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It has been true that since I know computer, my family need me, and I could be a use to other people. Alhamdulillah (Praise the Lord). For example, Nowadays, my father often asks for my help to finish his thesis paper for Master degree. For a pause, I just want to tell you that I will be sophomore in February 99. Am I a whiz? No : )! So? Ok! I have been helping him much on word processing, making graphs and diagrams, scanning and converting documents. When I started helping him mannually by writting all words from hundred of pages for his secondary data that will be edited, I thought that typing those words would not go anywhere. I can't work like a secretary, stare a long time on a white, monoton and inanimate screen and type fast. Then, I thanked God that I like to know more on what computer could do for me. Finally, I remembered that I could scan a document so it could be edited in the computer. After spending lots of times in how to scan a document clearly and how to use OCR better, scanning my father's 2nd data was a breeze. By helping him, I learn not only about finance and international trade briefly, but also how to scan effectively. One valuable experience showed a fruit of my knowledge on computers. On December 23 '98, My friend, Jack, took me along with his friend, Fu Yung, for our comments on what computer to buy. On the deal, he managed to buy a very good computer at a good price. At a total price of $2400 something, we bought a computer with AMD II 3D 400, 128 MB of RAM, 3rd generation DVD, 12 GB hard disk's space with other recent techs for cpu, 19" monitor, and a sharp printer. If you choose Pentium II 400 instead of AMD II 3D 400, you will not get the price that low. I kind of new to AMD. Then I asked my friend who knew better about it. From his reading, he learned that AMD II performed better. If that founding was true, well, I did a good job. When my father asked me why I knew well on word processing, I told him that I have been experimenting provided commands on help menu and from doing my previous and totally basic research papers. I also told him that the skills did not fall suddenly from the sky, but I earned them from a long time of learning. Of course, I have learned it with the companion of my kinds of computers. When speaking of kinds of computers and peripherals, I have used many kinds of computer from its generation since 1980's. The first computer that I used had a 286 processor. If we use that processor nowadays, we will never get connected to internet, use CD ROM or watch DVD. However, when my mother bought the computer in 1988, my brothers and I were so happy because the computer was our first encounter with this kind of technology which we had been hearing about the fame very much. Until now, the nostalgia from that computer was the tetris. You know how it feel if you play the game that is the best game in your time. I mean that you can tell everybody and be proud. One more thing was the EPSON LX-800. If your neighbor can hear your moderate voice from next door, you have to forget of buying this printer and do your printing at night. This printer could make a noise as loud as the junk car's engine rotating. Then, in 1992, I used a 386 computer. It made a little different with 286 that it had window 3.1 which I did not know what it was for. Everytime I turned on the computer, I found a white screen and small rectangle images on it. Oh ya, I did not have a mouse at that time. So, I could not use any programs as I used to open them from dos prompts. I did not read book as I do nowadays if I don't know something. In 1992, I was still in 7th grade and did not like to read much. Every week, I got an allowance as much as $7 which I spent mostly on food and drinks. However, I thanked this phenomena because it made me proud of my computer's knowledge. I often did a lot of experiments, and most of them to fix mistakes that my brothers and I did. The most stupid experiment that I realized was to insert a credit card into one of the cpu's blank slots which were used to insert cards as sound card, modem card and etc. I inserted the credit card while the computer was booting hoping that I could speed up the computer's performance. Well, it did not happen. On the other hand, I found a different situation. I met lines of commands and excitingly wondered what the lines for. Had I found a jackpot? I tried to change a few words, but unfortunately, the commands were for read only. For you, the readers, don't do this at home because a couple of days later, my father had a proffesional to fix the computer. My curiosity on how computer work did not stop there. I learned from my friends that I could format my own disks so that I could reuse them or clear all the virus in them. What I did was to write FORMAT A: and then follow with Y and the typing of my disk's name in the dos prompt. The process was fun and easy. Finding formatting was fun and easy, I decided to be the savior of the house. My father had used to buy new disks for us but rarely. When my brothers and I were on the childhood of playing computer games, we tried to copy better games from my friends as much as possible. However, we were often out of disks. So, I became the savior by formatting disks that programs were not useful. Indeed, we had a lot of games. Then, we had a new problem. Because we had a lot of games, that meant we should have big space in the hard disk. Unfortunately, hard disk's free spaces could supply half of the games' spaces. An idea popped up in my head. "Why don't I erase the other half that had been installed in the hard disk?" Impulsively, I formatted almost everything in the hard disk. You know what happen? My father had to call a computer specialist to fix the computer and put in plenty of missing files that I formatted. These files such as autoexec.bat, files with .ini, .com. and exe extension were required to run the computer. Hey, how would I know? I thought the use of formatting of the disk could be applied to the hard disk. No, it was not the same. Some files were meant to immortally exist in the hard disk, and formatting command will erase everything. Please Correct me if I am Wrong! So, this experience has been a good lesson for me. I should never format hard disk or c:\ drive. I should think twice before I experiment anything with the computer. I should let the wise guy do the job if I am not sure about the problem's solution. Finally, the lesson that computer gigs always have in mind is that we should always learn from our mistakes because they prevent us from going to or calling a computer specialist to fix small problems. Now, I have been using computers with pentium 75 and 133. I haven't had the experience to use Pentium II. However, I don't feel sad if other people have used it. No matter how good their computer are, unless they care about the computers and their functions, their computers will be meaningless. to be continued.. |
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