From 22109d4ecf840a221f393f71d154cdaa0c8f2a1b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: dtb Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2022 04:28:50 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] 2022-12-31 --- homepage/blah/index.html | 57 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 57 insertions(+) diff --git a/homepage/blah/index.html b/homepage/blah/index.html index c796db7..02b0ff6 100644 --- a/homepage/blah/index.html +++ b/homepage/blah/index.html @@ -16,6 +16,63 @@ ideas' witlessness; ideas' witnesses; ideas- +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. + + 2022-12-30 I occasionally write blahposts a day in advance. And who will stop me?