Mad Geek
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Lessons in Technology: Terminology
This is something that has been buggin me a lot, even more so because it really isn't people's fault. Computer terms can be really confusing, and in an attempt to make people more comfortable with them, many institutions used them in incorrect manners. Up to about 2000, many people were still taught these incorrect terms in actual computer classes. You can imagine it's been hard for people to unlearn them!
Though I know most my friends and family either correctly use these terms or just don't care, I hope that maybe the occasional browser may come across these and learn something.
"I mashed the button on my CPU to turn it off."
Firstly, please don't "mash" anything on the system. It may only be figure of speech, but it makes us techs cringe with fear. Second, the CPU has no button, and cannot be turned off by itself. The button you are referring to is the power button on the front of the computer. The CPU is a single chip inside the computer that you shouldn't be touching. Think of it as a computer's brain.
"No, I don't have a notebook; I have a PC."
The term PC is a little misleading to begin with. It stands for Personal Computer. By that right, it could mean anything nowadays! My phone can be a personal computer, and my PDA would definitely be one. However, PC usually refers to something that is an IBM compatible. A notebook can also be a PC. A desktop can be a PC. A PDA can be a PC. The only things that aren't PCs are Apple Computers. Even if a machine is running Linux (instead of Windows) it is still a PC.
"My computer isn't that fast; we don't have broadband yet."
"Broadband" is a term that relates solely to your internet connection, not your computer speed. Your computer speed is entirely independent to your connection speed. A top of the line computer will run just as fast with a DSL connection as it will on 19200 Dial-Up, it just won't open webpages very well. An old roommate of mine had a 486DX (about 33MHz) laptop that we had connected to cable internet. The computer was slow, the connection was fast, and one had nothing to do with the other.
"Virtual memory is fake memory."
I once had a computer salesman try to sell me something, and he quoted the amount of virtual memory as one of its features. He then told me the above line to explain what virtual memory is. [sidenote: not very good sales technique to try and sell a feature, then turn around and describe it as a "fake" feature anyway] Virtual memory (or Pagefile as it's now called) is a section of hard drive space that is reserved as a back-up in case your system runs out of RAM (or Random Access Memory). It's as real as the rest of your system, it just runs slower. Part of the "fake" myth was due to Microsoft's poor naming of it in the first place.
These are only a few of the misused terms I've come across, and I'm sure many more are out there. As I said before, too, it's not people's fault that they refer to them in this way; it was taught to them . . . incorrectly!
As always, use your new skills (knowledge) wisely.
Though I know most my friends and family either correctly use these terms or just don't care, I hope that maybe the occasional browser may come across these and learn something.
"I mashed the button on my CPU to turn it off."
Firstly, please don't "mash" anything on the system. It may only be figure of speech, but it makes us techs cringe with fear. Second, the CPU has no button, and cannot be turned off by itself. The button you are referring to is the power button on the front of the computer. The CPU is a single chip inside the computer that you shouldn't be touching. Think of it as a computer's brain.
"No, I don't have a notebook; I have a PC."
The term PC is a little misleading to begin with. It stands for Personal Computer. By that right, it could mean anything nowadays! My phone can be a personal computer, and my PDA would definitely be one. However, PC usually refers to something that is an IBM compatible. A notebook can also be a PC. A desktop can be a PC. A PDA can be a PC. The only things that aren't PCs are Apple Computers. Even if a machine is running Linux (instead of Windows) it is still a PC.
"My computer isn't that fast; we don't have broadband yet."
"Broadband" is a term that relates solely to your internet connection, not your computer speed. Your computer speed is entirely independent to your connection speed. A top of the line computer will run just as fast with a DSL connection as it will on 19200 Dial-Up, it just won't open webpages very well. An old roommate of mine had a 486DX (about 33MHz) laptop that we had connected to cable internet. The computer was slow, the connection was fast, and one had nothing to do with the other.
"Virtual memory is fake memory."
I once had a computer salesman try to sell me something, and he quoted the amount of virtual memory as one of its features. He then told me the above line to explain what virtual memory is. [sidenote: not very good sales technique to try and sell a feature, then turn around and describe it as a "fake" feature anyway] Virtual memory (or Pagefile as it's now called) is a section of hard drive space that is reserved as a back-up in case your system runs out of RAM (or Random Access Memory). It's as real as the rest of your system, it just runs slower. Part of the "fake" myth was due to Microsoft's poor naming of it in the first place.
These are only a few of the misused terms I've come across, and I'm sure many more are out there. As I said before, too, it's not people's fault that they refer to them in this way; it was taught to them . . . incorrectly!
As always, use your new skills (knowledge) wisely.
:: posted by Zuke, 7:56 AM
