[MD] Quality computing

[Horse]

Hi Folks

Apologies for not replying to a couple of earlier posts on
networks/branches etc - I will get around to them but I'm up to my neck
in decorating at the moment.
Just wanted to drop in on this thread (see the jargon here).

This kind of reminds me of the conversations I've had with a lot of
(mainly English speaking) folk when traveling abroad. "Why can't they
just speak English" you hear them say as they raise their voices or
shout very loudly so that Johnny Foreigner can understand them more
easily!!!!!

Does anyone on this list watch the TV program "Grumpy Old Men"? Probably
not ouside the UK.

When you go somewhere new, where your main language is not the norm,
it's _polite_ to at least learn the basics of the language ("Good
Morning", "How are you today?", "two beers please" etc) rather than moan
about "those bloody foreigners" not being able to speak a "proper"
language - i.e. the one you happen to be familiar with.

As has been pointed out, most of the language of computing makes perfect
sense when you understand its origins - think of the term "bug" (as in
"buggy software" which needs to be "debugged") which originates from the
time when computers consisted mainly of relays and valves and the
technicians would literally clean the bugs (insects, fly's etc.) from
the relay contacts which caused problems with moving electrons about. I
think that a big problem comes when the marketing droids get involved
and use the lingo inappropriately, like having an "experience" with your
computer rather than just using the thing. Don't blame the techies for
this sort of crap, blame the witless sods that want to con a bunch of
old farts into buying a computer. Ever noticed that kids have no problem
with the language of computers?
So now you can have an "online experience" rather than just use your
computer, "surf the web" rather than check out a few sites etc. If you
want a language to be completely screwed then give it to the marketing
department, they excel at this.

If you want to use a language properly take the time not just to learn
it but to learn about it as well, don't just complain because you can't
be bothered to put the effort in. And to be honest, many of the terms
that are used on this list are just as confusing (probably more so) to
newbies as anything you'll find in a computer manual.

If you work on a motorbike (or car) do you call items by their accepted
name i.e. grommets, shims, cotter pins, pistons, bearings etc. or do you
call them doo-hickeys, watchamacallits and thingamabobs. C'mon guys, if
you can understand Lila and a wide range of other philosophy with the
philosophical terms involved it should be a piece of cake to get your
head around a few simple computing terms.


Cheers


Horse

Case wrote:
> dmb says:
> Okay, "boot" is a pretty good example. Since I live in this world too, I
> realized that it was probably a reference to hearty footwear and/or the act
> of putting them on and that this implies that it might be something we must
> do before we start working. But what's wrong with the word "start"? 
> 
> [Case]
> So Microsoft puts Start on the taskbar and people bitch 'cause you have to
> click on it to shut down.
> 
> [dmb]
> Whine, whine, geeks are pansies. Yeah, Platt why they gotta make it so
> confusing, boo hoo.
> 
> [Case]
> The first time I saw a Mac classic in the mid 80s I thought, "That's a
> computer for stupid people." But it was also the computer for creative
> people, because you don't have to know much about it to use it. It is simple
> in this way because one company controls both the hardware and the operating
> system. As a result everything is inherently designed to work together.
> 
> PCs on the other hand are vastly more complicated to use but vastly more
> flexible in how they can be set up and what you can do on them. IBM
> developed an open set of standards for the computer hardware and software.
> They started a more Darwinian system and got driven from it by their
> competitors.
> 
> Frankly all the efforts I have seen to make computers more "user friendly;"
> stuff like the Packard Bell front end, Microsoft Bob and Bonzai Bubby or
> current crud like Yahoo and Google toolbars and Real media player; have made
> them less flexible and clunkier to work with. I am not looking forward to
> Vista and plan to be a very late adopter.
> 
> If you are not willing to learn about this marvelous new world we are
> exploring and creating here, at least have the decency not to whine about
> it. That kind of ludite talk sounded kinda hip and artsy 10 years ago. Now
> it just sounds like failure to engage.
> 
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