Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Sep 6, 2007
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days that all these memories come flooding back to me.
Skills
Today I could not get near my computer, as my stepsons were here downloading programs for the eldest one's new laptop, which he as just bought. Actually, I was thinking of buying one for myself, but then I added up all the money I have spent on this one, changed my mind and just bought another stick of memory for it instead. Since I first had it built for my fifty-second birthday, I have added a new hard drive, a new FST monitor and upgraded the RAM and installed a new DVD Rewriter as well. That is when I thought about computer skills in general; after all, we all have some level of these, depending on how much we have learned. Some of us are only capable of switching on the computer and sending and receiving the odd email, while others are capable of even programming their own computers. Its a bit like driving skills, really. We all have various levels of this as well; although I must admit that most students these days are taught how to pass the driving test itself, rather than how to drive in general. Some of us are really experienced and are really good drivers, whereas others can be driving for years and still not be very good at it, although these people will never really admit that. It was the same when I was a welding instructor teaching trainee welders.
We did tend to teach them the skills required to pass the test, which in itself was hard enough. Yet after they had passed that, I used to spend the time we had while waiting for the results of the test to teach them more of the skills that would be needed for when they joined the rest of the welders down on the actual site. Most of the welders were really good at their trade, yet there was always that small group who were not as capable as the rest. Like everything else, welding is a skill and you either have it or you don’t. For example, it's a well-known fact that the women in the Philippines are more skilled at TIG welding than most men are in this country, as it takes both hands and careful coordination to carry out. I am not saying that all men are no good at this — far from it. I have seen plenty of highly skilled TIG welders on my travels; it's just that it comes more naturally to those women.
On the subject of computer skills, our youngest stepson is the computer guru in the family and has taught me a lot of what I know about computers, along with all the knowledge I have picked up from those help web sites and forums, where you can post questions and get answers from helpful people who visit the site. There are plenty of these sites where you can spend ages just reading through the questions and answers and learn a lot as you go. My most recent problem was a trojan that my computer picked up. We couldn't get rid of it, as it kept renaming itself and sneaking back into another program. In the end the only way to get rid of it was to reinstall Windows altogether after formatting the hard drive.
This meant backing up everything on my computer and reinstalling it afterwards. A lot of effort and time is taken up while doing this. After we had done this, we noticed that some of the symbols were not working correctly, and a couple of them had crossed over which meant I had to use the " to get the @ symbol, and the £ one had gone altogether. So I went onto my favourite help site and posted a question as to how to solve this. Within an hour I had a reply which gave me the answer to repair it. I followed the instructions to the letter, and then to my surprise it was sorted! It was a project that I would never even have dreamed of trying a few years ago when I first started using a computer. Looking back on it now, I suppose I have picked up a fair bit of computer knowledge, yet I know for a fact that I have a lot more to learn, so I still consider myself a novice. The help section that comes with all versions of Windows is vey helpful as well. I remember reading a lot in there about how to do certain things, and then I would print them out and made a thick file, which I found very useful. Trouble is, I loaned it to a mate of mine, who had just bought his very first computer, but he never returned it. I think now that I have reached a level of knowledge that I need to carry out what I want to use a computer for: downloading films and music and burning them to disc was my main ambition when I first started — along with writing, of course, and using the Word program, which, I have found, is great to use, especially the new 2007 version. I even managed to make and print out my own CD covers for the music discs that I have made.
After some practice, I found that it was possible to insert a picture into the document and print the writing over the top of it. The result is quite professional-looking, especially when I used country scenes as the background. I recently found some of my earlier covers that I made some time ago, before I got the colour printer I have now, and they look amateurish compared to some of my latest ones. I think that in time I will have to make new ones. Of course, since becoming a computer owner and being online, I have found some long-lost friends that I thought I had lost forever, as well as making new friends, albeit cyber friends. A few of these I have met on this site since joining it some four years ago now. In fact, I found this site by accident... but all that is in my profile anyway.
