How to: Computer (The basics of using a computer)

[Nafanya]

Personally, I see no point referring someone to an article like that, instead of explaining it myself. Since it would imply that I don't care much for that person. "Yeah, whatever, go look it up yourself." But it may actually help people, who are on their own. I was like that once and I was afraid of the damn thing exploding, if I had pushed the wrong button. I know, it sounds ridiculous now...

Anyway, you made a mistake calling Apple's OS "Mac". Up until recently, they've been given names of wild cats, like Snow Leopard. Now it's somerhing else, however I can't be bothered to look it up. "Mac" describes an Apple unit as a whole.

Also, you can't explain CPUs, without mentioning the number of cores at all. Especially nowadays... And I'm afraid you'd have to touch multithreading slightly. Since an old quadcore absolutely can not be compared to a similarly clocked multithreaded quadcore (the additional cores may be virtual, but they do real work). Plus, old CPUs don't support some instructions, but may be clocked higher, so you really can't say that clockspeed is all that matters. It's not too much information, took me only a few lines to describe everything. A slightly steeper learning curve is still better, than harmful misinformation.

I think it's wrong to tell people not to buy larger capacity storage. They may notneed it now, but who are you, ro tell them they shouldn't be prepared for whatever. Especially if the cost difference is so low. We are not talking about large sums, like hundreds of €/$... I've just purchased a 32gb class 10 micro sd card for only €7 and I could even have gotten a 64gb class 10 card for €10, but my phone wouldn't support it anyway. Keep in mind, aside of storing your music/files, you might want to take a video one day.

Same goes for usb drives. Unless used for specific tasks of holding and installing roms, larger is better. Did you mention usb 3.0?

[mathijs727]

Personally, I see no point referring someone to an article like that, instead of explaining it myself. Since it would imply that I don't care much for that person. "Yeah, whatever, go look it up yourself." But it may actually help people, who are on their own. I was like that once and I was afraid of the damn thing exploding, if I had pushed the wrong button. I know, it sounds ridiculous now...

Anyway, you made a mistake calling Apple's OS "Mac". Up until recently, they've been given names of wild cats, like Snow Leopard. Now it's somerhing else, however I can't be bothered to look it up. "Mac" describes an Apple unit as a whole.

Also, you can't explain CPUs, without mentioning the number of cores at all. Especially nowadays... And I'm afraid you'd have to touch multithreading slightly. Since an old quadcore absolutely can not be compared to a similarly clocked multithreaded quadcore (the additional cores may be virtual, but they do real work). Plus, old CPUs don't support some instructions, but may be clocked higher, so you really can't say that clockspeed is all that matters. It's not too much information, took me only a few lines to describe everything. A slightly steeper learning curve is still better, than harmful misinformation.

I think it's wrong to tell people not to buy larger capacity storage. They may notneed it now, but who are you, ro tell them they shouldn't be prepared for whatever. Especially if the cost difference is so low. We are not talking about large sums, like hundreds of €/$... I've just purchased a 32gb class 10 micro sd card for only €7 and I could even have gotten a 64gb class 10 card for €10, but my phone wouldn't support it anyway. Keep in mind, aside of storing your music/files, you might want to take a video one day.

Same goes for usb drives. Unless used for specific tasks of holding and installing roms, larger is better. Did you mention usb 3.0?

Have to agree,

 

"Central Processing Unit (CPU): This is what manages everything that is going on, it is much like your brain. The speed that this works at is measured in GHz The higher that number is, the faster it will work."

 

This is just wrong. You completely ignore the number of cores and even then: clockspeeds doesnt say a THING. Architecture is sooooo much more important then clockspeed. And multiple cores dont always contribute to better performance (not every program is/can be multithreaded). And there should be some explenation about hyperthreaading because else people wont get the differrence between an i5 and an i7 of the same architecture.

[aikoels]

--Deleted (forgot to quote people)--

[aikoels]

Personally, I see no point referring someone to an article like that, instead of explaining it myself. Since it would imply that I don't care much for that person. "Yeah, whatever, go look it up yourself." But it may actually help people, who are on their own. I was like that once and I was afraid of the damn thing exploding, if I had pushed the wrong button. I know, it sounds ridiculous now...

Anyway, you made a mistake calling Apple's OS "Mac". Up until recently, they've been given names of wild cats, like Snow Leopard. Now it's somerhing else, however I can't be bothered to look it up. "Mac" describes an Apple unit as a whole.

Also, you can't explain CPUs, without mentioning the number of cores at all. Especially nowadays... And I'm afraid you'd have to touch multithreading slightly. Since an old quadcore absolutely can not be compared to a similarly clocked multithreaded quadcore (the additional cores may be virtual, but they do real work). Plus, old CPUs don't support some instructions, but may be clocked higher, so you really can't say that clockspeed is all that matters. It's not too much information, took me only a few lines to describe everything. A slightly steeper learning curve is still better, than harmful misinformation.

I think it's wrong to tell people not to buy larger capacity storage. They may notneed it now, but who are you, ro tell them they shouldn't be prepared for whatever. Especially if the cost difference is so low. We are not talking about large sums, like hundreds of €/$... I've just purchased a 32gb class 10 micro sd card for only €7 and I could even have gotten a 64gb class 10 card for €10, but my phone wouldn't support it anyway. Keep in mind, aside of storing your music/files, you might want to take a video one day.

Same goes for usb drives. Unless used for specific tasks of holding and installing roms, larger is better. Did you mention usb 3.0?

 

 

Have to agree,

 

"Central Processing Unit (CPU): This is what manages everything that is going on, it is much like your brain. The speed that this works at is measured in GHz The higher that number is, the faster it will work."

 

This is just wrong. You completely ignore the number of cores and even then: clockspeeds doesnt say a THING. Architecture is sooooo much more important then clockspeed. And multiple cores dont always contribute to better performance (not every program is/can be multithreaded). And there should be some explenation about hyperthreaading because else people wont get the differrence between an i5 and an i7 of the same architecture.

Good point about the CPU, as I want to keep this a s basic as possible I don't really think that I should go into such advanced topics as multithreading and other things like that, for now I am just leaving it as "ask a sales rep if you are buying" there are better places to learn about CPUs than this beginners thread. 

 

The reason I say not to buy 8GB of storage if you are only using 8GB is because I know people who just say "bigger = better" which I am trying to avoid, I am going to leave it as is simply because I say if you won't use this don't buy it. Since I never say "don't buy 32GB" I don't think I should remove it. But I will make a note there about needing it in the future.

 

I do mention USB 3 by saying it is very fast and will slow down in USB 2.0 slots (in the USB section).

 

Also I changed the "Mac" section to "Apple OS"

 

Thank you guys for the input!

 

Note: I will be doing the Mac and Linux ASAP, I've been busy lately and I need to grab another hard drive and throw Ubuntu on it.

[Trik'Stari]

I love that "your desktop should look something like this" with a picture of Link.

 

All computer's should come with that as the primary desktop background, just to make Nintendo shit themselves when they try to decide whether or not to sue, or be grateful for the free advertising

[lucky74dog]

If I were you, I'd change the background back to default, because some one who hasn't used computers before might get confused when they see hills, instead of a horse.

[Skylercompany]

This guide is actually very well put together, if I was illiterate I would definitely benefit from this.

 

Maybe I should give this guide to my grandparents .

[Aniallation]

You lost me at computer