h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello, welcome and goodnight.
Hi people
I on a advanced computer couse at a collage wich is ok becase i like it BUT......
I don`t understand any of they terms, tecnolagy, wiers ect. its really depreasing. most people are zooming around amd im sitting at my keybord strugling with terms like "the graphic card is an xxxx compared to an xxx" huh? whats the difrence?.
Im like that all the time wihich is really daft. So does anyone know where to begin with understanding all this thecnical jargon?

Get a book, read about it.

Listen to other people talking about it.

ASK when you don't know what something means.

Buy an expensive computer, don't break it, and pay someone to fix it when it goes wrong

hahaha, im the one whos going to have to fix it. keeping the thing safe would mean not opening the box or going within 10m with a microft product..

As Saturnine says if you don't understand, ASK. The only stupid question is the one YOU don't ask (and as you've asked here, it's a good start).
The technologies that are used in computers seem to move at a very high rate of knots these days so having a basic understanding of what a part does (graphics card, cpu, memory etc) and the sort of things to look out for as better than others will stand you in better stead than being told that "XXX is better than YYY"

try and be more constructive in my anyonce of questions.
im going to ask them. Thanks. would a P.C magazine help at all?

If you're in the UK, I'd recommend PCW ("Personal Computer World") over any of the "beginner" magazines. It has sections for all levels of experience, so when you've collected a year's worth of them and read all the beginner's articles you'll be able to go back to the beginning and read the more advanced stuff.

(I have shelves full of them dating back to 1981! )

Yeah, PC magazines are good. Go down to a friendly newsagents' and find one you like, there are loads

And remember, if you have access to the internet, there are plenty of s around to ask ... h2g2 seems to be quite a good place to ask technical questions, actually...

(careful, though, if you get someone like me started on a computery topic you'll get several pages of rambling in response )

ramblings ok, it usaly explains alot.with new bits to be confused out though

pc magazines are o.k., but when you really want to understand what is going on under the hood, you need something more linuxy.

good examples of this include linux user and developer, linux format, and linux magazine for those of you in the uk, and the linux journal for those in the u.s.

as said about the windows mags, keep the back issues, and re-read as you reach the appropriate level for each article.

you would be surprised how much stuff you can pick up without massive amounts of effort.

Go to yourdictionary.com. Click on 'Specialty' just under the main heading and scroll down to computing. This gives you free on-line dictionaries which should be able to deal with some of your basic queries. (I can understand not wanting to look like a complete idiot)

"Windows for dummies"

-515

Computer magazines used to be a lot better around '95 or so. Nowadays I find them to be next to useless.

Probably your best resource aside from asking people is the WWW. In my experience, a bit of creative searching on http://www.google.com/ (using "quote marks" and the - symbol to refine your search) is often very helpful indeed.