Becoming a Whiz With Computers

For years I have been into computers. I remember my family's firstmachine: an Apple IIe. My favorite digital pastime was playing "Dr. J. vs. Larry Bird" and breaking the backboard with a slam dunk so the little cleanup man would come out with his squeaky cart to clean it up like onWoody Woodpecker. But I digress.

Since those days of more than a decade ago, I have come to use computersfor much more than my dream of breaking backboards. With new faster games, I can now break bridges and blow up bunkers and see lots of blood. I can also make papers look better than they are, access instantaneously almost any bit of information from the Internet and send more than 500 messages a month to everyone from a teaching fellow to fellow techies.

Often in my job as a user assistant and all around decent guy, I find myself faced with the same questions repeatedly: how do you know so muchabout computers, and how can I learn too?

First of all, I would like to emphasize that I don't really know all that much. And if I do know more than the average person, it's nothing special. The difference I see between those who "know a lot about computers" and others is that those who know have spent lots of time working with computers, and if they don't know something, they go get the answers.

For those aspiring pseudo-computer geeks out there (self included), I have a simple three-point platform (all real plans have a three-point format). One: stay on top of current happenings and technological advances. Two: keep up to date on out of date and updated technology. Three: play, play, play.

The first point is the best place to begin. Read the trade magazines to see what the latest Intel plans are for its processors. Look in the technology section of your favorite paper to keep abreast of high-level events such as the Justice Department's lawsuit against Microsoft or Apple's purchase of PowerComputing. Really, it's more fun than it sounds, and it's free.

There are a number of Web sites with online versions of such magazines. A few recommendations are Ziff Davis (www.zdnet.com), Techweb(www.techweb.com) and IDG (www.idg.com). These are the sites of major publications from Family PC to Information Week. You are sure to find some comfortable level of reading at a few of them.

The focus on the latest and greatest, however, is not enough to truly join the ranks of the techno-savvy. Being aware of the old and antiquated can be just as important and more practical.

This second step involves finding updated software and hardware information from various manufacturers, looking for product recalls and keeping track of compatibility.

For example, when Microsoft's Windows 95 shipped in the summer of 1995, there were a number of problems with and limitations to the operating system. Since then, Microsoft and other companies have created freely available patches and bug fixes and optimization utilities. You could behaving a smoother PC experience if you knew about these tools.

Another example is that a company such as 3COM (it makes most of the ethernet cards used by people on the Harvard network) may issue an updated driver which increases and improves the functionality of their devices. Simply perusing the Web sites of hardware and software manufacturers will do wonders to improve your computer proficiency.

But alas, abstract knowledge of the future and the past is not quite enough, The third step is the most important of all: play. Start simply, perhaps by starting one application such as a word processor and just seewhat the various menu items offer. Look around your hard drive. Install new programs, and get the most out your machine.

The worst thing that can happen is that it won't work. (Well, the worst thing would be to lose some important paper, but I wrote about how to retrieve those a few weeks ago.)

But seriously, if you sincerely want to learn more about computers in general or just the machine you have, just ask someone who knows, and start learnin'!

In a few days check out my homepage for links to the sites I've suggested and many more. My page is at http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~thurston.

--Baratunde R. Thurston '99 is the Claverly Hall user assistant for HASCS, editor-in-chief of the Harvard Computer Society's Computers@Harvard and a Crimson editor. He knows nothing about computers.