Back in the mid 90s, everyone online had to know half that stuff or their computer would crash, get a virus, & many of the visited websites wouldn't function properly. If you didn't, most people online would tease you, & ask that you stay offline until you learn.
Even back in the days of the beginning of the usenet in the early 1980s, if I got online to ask just a simple computer or tech question, by the next day I'd have hundreds to thousands of replies just flaming my question demanding I stay offline until I learn rather than just answer the freakin question.
Actually, it was that poor attitude of many on the usenet, & early internet, that motivated me to rename my usenet group & move it to the internet in 1994 as "Betty's".
Most of the interactive groups & boards on the internet then, seemed to be countless very long threads of people flaming each other & fighting rather than any fun, just like many usenet newsgroups of the time. They were the most pointless arguments too. A misplaced period, comma, misspelled word, or grammar error at any of these sites would trigger massively long threads of flaming & insults.
It seems the most prolific members & posters determined they should be the English, & grammar police for the whole internet. They completely forgot that the internet was international, so English may not be everyone's primary language, & that USA English may not be exactly the same as UK or Australia English. Then they also forgot that in 1994 most people weren't used to using a keyboard, & did not have a reliable or accurate spell-check.
It was funny, because the ones flaming everyone else had plenty of their own typos & errors too, which... you guessed it, would trigger more flames! It was like an atomic chain reaction. The flamers would make a typo, & more people would join in to flame them.
So just like our usenet group, I decided we would not allow that nonsense, even if I had to ban all English & grammar teachers. We had better things to talk about than where you placed a period or how you spelled a word. As a ham radio operator at the time, I was used to international polite conversations with everyone in the world. I already understood that not everyone talks or sounds exactly the same.
I'm electronics expert anyway, not an English expert. So my English, like most of my friends, will not be perfect vocally or in type either. Just because somebody isn't a word & grammar wizard, does not mean they're stupid, or they should be insulted & ridiculed for it. Should the mechanic, policeman, chef, or tech be insulted online because they're not a secretary, school teacher, or typing wizard? Of course not!
When we all started moving from the usenet (before the internet we had the usenet since 1980, & it still exists) to the internet, the first thing I did was buy a 350 page book on HTML... the code & language of the internet. I studied it thoroughly, & kept it nearby to refer back to for a couple years.
When they started using javascript more (java & javascript are two entirely different things), fortunately the book had a couple chapters on that too. When PHP-based interactive sites started to become popular, I learned PHP. Now HTML5 is all the rage, so I learned that.
Computers are just electronics wired a certain way to do a certain job. Although the chips, & other components have gotten smaller, faster, & more efficient, they still all follow the same basic principles, & basically run the same way they have since the 1960s when we used transistors & chips instead of vacuum tubes & relays in computers.
In the late 1960s we already had chips, & LEDs. In my early teens (1968-69?) I was already experimenting & building circuits using switching, digital, & programmable chips. I even made simple digital & programmable light chasers, synthesizers, & a digital (tapeless) voice recorder with chips. By 1973 I had made a digital light controller/chaser from scratch for a disco, & for a band (hand-built all the lights, installed & wired them too). The chips I used for them were mostly designed for the telephone industry.
So we weren't exactly in the stone age back then. I remember buying my first LCD pocket calculator for around $9.95 around then. By the time "Pong" became available for home use, I already had it with a couple other games on a homemade circuit board, because they were already around for a couple years in arcades & bars.
Wasn't much of a game or arcade freak though. So didn't bother with Atari stuff until I could just buy one cheap used. By that time it was 1981 & was already on the usenet with a computer connected to a TV.
Operating systems cores are pretty much similar & unchanged for years too. Windows is just a user-friendly interface & features built upon a DOS core operating system. DOS is basically a rip-off of UNIX, with just a few minor changes. Mac, Linux, are just a user-friendly interface & features built upon a UNIX core operating system. Android, most set-top boxes, DVRs, & most other computerized home electronics run on Linux. Most web servers & ISPs run on Linux or UNIX.
All Betty's servers run on Linux.
Topic: A little of this and that (Read 10567 times)
