THE WRITER MUST EAT -> patreon.com/trn1ty <- | \ | | blah! |\ | `\|\ | the rantings and ravings |/ |(_|| | * of a depraved lunatic <^> 2022-12-31 2022-04-19 Snippets from /home/trinity/homepage/computer.html Hello and welcome to the world of computing. This guide is intended to take you from a cursory or completely nonexistent knowledge of how computers work or even what a computer is to an understanding with which you're comfortable. As this guide will go on the manner of language will shift from conversational and casual to more formal and technical; this is because these earlier sections are more like learning to ride a bike, where you won't easily forget the basics, but the later sections are more like learning to build a bike, where you may need to reference the manual later. This is also a perpetually unfinished document, please refer to the <I>updated</I> date as its version if your citation format permits it. To start, let's run over some basic terminology. Many of these terms are ambiguous and will be better specified later. The Monitor The monitor (term taken from the verb <I>monitor</I>), or screen (term taken from the verb <I>screen</I>), is a raster display unit your computer controls. In some manner, which depends on the technology your monitor uses, there is being displayed some sort of content that your computer has generated. It may be these very words. Monitors are usually interchangeable but sometimes entire computers can be included in the monitor unit itself, the concept of which is known as <I>all-in-one computer units</I> because all components of the computer except input devices are in the same place (the monitor assembly). It's possible your computer doesn't have a monitor. Possibly, you're using a teletypewriter, which prints text output onto paper using ink, though this is unlikely as they were obsoleted fifty years ago in favor of "glass teletypes" (<I>glass</I> here refers to the glass tube of a cathode ray tube monitor). Possibly, you're using assistive technologies and aren't sighted. Or maybe you're making this entire document up and are in a dream. There are many ways to use computers that <I>don't</I> involve monitors but seeing as they're so common-place there's a very good likelihood you are indeed using one. The Key-board The keyboard is how many people input text into their computer. There are many types of keyboards. Most people use standard QWERTY (named such after the first five alphabetical runes that appear on the board) keyboards, where each button is one symbol and perhaps there are special buttons that change the meaning of the other buttons. There are also <I>chorded</I> keyboards, where each <I>combination</I> (or chord, like on a piano) of keys represents a symbol. Possibly, you're not using a keyboard at all, and are instead using assistive technologies such as speech recognition. My intent with the computer guide was to emphasize atypical but important interfaces between user and machine, to make the guide relevant to every single person who would read the guide. Making a guide only for those who are sighted, hearing, have feeling in their fingertips, can read small text, is ridiculous and limits the audience far too much. Accessibility is the future absolutely. 0908 In the car on the way to New York City. 1135 Still in the car I'm still getting over having my desktop Fx on my phone. It's glitchy as hell but it works. Like, damm! A crowd had formed outside of the building, in the parking lot. Ted stood with his hands in his pockets and tie blowing in the slight breeze watching the blaze. Out of the crowd a single black (trousers) and white (shirt) figure emerged. He walked tensely to Ted and stood in front of him. Ted's blank gaze stayed looking through his boss to the fire. "Ted, you piece of shit." The boss, a lanky mam of roughly the same height as Ted whose name escaped memory, sprayed a small droplet of saliva on Ted's collar, which bothered Ted. Ted looked at his shoes pointing to his boss's. "You're fired -" Ted smiled "- of course, and we'll see what the authorities do when they arrive." Ted's wife emerged from the crowd in the same attire. She looked roughly like Ted - plain beyond words - with a softer face and longer hair. "Hey, Ron, we're all a little stressed. Look at him. He's snapped. That's not Ted anymore. Take it easy and we'll let the EMTs take a look." Ron brushed Ted's wife's chin with his finger and had a look in his eye that confused Ted. "Alright Minerva. I- I'm not sure what we're gonna do," he turned towards the office, "about all this." This was the first time Ted had seen his boss stutter. "We'll get on." Without waiting for any authorities to arrive, Ron found his car in the parking lot and got in. Minerva got into the passenger's seat without prompt. Ted listened but didn't watch as the car started and then rolled out of the lot. He watched the smoke billow out of the windows. Ted whispered to himself. "Arson time." 1458 Arrived at Manhattan <^> No rights reserved, all rights exercised, rights turned to lefts, left in this corner of the web.