Learn Computer Basics in Plain English

Posts tagged computer terms

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I had to post this comic because it’s so familiar — not because I’m a programmer who gets asked tech support questions (in fact, I started out as a computer tech whose job it was to help with those kinds of problems.  It’s familiar because I see people generally failing to understand the computer term “program” (and thus by extension the term programmer) most of the time. Many computer users often seem to use “program” when they should be saying “install” — for example they’ll say “I programmed Word on my computer” when they meant they installed it on their computer.  In equivalent terms, that’s kind of like saying you designed and built a TV set from scratch when in fact all you did was put it on a shelf and plug it in. :)

I had to post this comic because it’s so familiar — not because I’m a programmer who gets asked tech support questions (in fact, I started out as a computer tech whose job it was to help with those kinds of problems. 

It’s familiar because I see people generally failing to understand the computer term “program” (and thus by extension the term programmer) most of the time.

Many computer users often seem to use “program” when they should be saying “install” — for example they’ll say “I programmed Word on my computer” when they meant they installed it on their computer. 

In equivalent terms, that’s kind of like saying you designed and built a TV set from scratch when in fact all you did was put it on a shelf and plug it in. :)

(via fuckyeahcomputerscience)

Filed under computer terms computer dictionary what is a programmer computer concepts

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What is a Bookmark?

When the web was created in the early to mid ‘90s, the way we thought about it is like pages like pages in a book. If you have a book you’re reading and you want to get back to a page in that book, what do you do? You bookmark it. It’s the same basic idea.
 

A bookmark is a way of getting back to a page on the internet that is located on some site on the internet. You just want to get back to it, so you bookmark it.

You do this typically by going to the Bookmark menu. Sometimes there may be a button on the toolbar toward the top of the window that has a little plus symbol on the button. Whatever way you do it, you hit the button or go to the menu that says “Bookmarks” and hit the option that says “Add bookmark” or “Add favorite,” in the case of Internet Explorer.

Excerpt from transcription of audio lesson - - see source for full audio & transcript.

Filed under Computer basics basic computer terms computer terminology computer terms how to bookmark how to make a bookmark what is a bookmark computers

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GIFs are correctly pronounced “Jiff” (with a “J” sound, not a hard “G”) You don’t base the pronunciation of acronyms on the way each letter is pronounced in the original word — if you did, scuba diving would be pronounced “skuhbah” diving instead of “skoo-ba”, for example. But as the linked Wired document says, the people who invented the file type pronounced it “jiff”… /Former English and writing major; 16-year computer tech, consultant and teacher, and thus unavoidably opinionated about such things  :) hithah: elevatortonowhere: aproperroman: Red. ALWAYS red! ^ Hard G. GIF is an acronym: Graphic Interchange Format. Since the G in graphic is hard, so is the G in GIF. Until someone invents the Giraffe Interchange Format for sending zoo animals via the web, that is. THEN it’s pronounced JIF. And is awesome.

GIFs are correctly pronounced “Jiff” (with a “J” sound, not a hard “G”)

You don’t base the pronunciation of acronyms on the way each letter is pronounced in the original word — if you did, scuba diving would be pronounced “skuhbah” diving instead of “skoo-ba”, for example.

But as the linked Wired document says, the people who invented the file type pronounced it “jiff”…

/Former English and writing major; 16-year computer tech, consultant and teacher, and thus unavoidably opinionated about such things  :)

hithah:

elevatortonowhere:

aproperroman:

Red. ALWAYS red!

^

Hard G. GIF is an acronym: Graphic Interchange Format. Since the G in graphic is hard, so is the G in GIF.

Until someone invents the Giraffe Interchange Format for sending zoo animals via the web, that is. THEN it’s pronounced JIF. And is awesome.

(Source: Gizmodo)

Filed under computer basics computer terms computer tips gif pronunciation pronounce gif pronunciation of gif gif or jif

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Here is one of my early video lessons (please excuse the video quality) where I use one of my Plain English explanations of computer terms — explaining what a hard drive is and what RAM is, and what they do in your computer.  Many people confuse those two terms with each other, and many people don’t understand either at all.

If this is true for you, it’s not your fault — it’s just never been explained to you in a way that you could relate to. Watch this video and both computer terms will finally make sense, even if you feel like the most basic computer user in the world.

(Source: worthgodwin.com)

Filed under what is ram what is hard drive computer training computer terminology computer terms computer basics