I've tried to explain e-mail using the postoffice analogy, tried to tell about folders and files using paper folders and trees (that grow upside down) - I failed each time.
The baby-duck effect dictates that if one writes a letter "in Word", it's stored "in Word", since it it cannot be found back any other way (because of numerous other files in 'My Documents').
"So, what's this confusing stuff about trees you're telling me?".
"I can't see your mail when I open Eudora!"
"Did you click on 'check mail'?"
"My neighbor has Outlook - that works!"
(because Outlook checks all POP servers right after it's started)
"I can't mail that letter - there's no option to do that in Word"
Windows' users won't think about concepts, they just want to get things done. I imagine it will be very hard to get them to read any book, as that takes away from getting things done. And unfortunately Microsoft understood that better than anyone else.
Gnome and KDE are just learning that. It seems they're going the Microsoft way.
You need to make a choice: fight an up-hill battle teaching people concepts they do not want to learn or go with the flow and write yet another "practical computer" handbook.
It's because people like to drive a car without having to know where the oil-fill cap is. We're the mechanics - don't write that book for us.
Whenever you write a SMALL file, let's say 1 kb, you'll have to (re)write the block that contains the part of the FAT that holds the block number for that 1 kb as well.
In other words, depending on blocksize, when writing 1 kb, one may have to write double or even more (imagine a 4 kb block on a FAT32 system: 8 kb write for 1 kb).
The more the software driver buffers, the bigger the problem when the floppy or the flashcard is removed before everything is flushed. So, most drivers flush their in-core FAT whenever a file is closed.
Boy! I'm not alone! I thought I was the only one that still uses the original PS/2 keyboard (IBM part 1391401, produced in 1992).
I live in Europe and (have to) type four different languages. I made a keyboard map file (from scratch) for the Linux console that doesn't get in the way of the us.map but still gives me access to all those non US-ASCII chars.
Since there are a few more of 'us', still typing away at an 10+ years old keyboard, I would like to make that.map file available. Anyone? Drop me a line at adriaan@wanadoo.be
BTW I'm currently struggling with XKB. Once I find out how to get that right, I'll make the XKB file(s) available too.
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I've tried to explain e-mail using the postoffice analogy, tried to tell about folders and files using paper folders and trees (that grow upside down) - I failed each time.
The baby-duck effect dictates that if one writes a letter "in Word", it's stored "in Word", since it it cannot be found back any other way (because of numerous other files in 'My Documents').
"So, what's this confusing stuff about trees you're telling me?".
"I can't see your mail when I open Eudora!"
"Did you click on 'check mail'?"
"My neighbor has Outlook - that works!"
(because Outlook checks all POP servers right after it's started)
"I can't mail that letter - there's no option to do that in Word"
Windows' users won't think about concepts, they just want to get things done. I imagine it will be very hard to get them to read any book, as that takes away from getting things done. And unfortunately Microsoft understood that better than anyone else.
Gnome and KDE are just learning that. It seems they're going the Microsoft way.
You need to make a choice: fight an up-hill battle teaching people concepts they do not want to learn or go with the flow and write yet another "practical computer" handbook.
It's because people like to drive a car without having to know where the oil-fill cap is. We're the mechanics - don't write that book for us.
Almost right!
Whenever you write a SMALL file, let's say 1 kb, you'll have to (re)write the block that contains the part of the FAT that holds the block number for that 1 kb as well.
In other words, depending on blocksize, when writing 1 kb, one may have to write double or even more (imagine a 4 kb block on a FAT32 system: 8 kb write for 1 kb).
The more the software driver buffers, the bigger the problem when the floppy or the flashcard is removed before everything is flushed. So, most drivers flush their in-core FAT whenever a file is closed.
The slowdown is due to the file system: FAT. Everytime a (small) file is written, the File Allocation Table needs to be be (re)written too.
It's just one of those great things MS has given us.
Boy! I'm not alone! I thought I was the only one that still uses the original PS/2 keyboard (IBM part 1391401, produced in 1992).
.map file available. Anyone? Drop me a line at adriaan@wanadoo.be
I live in Europe and (have to) type four different languages. I made a keyboard map file (from scratch) for the Linux console that doesn't get in the way of the us.map but still gives me access to all those non US-ASCII chars.
Since there are a few more of 'us', still typing away at an 10+ years old keyboard, I would like to make that
BTW I'm currently struggling with XKB. Once I find out how to get that right, I'll make the XKB file(s) available too.