Computer help: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills?
- 8/8/08 3:23 PM
Poll: How did you gain your computer skills?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 8/8/08 3:23 PM
How did you gain the majority of your computer technical skills?
Computer courses or training (Any recommendations?)
Learning from friends or family (How so?)
Learning from technical forums or Web sites (Any recommendations?)
Magazines, learning CDs, or textbooks (Any recommendations?)
Learned all on my own through trial and error (How so?)
Other (How so?)
Trial & Error, Advice from GrandKids, Dummies Books, Cnet
by Ol Rod - 8/8/08 5:20 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I,m now 75 years old. I started playing with computer after I retired. Been at it for about 9 years, now. We first bought a couple of Dummies books, then I asked anyone who seemed to know for advice, then I discovered Cnet forums. By then my computer had some hardware problems. I added Ram, then replaced a fan, then a power supply. While all this was going on, I took Cnet's class on Building Computer. (Twice). I built my own in November 2005. I posted on Cnet forums, got quite a lot of helpful advice. I built with great fear and trembling, but i am pleased with my computer, useing it right now. Now, sometimes I help others with their problems.
Trial & Error, Dad
by samusgravity - 8/9/08 1:05 PM In reply to: Trial & Error, Advice from GrandKids, Dummies Books, Cnet by Ol RodHi!
When I was about two my dad began to teach me how to use a PC. It was an old Windows 95 PC. When I was about five I was able to do everything on that computer. I recently installed Ubuntu on my laptop and found that I didn't like it. Now I have Windows XP installed on my laptop. So Yeah... I started young and now I am an Advanced PC user.
OJT. . .
by Coryphaeus - 8/8/08 5:57 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
or maybe AHT (At Home Training), self taught, trial and error, fixing failures, started building my own, learning in real time, no formal training, and here, at the time ZDNet. Every one I've built, I've really lost count, have worked flawlessly. I've modded OEMs, and built my own network, then graduated to my own server, then expanded it to my own web server, then built my web site.
I've graduated from home builts to IBMs. I have owned 8; four desktops and four laptops. Currently have a slightly modded fast ThinkCentre; upped the RAM, changed the optical to a DL DVD burner, added an external SATA drive, replaced the stock 40 Gig HD with an 80. I don't mess with laptops. Currently have an R-40 and the wife has an R-51.
Wayne (IBM freak - 6)
Click here to see the CNet faces, learn a little about analog and digital data, Internet connections, Spyware removal, and download free software (and a GREAT chocolate-cherry cobbler recipe).
My mini-Schnauzer is smarter than your honor student.
brute force
by x1800yolk - 8/8/08 6:19 PM In reply to: OJT. . . by Coryphaeusby messing with an old packard bell running Windows 95, until it crashed. Once that happened, I was well on my way to becoming a nerd.
30 years of PC
by M Blazer - 8/8/08 7:08 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've been programing, building and modifying computers for 30 years. I bought a TRS-80 with 4k of memory and Level 1 BASIC. Radio Shack made the mistake of having the service manual in the store and the warranty seals died only minutes later. I started playing around programming a Star Trek game in BASIC and then went on to assembly language. Since then, I've programmed everything from IBM mainframes to an 8 pin Zilog chip. I've found the best way to learn about computers (or most other things in life) is to dive in and start playing with it. Find something you would like to get the computer to do, think about how to do it yourself and then, tell the computer how to do it. Simple, isn't it;)?
How did I gain my computer skills?
by lyndaschat - 8/8/08 8:23 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I learned through trial and error, online forums, chat, free tutorials, Classroom in a book for Photoshop, actually for all Adobe products. MS office, through their own help files. Tech support for any hardware I needed, Gateway.. LVS online gives 6 week tutorials for a lot of software. HP gives classes online free.. I love it all, just wish I had the time and could make myself stick to one program.
Linda
www.lyndasgourmetcandles.com
Other
by huizhe2 - 8/8/08 9:40 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
All of the above. I spent three months taking Novell CNE (Computer Network Engineer) classes back in 1994. For the seven years before that, though, I played with all kinds of computers on my own and with my friends. My first OS was CP/M (Control Program for Microprocessors), a single-user operating system for the 8080 and Z80 microprocessors. I can't remember whether it was a Japanese or English version. Then I moved on to DOS and Mac in English and Japanese. I had to teach myself through trial and error, by reading PC magazines, and asking my computer-savvy friends. I studied a couple of apps using commercial CDs and by reading the manuals, but since 1995 or '96, I've been doing it all intuitively and through trial and error, especially on Chinese operating systems (more difficult to deal with than Japanese). I was the system admin -- PC and Mac -- for my department at a high school in Japan for four years and spent a lot of time teaching the teachers how to use both OSes, and I've spent many, many hours providing phone and in-person support to most of my friends and family for the past thirteen years -- I still give my 84-year-old stepmother and 85-year-old mother phone support for Mac OSX and Windows XP (English). The only problems I've had so far, beyond languages, have been with desktop Linux, which is just too much trouble to bother with and will continue to be until developers come up with something that is totally compatible with MS Office, and especially with MS Word, and until Linux distros stop proliferating like the viruses they seem to be at the moment. Okay, it's nice that a user can modify their own Linux OS for specific purposes, but having so many options is off-putting.
I got a...
by dx210 - 8/8/08 9:56 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Well for starters, I got a certificate on Computer Science and the rest is the internet. as the Technology advances right by your side, you don't want yourself getting left out. What I did, I do lots of research on my free time if I can't get my hands on them physically... that is, if it's hardware stuff...
The only way I could
by rbsjrx - 8/8/08 10:37 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I started out back in the late 70's using an Apple II running AppleDOS. A few years later the IBM-PC came out and I learned PC-DOS. Later came Windows (I jumped into it at Windows 3). When I started, therefore, there were no classes for PC's since PC's were still new. The Internet as we know it didn't exist. The only way to learn was to buy one and dig in.
Another dumb old fart..
by feduchin - 8/8/08 10:52 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Isn't it surprising how many of us 'learned all on my own through trial and error'!
I intended to start about 1981 (when I was 40) by buying a 'System 80' which was a Made-In-Singapore(?) copy of the Radio Shack TSR80, however I had to go away for a month after buying it; when I return my 15yo son had commandeered it and already had programs saved on compact disks and I couldn't drag it away from him, indeed I felt completely overwhelmed by his knowledge!
This put me back 9 years!
Finally I joined a computer company and, on the advice the accountant, got a used 286 for a song, plus a book on DOS. This really got me going and frankly I've never looked back. I DO regard my knowledge of DOS as the primary reason that I have a basic knowledge of MOST things Microsoft!
DOS, together with Nortons and other memory utilities that allowed me to manipulate file internals, taught me tons of stuff, also Word Perfect 5.1 which was great software.
Of course a lot of the newer stuff is more complicated, but then one doesn't really need to know the intricacies as long as basic DOS/Windows is understood.
I still keep most of my old programs, indeed whole operating systems; remember Windows 3.11? It was pretty good and surprisingly reliable.
This and that
by white-bread - 8/8/08 11:34 PM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Classes, online, trial and error.
Everything listed and then some.
by wcslaw - 8/9/08 2:34 AM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My fingers first danced across a keyboard before computers had them attached (punch cards). Most of my knowledge has been self taught over a 35 year period. The first computer I ever used was an IBM 1170, and the first one I owned was a TRS80 Model I. I've used (and learned) Dos's from CPM-DOS, TRS-DOS, MS-DOS (1 thru 7) and almost every version of Windows from Win-286 thru XP. I even used a Mac for awhile in college. The next system I buy will undoubtedly use Vista. Mostly I learned by reading, reading, reading, and doing, doing, doing. Anyone who thinks Tech-support will help them has never actually had to make that call or they would know better. The first rule of Tech-support is that whatever the problem is, their hardware/software is not the culprit. If you own a computer, and want it to actually work, you must learn to take care of problems yourself.
wcslaw
It all started with a Commador 64
by emanday - 8/9/08 5:00 AM In reply to: Everything listed and then some. by wcslawMy husband brought one home from Hong Kong (he was in the Royal Navy) before they had even appeared in the shops here.
From that point on I was hooked and have experimented with computers ever since.
After dragging various employers kicking and screaming into the 20th century, I then spent the last ten years of my working life as an IT Contractor earning "big bucks"; usually a lot more than my formally trained client supervisors were getting! 
Error and Trial
by USSENTERNCC1701E - 8/9/08 5:02 AM In reply to: Poll: How did you gain your computer skills? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My first computer experience was with a Packard Bell when I was 13, it was my dad's old computer and I wanted to install a game; I didn't have enough free space on the hard drive, so I started deleting files... in System32. When I was 17 I did take two formal classes at a local community college, A+ hardware and OS prep courses, but other than that most of what I've learned came from finding old broken computers and trying to fix them, or trying to get old computers to run new software.
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