ALPHAILA

Computers are one of those things that run freely in society, without any kind of universal policy on how to do things right. Society slowly evolves its own collective idea of how things should be done, and this lack of direction allows flaws to grow unchecked, since “the crowd” doesn’t grasp the entire picture.

Thou shalt not fear your computer, nor your programs, nor any piece of technology that you do not yet understand.

Paranoia and intimidation are massive, worldwide epidemics among the non-tech-savvy, and the fear is as exaggerated as it is crippling to one’s ability to understand this stuff. Learn from the 9 year-olds who understand their computers/electronics on the second day of use, because their mindsets are that of eager exploration/discovery, not intimidation/fear.

Thou shalt read your error messages.

Error messages are usually important, and almost always informative about what you’re doing. Never automatically reach for the “Cancel/Close” button when a mysterious box appears on your screen. Making it just disappear may seem like “a solution that works”, but Cancel/Close usually does something.

Also, never ask other people to tell you what to do before you even know what an error message says. That behavior grows within yourself a needy, dependent mindset, which disallows you to face things yourself, and learn. (It also bothers those you ask for help, because they understand just how easy those situations should be, given just a little bit of curious observation.)

Thou shalt never hit “Next, Next, Next, Next” when installing a program.

Far, far too many programs want to install useless toolbars and extra annoyances that have nothing to do with the actual program… and, though they ask you first if you want that stuff, the checkboxes, which allow you to choose, almost ALWAYS start off checked by default (meaning “yes, I’d like to install this USELESS toolbar”), specifically designed to heartlessly prey upon those who install programs by just hitting “Next, Next, Next, Next”.

Thou shalt perform full-system backups at least once a week, and NEVER rely on reformatting hard drives as your answer for what may come.

Nobody lives in their house with the understanding that if they ever gets termites, they’ll just get some dynamite, and blow everything to smithereens, then rebuild their house from scratch.

Similarly, if you get an unfixable spyware infestation (or, far less commonly, a virus), you shouldn’t have to blow up your hard drive, and start all over again. If you have a backup “image” of your hard drive (that is, a “real” backup, more than just the files), you can use it to roll things back to EXACTLY the way they were before you had trouble.

To do that, just buy TrueImage (or something like it), and a secondary hard drive (whether internal or external), even if it costs half as much as your entire computer. (the whole setup should realistically be closer to $100 USD, or just under the price of a new monitor… which is probably a lot less than you realize). Full-system backup programs truly are real-life time-machines, and the power they have in saving your computer almost feels magical.

(Note: Backing up your computer by saving the files alone won’t let you restore Windows to a working state… unfortunately.)

Thou shalt be wary of myths, and not uphold beliefs that were only true in years past.

Computer time moves VERY quickly, and many of the beliefs floating around today were only relevant 5-10 years ago, or earlier. Here are a few corrections to common myths:

• PC’s (Windows computers) are no longer WAY less reliable than Macs. (only marginally. They are VERY stable… though slightly worse for those who build/modify their own computers, and haplessly end up with monkey-designed parts.)
• Macs are not divine, godly computers, shaming mere crippled, slow Windows PC’s. (unless you own a several-year-old PC from back in the days when they had common, severe issues, and still have some of those issues riding on the system) Period. And this is written by a fan of Macs.
• Unlike in 2007/8, Windows Vista is now a very good operating system (even better than Windows 7, says I quite strongly).
• Newer versions of Windows rarely ever crash. (individual instances – usually hardware issues – may land a select few with severe crash issues, but this is rare, and usually limited to those who build their own PC’s.)
• Having lots of files on your hard drive won’t slow down your computer (until and unless you reach 99.999% full, but you’ll get a warning about it first).
• Having lots of programs installed won’t slow down your computer. (but having them all running at once can)
• Having a hot laptop/computer won’t slow things down.
• Macs do indeed have tons and tons of great programs available, aside from games and some important 3D Graphics programs. (the issue with non-Mac-users’ perception is that what’s available just isn’t on their mental radars, so they’ll think there’s nothing available). There are still several areas where Mac should be avoided, however (but the same can be said for Windows), so, just search the net to see if your hobbies/profession can be done easily on whatever platform.
• Macs do allow you to right-click, and likewise have right-click menus for just about everything.
• Macs don’t cost “a bit” more than PC’s. They cost twice as much as PC’s, usually without giving you nearly the power that you’re paying for.
• Macs can and do get viruses/spyware. (just not as often as Windows computers)
• Hackers/spammers/etc can no longer infect Windows computers just by looking at them.
• 3-4gb of RAM is the RAM sweet-spot, and under no circumstances does the average computer user (or even serious gamer) need more than 4gb.
• Older people can indeed learn and get into technology very quickly, given only the presence of bold curiosity, and a lack of technophobia. (This may even sound silly, but the fear of seeing yourself fail at trying to learn a new thing can make you afraid to even try, or at least afraid to give it your all.)
• You don’t have to upgrade your computer every year to keep up with the latest games anymore. (It has slowed to every 2-4 years now, and, if your processor and RAM are still half-decent, you usually ONLY need a new $100-200 video card. Quite amazing.)
• Most computers you buy today won’t be obsolete in 2 days. If you don’t game, they might last 4+ years now, and you’ll probably never feel the chug.
• Intel (Pentium) is not the only company making fast, worth-buying processors. AMD is very much around, and worth supporting, if only to keep the competition strong (so that Intel can’t slack off, and start overcharging… like I think they desperately want to).
• (advanced) Windows “Registry bloat” doesn’t slow things down.
• (advanced) Defragmenting your hard drive often won’t make your computer run faster. (still, once in a very long while is good)
• (advanced) Turning off the Windows page file doesn’t improve performance.
• (advanced) Windows is not still built on DOS.
• (advanced) Moore’s Law is a target that companies specifically aim for, not a magical, yearly rediscovery of how to make yet another 50% faster chip (or a 50% larger hard drive, etc). It’s about developing at the rate that is most profitable, not the max possible rate that science will allow.

Thou shalt understand that computers are not merely for checking email, surfing the internet, and doing boring office work. Thou shalt explore the world of computers until you can exclaim with passion that they are for an endless ocean of things.