| OCR Text |
Show Notes to the novice operator: System can't read your mind Business Computer by Franklynn Peterson and Judy KTurkel Last summer, we naa a young intern in-tern working with us Valerie Bazaras, a clever University of Wisconsin-Madison journalism student. stu-dent. When she began, she had a hand-shaking acquaintance with computers, having taken one college-style introductory course. By summer's end, she had learned a lot. If your boss just installed one of the dratted despots on your desk and it sits there like an accusing paperweight, this column's for you. We asked Valerie to collect her experiences ex-periences and observations and we're passing on her article. Herd's i ' what she wrote for all you novices like she once was: i Learning about computers is not ; difficult. The dealers, manufacturers manufac-turers and programmers just make it seem that way. The first trick is. to keep . remembering that a computer will only perform the commands that are typed into it. It's not smart enough to read your mind. Susie Smith from Silicon Valley felt confident that she really understood how her computer worked. work-ed. After copying a file from her hard disk onto a floppy, she decided to erase it from her hard disk. Feeling Feel-ing ever so clever, Susie typed "erase." into the system. The computer asked "Are you sure?" and she said yes. The computer " obeyed. It erased the whole disk because . literally means "Any files named anything at all." A computer is very literal. It understands your typing and follows orders, but only if you spell everything just right. To load a program pro-gram called Benchmark, you're supposed sup-posed to type BMRK. If you type BMRC instead, the computer tells you that no such file exists. If you've previously typed on an old typewriter, remember that the number 1 and the lowercase 1 are not interchangeable. Neither are the capital 0 and the numeral 0. And don't get the slash and backslash X mixed up. You could spend hours before you figured out what's wrong. Vou can type commands in upper or lower case and it usually doesn't make any difference, but don't ever forget the colon after drive commands com-mands (A: ). Check that before you frantically search through the computer com-puter manual to figure out why the screen keeps flashing "illegal command." com-mand." , A computer is1 ''aiiirib' bufJa 'programmer 'pro-grammer k smart sometimes. He can write a program that points an arrow at what's wrong if you type an incorrect command. But his program pro-gram doesn't ever fix your error. If it can find the error, why not fix it? I'm still not sure this is making our lives easier. Many computer systems are dependent on the floppy disks that you store your programs and files on. Take care of them. We opened a drawer in the office (which was never designed to hold floppy disks) and found that the disk with yesterday's yester-day's work on it was bent in half. Frank smokes a pipe at work. He's careful not to let the smoke deposits from his pipe collect on his floppy disks. Otherwise, when he inserts them into the computer, the accumulated ac-cumulated deposits will grind down its readwrite heads. Here are some more office rules: Don't eat food by the computer because grease and food crumbs gum up electrical circuits. Never drink while at a computer, because if anything spills it can short-circuit the computer boards. Don't ever pile things on top of floppy disks and always, always keep them in their machine. Save your work often usually every 15 minutes. Some programs save your work automatically. Some will remind you to save your work when you are finished with the file. Some won't. Don't take a chance on losing your work entirely it's a bummer. It takes one or two punches pun-ches at buttons and a few minutes to be on the safe side. Read your programs' manuals carefully to figure out what they mean. Sometimes even that doesn't help. Benchmark, for example, uses the F10 key to perform commands. It calls F10 the execute key. In its awtiat it neVeSdyitOiijtiways says '"the execute key." You have to figure out which one that is by looking look-ing at the help screens. Don't bother taking courses to learn how to use your computer or operations manual. Don't waste time and money viewing computer training films either. Use a buddy system to learn. Find 'someone who understands inside out, upside down and sideways :the program you're learning. ' ' - Get your buddy to explain basic computer terminology. It's very confusing at first. You may use these words often, but in computer language they mean something completely com-pletely different ; load, type, mouse, interface, port, send, boot, system, drive and compatability. The most common mistake is not knowing that "software" and "program" mean the same thing. Calling something a "software program" pro-gram" is like saying, "It's a dog dog." If I'd only learned that this summer, I'd have learned more than half the computer ad copywriters in the country ! . The authors answer questions and have back issues available. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to The Business Computer, . 4343 W. Beltline Hwy., Madison, Wis. 53711. A new 4,000-word special, report, "Educational. Programs for Children," gives details on price and performance of computer-age products pro-ducts for children. For your copy, send a $3 check payable to Newspaperbooks for Report FP01, , in care of The Park Record, P.O. Box 3566, Park City, UT 84060. |
