

As a tool, computers are rather flawed - the mere fact that they break down so easily is proof of that.

Take a car. Don't change the oil, don't rotate the tires, don't fill them regularly, don't fill the radiator, don't replace the brakepads, don't get a tune up, fill it with the lowest octane fuel you can find, drive recklessly, and you'll get a car that breaks down pretty easily. You take care of a computer, it'll last. You don't, it won't.

Re:Understanding is over-rated

[simishag]

sheesh.. mod -1 arrogant. Really, how is this any different from saying "Well, I'm all done with school, time to go watch some ballet/go windsurfing/play chess?" Are those learning activities or mere entertainment? Insulting people for wanting to enjoy their downtime in their own way is the height of arrogance.

Anyway, most people spend plenty of time "learning." They learn how to get a job, how to do the job once they get it, how to handle additional tasks at the job, etc. They learn how to enjoy their leisure time more, perhaps by practicing a sport. Maybe they just read or watch TV and learn about the world. Maybe, unlike you, they aren't INTERESTED in computers, or cars, or whatever. Maybe they view them as simple utilitarian tools, or maybe they have better things to do with their time. I know plenty about cars and engines, but I'd much rather pay the shop $15 to change the oil in my car than deal with it myself.

The cancerous people you refer to might even be like me, and be sick and freaking tired of being forced to learn every stupid computer trick just to be able to surf the Internet safely, or to learn every fad computer language just to get a decent paying job. It has nothing to do with an unwillingness to learn and everything to do with gross inefficiency. At some point, one needs to stop learning and start doing in order to get anything done.

A few off the top of my head

[etully]

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.

Disk space vs RAM

[dudeX]

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.

Re:Disk space vs RAM

[Feasoron]

This is def. a very important distinction. I've seen many people delete files because the system warned them that they were low on ram or talk about buying more memory because the hard drive was filling up. It is something that we all assume everyone knows, but a huge portion of the population doesn't.

sorry to say it but....

[i2878]

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?

Nothing

[melted]

The less they know, the more I can charge for my services. :0)

Some Ideas

[suwain_2]

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.

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 .exe attachment!")

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.

Recommended Books

[Alien54]

I like this series of books. They explain things that most books assume you already know.

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.

Icons

[whitebishop57]

One thing that has to be in this book. Deleting the desktop shortcut DOES NOT delete the program.

forest for the trees

[joeytsai]

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.

Only Three Things

[GmAz]

1) I wish people would learn how to backup files to CD/DVD/Thumbdrive/External Hard Drive...whatever. If you want to keep it and never lose it, then back it up.

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!

An even mor terrifying example

[elhaf]

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...

Same old same old

[clawhound]

I do user support for a living. Take some time and talk to good user support people. These people must explain computers stuff every day to the layman. The good ones are very good at it. Take the opinion of the more technical end of computers with a grain of salt: their career is not about explaining things to people every day, and so many of their ideas are just plain wrong. (I don't do C++ every day. I expect that I know less that you do. I explain computers to laymen every day. I expect you to know less that I do. No offense.) The key to a good explaination is a good analogy. If you can find that, your task is far easier.

"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.

Tell them not to fear computers

[kuriharu]

I can't tell you how many people say they're "afraid" of computers. They don't want to try too many things since they're afraid of breaking something. There is the possibility they might delete system files, but that's become increasingly rare. I'd tell people not to be intimated by what they don't understand on their own computers, then show them how to find answers on their own.

Bottom line is most people only use computers for a narrow, limited purpose. The rest start investigating on their own.

Re:Sadly...

[sgt scrub]

You must be new here.

The fact he didn't know enough about women to know they are part of the general public makes it obvious that he is NOT new here.

Re: Basic File Management

[thc69]

Chapter 4: Understanding the file system.

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\innerfold 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).

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).

pics

[Haszak]

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.

do not surf naked!

[GnomeSkull]

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.

Re: Basic File Management

[gryphokk]

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."

My Cents.

[Joudoki]

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.

Some history is good, it explains things

[cbreaker]

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.

Re: Basic File Management

[apoc.famine]

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.

Re: Basic File Management

[forkazoo]

Chapter 4: Understanding the file system.

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.

Another analogy

[yashinka]

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.

Look to Hollywood

[SirWraith]

Anything anyone needs to know about computers they can get from watching Tron.

I wholeheartedly agree cuz I'm an idiot

[LiberalApplication]

I agree because I am one of those users who knows enough about system configurations to destroy every goddamn system I work on.

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.

Analogies "b" great.

[LiberalApplication]

Slightly off-topic... Well, actually, I guess it's on-topic... but I've found that it's really easy to explain file-compression to layfolk by comparing it to sudoku.

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!

Things the general public just doesn't comprehend.

[j741]

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.