Maggie's Farm

If you're striving for official geekhood, you'll be expected to do your homework. Geeks don't just read words; they get out there and get their hands dirty. And, once you learn how to back up your system correctly, you can be fearless when it comes to experimenting and generally screwing around. If something blows up, no big deal. Spend 10 minutes putting your last backup system in and you're ready for another round. Nor will you have lost any email, browser bookmarks or personal files since you made that last backup if you follow my instructions to the letter.
 

A true geek also knows his computer history, so I'll be including 'Historical Notes' to run alongside the text, and 'Geek Notes' when pointing out something really, uh, geeky. If you're only here for the general knowledge, you can skip both.

I will also be writing in basic computerspeak, like I'd talk to the gang in a computer forum, with explanations to certain expressions following in parentheses. I'll explain each acronym or computer expression once. If you're thrown by a particular word or phrase or acronym, that's what Google is for.
 

On Learning

One of the most disappointing moments in my life was when I excitedly opened my very first computer, sat down with the manual like the good scout, read the very first sentence...and there were eight big technical computer-type words in it.

I didn't understand seven of them.

Here I'd been hearing the phrase "user-friendly" for years, and figured it'd be a breeze.  That first sentence was a real wake-up call.  I'd been hearing for my whole life that "default" was a bad thing; i.e., to default on a loan, then suddenly it has a brand new meaning.  Ditto "menus", "icons", "desktop", and all the rest.

So I dutifully went to the index and glossary and figured out the seven words and continued reading.

At the end of the manual I estimated that I had understood one third of it.

I then proceeded to read it again, and, at the end, estimated that again I had understood one-third of what I hadn't understood before.

I then read it again.  This time I pretty much had it down by the end.  But sometimes that's just how ya gotta do it.  Slog your way through, pick up what you can, hit the last page and start all over.  When it starts to click, though, it'll really start to click.
 

Warranty & Claims

It should go without saying that neither I nor Maggie's Farm are liable in any way should your system melt down following these lessons. That's why one of the first lessons is going to be about backing up your system, just to make sure you're covered.  If you skip that lesson, you take your fate into your own hands.

Operating Systems

Everything here will be using Windows XP. No guarantees that any program or procedure I recommend will work with Windows Vista.  Mac users, sorry.

If you're interested, my bio is here. I'm currently living aboard my boat in the Florida Keys, an experience unto itself.

 
As far as Maggie's goes, I view it as a breath of fresh air after slogging through the political blogs for an hour or two. And Maggie's offers something intangible that the political pundits and newsline nuancers don't:

Inspiration.

A while back, one of the gang here posted a quote by Teddy Roosevelt. It was a pretty cool quote and I remembered him saying some other neat things, so I promptly watched two Netflix documentaries on him, which, in turn, inspired me to write an article for my own site in hopes of inspiring others to watch the documentaries and learn about this great man from our nation's past.

The point is, when I got through with my political blogs that morning, I did not immediately go out and watch documentaries on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

That's the difference.

See you in the lessons,