Number 204 - May 2000
Learn-As-You-Go User Wants to Read Up on PCs
from Patrick Marshal, 26 Mar 20000 Seattle Times
ptech@seatimes.com or pgmarshall@uswest.net
Q. I am a 71-year-old woman. I bought my first computer in 1985 and upgraded and taught myself everything I needed to know as I went along. I have Windows 98 now and until recently I have always had a family member to rely upon for fixing problems. Now I need to get busy and learn. I bought "The Geek Squad Guide to Solving Any Computer Glitch." It is helpful, but I think I need something to fill in the spots when the authors say, "Send it to the computer doctor." My income is so low that this may not be an option for me at all. Could you recommend a book, not too technical, but one that can get me into places where I might have to go without allowing me to foul up? Is there such a book? How do these kids learn to repair PCs and peripherals? Trial and error?
                - Janet Terry

A: I admire your attitude.

    There are, indeed, a wide variety of books that provide lots of useful information for those trying to learn their way around the inside and the outside of a computer. And there is no tome that stands out as being "the best" primer. Instead, I generally recommend that users browse a bookstore to see which one book they find the best organized and easiest to understand. What suits one user isn't necessarily what suits another.

    Even better than books for getting answers to your questions, however, are user groups [emphasis ours, see editor's note below] and on-line resources, such as newsgroups. Your Internet Service Provider will be able to give you directions for connecting to their news server via a news reader, such as Microsoft's Outlook Express. This will allow you to search through thousands of discussion databases on virtually any topic you can dream up. If you don't see an answer to your question in the string of messages, ask it.

    In addition, you can search for additional newsgroup directories through search engines, such as Yahoo! You'll find, for example, a helpful one at www.liszt.com/news/.

    Finally, you can learn a lot through discussion groups found at various vendor's web sites. You can, for example, answer a lot of your questions about Windows by searching Microsoft's Knowledge Base. Go to www.microsoft.com, click on the Support menu, then select Knowledge Base.
TOGGLE Editor's Note:
    Most of us have been there, Janet. To answer the last question first, trial and error often became Trial and Terror as we so often seemed to have caused and unrecoverable error. So we share these experiences in our user group meetings during our Question and Answer periods.

    Patrick must have missed Janet's line about her income being limited. It seems to us to be entirely possible that she cannot afford an Internet connection at $25 to $50 a month. Not every computer user is on-line, Patrick. Not even some of our members, who can afford it. Some live in out-lying areas where they don't have access to reasonably-priced and reasonably-fast Internet service, or perhaps they simply choose not to be on-line.

    For the price of just about any book she will buy, Janet can get an annual membership in a local computer user group and receive their newsletter each month, as well gain free access to the volunteers on the Help Line--and she doesn't need to be on-line to do that. It helps a whole lot just to be able to talk to someone who understands what you are asking about, and just might know a little more about it than you do--and, once you get to know them, can be treated just like that family you miss at times like these. Many user groups, like TAPCUG in Tacoma and KEGS in Seattle, also have Special Interest Groups dedicated to specific areas of computing.

    How can you locate these User Groups without having to go on-line? Look for free newspapers at your local grocery store, computer store or other outlet and get "Puget Sound Computer User." (For you out-of-towners, similar newspapers exist all over the country, maybe even printed cooperatively by the same group of publishers). Each month Puget Sound Computer User carries a listing of user groups in the area with contact phone numbers (as well as web addresses). If you do have access to the Internet, a visit to the website of the Association of Information Technology Professionals site will yield a listing of most Puget Sound Area user group website addresses (Or click on Other Links on www.toggle.org). Contact with those user groups by phone or on-line will certainly yield more information about available resources and may even result in the delivery of a free copy of the latest newsletter in the mail. Heck, if you don't drive, they may even find someone to pick you up and take you to the next meeting!

    And, in case you haven't noticed, beginner classes are offered locally, for a reasonable fee, at junior colleges and community centers.
  Number 204 - May 2000