Your First Time On The Internet



Internet symbols normally look like the earth

 The internet is probably the reason you want to learn to use a computer in the first place! It is regarded by many as one of the best inventions ever, and with good reason. You can talk to people in korea, video call your mum upstairs, send your photos home while on holiday, download music, movies and games without leaving the house, watch a live feed from time square, find out obscure facts about candles or even run a business.

These things dont even scratch the surface of what the internet is used for, but to try and cover it all would be fruitless. Instead it is one of those things best experienced, and thats why your here!

Today I am going to show you how you get "Online" and where you should start. You'll love it.

Correct Way to Turn a Computer On or Off

The Universal Power symbol

Many people turn they televisions, toasters, kettles, fans, radios and other electrical items off by a simple flick of the switch on the wall. Even though this is fine in the majority of cases, when it comes to computers, its a good idea to stop it. Right now.

You may be surprised to know that even holding down the "Power" button that most computers have on the front of them to turn off a computer can do serious damage if used wrongly.

If you turn off your computer like this, then it is called a "Hard Shut down". This way of turning off computers is generally reserved for emergencies or when the system stops responding to commands.

Hard Drive with the "Arm" Moving

Its a very bad idea to turn off your PC any way that isn't one of the below. This is because your PC needs a chance to close any open files, park the hard disk arm and do a myriad of other things you can't see. If the PC is turned off when it was writing something, like one of your photos, music or even part of the system, you could lose those files completely or even stop the whole PC from turning on again. On top of that, every time you  perform a hard shut down the tiny little parts in your computers hard drive (Where it remembers things) suddenly jerks to a halt, which can scratch and corrupt even more data, but this time permanently.

There are four proper ways to turn off your PC, non of witch involves an actual switch, ironically.

Common Computer Definitions

Keys on a Keyboard

From our previous post we continue on to cover the second problem facing new computer users, the seemingly endless list of equipment that covers "computers".

It is true that there are hundreds of thousands of different things that a related to using computers, however the average user never needs more than a handful to become proficient.

So I'll cover the basics again, this time focusing on what makes up a computer and what they look like.

What "PC" Means & Other Computer Acronyms

Net-book: A type of PC

The most common problem people face when they first start learning about using computers is the torrent of Acronyms! "PC" is one example.

Acronyms and short-hand spellings are common place amongst avid computer users. This is mainly because of the long names of things and how much it hurts your hands when you have to type it all out.

Most people are too embarrassed to admit they do not know what "PC" or any other Acronym stands for, so for this post I'm just going to write down as many as I can remember!

First!

New Posts coming soon!

Sneaky Peak - Definitions!