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Today’s episode introduces “Practical Nerd News”, where I review a few headlines from the week, and then I talk about the overdramatic attitudes of people attached to their possessions, i.e., their TVs, gadgets, cable/satellite, etc. If nothing else, tune in for the opening song and the news.
As always, if you can’t see the “play” button at the top of the post, click on the title! Thanks for listening!
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You’re driving along the road one day, not a care in the world. You’re on your way to work or something, I don’t know. You see a big rock or a board in the road, and you don’t really care, so you hit it anyway. All of a sudden, *BOOM*! You blow out a tire.
You limp the car over to the side of the road, and you get out and look at the car. You stare at it blankly, and immediately call up your brother. “There’s something wrong with the car, it’s not driving right.”
Your brother arrives, sees the flat tire and says, “How did this happen?” You shrug your shoulders and you have no answer. As he proceeds to pull your jack and wrench out of your trunk, you wander around and not pay attention to what he does. He tries to tell you that you shouldn’t have hit that board in the road, but you weren’t really listening anyway. You thank him profusely, promise it’ll never happen again, and then you go speeding off in your car. Your brother knows you’ll be calling him again for another tire change in a few months.
Sounds ridiculous, right? That kind of person shouldn’t even own a car! Yet that’s what so many people do with their computers.
Computers are not complicated. Sure, you open them up and all the flashing lights and doodads look impressive, but for day-to-day use, it’s not that big of a deal. Simple basic maintenance will help prevent so many problems and you won’t have to call your “family IT guy” for help every other week. When you make a big purchase, like a car or a computer, you need to understand how to care for it and simple, basic maintenance. Just like knowing how to drive carefully and change a tire, you need to know how to use a computer without crashing it all the time or without being able to fix basic problems with it.
I can’t wait for the Mac fanboys to start writing “Just get a Mac! Mine JUST WORKS! No maintenance needed!” But it goes deeper than that. Sure, Macs are fine. They’re slick-looking, and they run really well. But it’s like buying a $40,000 car: it’s great if you have the money to do that, but it’s wildly unnecessary if you’re on any sort of budget, and you don’t really want to listen to the people telling you to buy that car when you don’t have the money to do so right now.
Pictured: A Mac.
Plus, it’s not the idea that Macs are inferior to PCs or anything. It’s the willful ignorance that people revel in when they buy a Mac. They run up their credit cards and dig themselves into holes just to buy a $1500 computer so that they can tell people that they don’t have to run an antivirus program. How ludicrous is that?!? I paid about $500 for my laptop and I’ve run this thing into the ground, but it works even better now than the day I bought it. So how do you learn the basics without spending all your freaking time being a nerd? Here are a few tips:
It could be naked pictures of Megan Fox, the secret to making a crapload of money really fast, or the “funniest picture of two monkeys doing it you’ll ever see!!!!” – if it’s from a stranger, it will screw up your computer. Period.
Keep dreaming.
Protect yourself. You wouldn’t drive around a car without a seat belt on, right? (Or you shouldn’t, anyway!) I don’t care if it’s AVG, Avast, or my personal favorite, Panda Cloud Antivirus. Just install SOMEthing. It’ll fight off most bad stuff. Is that easy enough to understand? This trouble alone is apparently worth $1,000 to some people.
CCleaner is an easy-to-use, two-clicks-and-your-computer’s-clean application that will wipe all the gunk out of your computer system when you run it. If you know how to check your email, this is even easier than that. Click, click, and it’s clean. Close the program and run it again in a week. Takes 30 seconds.
Before you go crying to your brother, try searching quick for a solution. If your Internet Explorer is running slow, go to Google and type “Internet Explorer is running slow”. If your screen goes black when you play Solitaire, type in “screen goes black when playing Solitaire”. You get the idea? There will be web sites and even a few forums where people post solutions to these problems, and most of the time, it’s with dead-simple instruction for newbies. That’s how you learn, people.
If you don’t know how to avoid crap in the road and not blow out your tires, and you don’t know how to change a tire, I don’t want you driving around in a car. If you don’t know how to avoid downloading viruses to your computer and you don’t know how to perform basic maintenance on it to keep it running, I don’t want you owning a computer. There. I said it.
A note before we get started with this post: Not every commenter on the Zune/iPod post was disrespectful. There were several commenters who were iPod fans that clearly read my side of the story, and added their two cents thoroughly and respectfully. Thanks to those of you who did!
Last week, on a whim, I wrote a 1:00am post entitled, Why Apple’s Success Makes No Sense to Me, and Why the Zune Breaks My Heart. It was a little opinion piece defending my position that the Microsoft Zune is the best music experience you can get from a portable player, and that the iPod/iPhone was more focused on applications instead – the “jack of all trades, master of none” argument.
Little did I know the can of worms I would open!
As I was sawing wood (sleeping to those of you who don’t get that), my article was linked to on a website called MacSurfer, where the Apple fans of the world congregate and read articles about iPods. As a result, well over 500 visitors came through last Saturday, and many of them had choice words for me, a Zune fan.
Most comments made me laugh. Some made me simply shake my head. I think it’s time we all learn how to discuss an issue with respect to all parties involved. The media has shown us the wrong way all too often in today’s politics. The internet has made it possible for us to talk to each other in ways we would never communicate face-to-face. Our attitudes are shifting, and it’s a problem. Using some of the comments as illustrations, let’s take a look at the right way, and the wrong way, to debate:
Let’s take a step back: a blogger who averages 75 hits a day on a good day made comments on a portable media player. He was not insulting your choice of media player, he was simply explaining his.
I’m a nobody right now in the wide world of the internet. I plan to be somebody, and I am taking steps to do so, but by and large, I hold very little authority in the grand scheme. I didn’t write the post for MacSurfer. In fact, I didn’t even know the site existed! I didn’t market the blog post at all before things started going haywire. In other words, they came to me. All I was doing was expressing an opinion.
And also, think about the topic: portable media players. That’s it. We’re not talking about universal health care, legalizing marijuana, public education, or censorship in the media. We are talking about gadgets that play music and video. This is not earth-shattering stuff. This is not stuff that will cause your children great pain when they grow up. This is a recreational topic. If you are dealing with a topic that really doesn’t affect your life, take a deep breath before entering your response. It’s not that big of a deal!
My favorite comment about the post was from my cousin, Ethan, which he posted on Facebook:
"Tech nerds are not, and never have been, the target market for the post-Macintosh (1984+) Apple. Apple software and hardware just works. Actual people like that. Crawl back into your parent’s basement and keep running Windoze on your self-constructed PC.” “Dear Nerds, Keep using Microsoft programs and products. They are perfect. For you at least. And you can score with a girl too! Because PCs with Windows installed are so crappy that no normal person can figure out how to fix them when something goes wrong (type one of hundreds of problems you encountered with your pc), there must be tons of chicks just waiting for someone to fix that pc for them. If you don’t like Apple, Mac or whatever, just don’t use it. Stop writing bullshit and annoying people.”
"Tech nerds are not, and never have been, the target market for the post-Macintosh (1984+) Apple. Apple software and hardware just works. Actual people like that. Crawl back into your parent’s basement and keep running Windoze on your self-constructed PC.”
“Dear Nerds, Keep using Microsoft programs and products. They are perfect. For you at least. And you can score with a girl too! Because PCs with Windows installed are so crappy that no normal person can figure out how to fix them when something goes wrong (type one of hundreds of problems you encountered with your pc), there must be tons of chicks just waiting for someone to fix that pc for them. If you don’t like Apple, Mac or whatever, just don’t use it. Stop writing bullshit and annoying people.”
First, a word of warning to all of you who comment on The Practical Nerd: if you want to offend me, calling me a “nerd” won’t do anything. That’s a compliment to me. And if you find my writing “annoying”, then don’t read it. There’s a lot of other stuff to read online.
We are not on the playground in elementary school anymore. So many people online today think that they will look like a big shot if they personally insult somebody they’ve never met. In fact, the only thing these people know about me is that I like my Zune. Apparently that is grounds for calling me names, “yelling” at me, and making various insults about my manhood.
Stick to the topic at hand. Don’t get distracted by your personal feelings for somebody. If you want to win an argument, state your case and stick to the facts. Diving head-first into opinions, especially these kinds, won’t help you win anything. In fact, you’ll just wind up looking stupider.
“But, but there is TODAY such a pass on the Iphone: Spotify. So where is REALLY the problem for Apple ? But on my Iphone i Can also have Access to more than 6 millions of music, i can download plenty of really good games, i Can read Ebook, i Can use Genius (far better than Smart DJ), I can use a lot of GPS, I can go on the internet with a far better navigator. It isn’t only a music player, it’s a computer in the pocket… And this computer in the pocket is at the same price than your Zune. So, the conclusion is easy…”
The Apple App Store is a smart piece of business. I never denied that. But my argument was about the music. Responding to my post by saying “iPods are better because of the App Store” misses the entire point I was making. I didn’t ignore the App Store. But that wasn’t part of the discussion.
This is also not the only comment to mention Spotify. I won’t argue it: Spotify looks like a fantastic service. But it’s not available in the United States. At all. Period. To be honest, from the people I’ve talked to, it doesn’t look like it will be any time soon, if at all. I mentioned this in a couple of my replies in the comments section, and guess what? More people kept repeating how great Spotify is.
At least this makes me feel cool: I have a good number of international readers!
Anyway, if you’re trying to make a point, make sure it’s relevant to the argument at hand. You should be countering the arguments that were made by the other party. If you don’t, it shows that you are ignoring what they are trying to say. And guess what? They’ll ignore your argument then, too.
"Zune is Dead." “this is your 3rd zoon you say? lolz. bang the drum and wave that penance.”
"Zune is Dead."
“this is your 3rd zoon you say? lolz. bang the drum and wave that penance.”
You might as well stick your tongue out or shoot spitballs at me in retaliation, because that’s how mature you look when you argue like this. In real life, it’s like repeating what the other person is saying, just in a funny voice. Knock it off.
There is a way to “agree to disagree”, particularly when you are debating about opinions. I didn’t change anybody’s mind, and nobody changed my mind. In this world, you can exchange ideas and points of view and still be honest and respectful about it. Here are two of my favorite comments that make good points while still being respectful to me:
"First, I am a long time Apple user (1979 – Apple ][+) but I have used most micro OS’s from TRS to Commodore to Apple // to Apple /// to Lisa to Mac (OS1 to 9 & OSX 10.2 to 10.4) to CP/M to MS-DOS to Windows 1, 2, 3, 95 & XP plus some UNIX and Linux (not in order of usage). . You think apps are not so important while music is so so important. Your opinion. For me, music is nice, but I don’t go through so much music myself. To each their own, and what turns me on about technology is what the technology can do for me. I use what works, and Apple product most of the time works better for me than what Microsoft product does. I use what works best and I have a pile of Dell’s, have built my own PC boxes and have helped others with theirs. I use a Mac as my personal system for email and web browsing for the safety of not being infected by all the Windows malware out there. . I don’t have a cell phone at present, have only an iPod shuffle (1st gen) that I use periodically. Being in Canada, a Zune HD is reportedly not going to be available, and if true, is just not an option. The radio HD part is US only so the rest of the world loses out on access, which limits the appeal and market share of the product, while Apple makes a product that can be used almost anywhere in the world. The iPhone is a world phone, the Touch can be used anywhere, the Nano with the FM radio can be used anywhere, the list goes on for almost all Apple product. . So, while the Zune has gotten better from its first incarnation, I don’t hold out much hope for you for its future. MS discontinues products that don’t work out in its global domination drive, sometimes replacing them with a new model that instantly obsoletes the previous models, ala the first Zunes, the original XBox, etc. Apple on the other hand has brought the first iPhones and iPod Touches up to date as much as the hardware will allow with OS updates. Other iPods have been firmware updated to allow for bug fixes and feature enhancements. MS with their Windows CE/Mobile is just not that upgradable and other than a desktop PC, most Microsoft product is ultimately not upgradable and is instantly obsolete when a new version of the product appears. . For me for the most part, I like Apple and how they handle their product upgrades and upgradability. Your mileage may vary of course. Good luck with your Zune."
“Actually, Sony makes a rather brilliant MP3 player and even includes an excellent set of noise canceling headphones. that far outmatch both MSFT and APPL. Frankly, even the Zune HD is overloaded with features. Audiophiles want true uncompressed music delivered as purely and as distortion free as possible. I don’t think they need a game or a web browser to go a long with their favorite musician. But, since most of America’s youth suffer from ADD and have a lousy ear for sound, then overloaded players like the Zune, Archos, and iPod will easily get their business. Nice read though."
Thanks to everybody who commented – I’m glad I hit a nerve! Do you have any tips for debating points with others? Share them in our new and improved comments section!
I planned on doing the “same old” routine of posting a link to an interesting article with a little commentary, but there was just so much going on today that I had to cram it all into one! So here we go:
Why You Need to Abandon Your "Rescue Fantasy" (and yes, you do have one!) – Dave Navarro rocks your day with a look at your “rescue fantasy”. He’s right. A lot of people (myself included) spend our time thinking life would be better if only ___________. What a fantastic article this is!
20 Life Lessons I Learned in my 20’s – Marc from Marc and Angel Hack Life pauses to reflect as he approaches his 28th birthday. We all benefit from it.
13 Awesome Money Saving Sites We Love at Wise Bread – The writers at Wise Bread share where you can find coupons, deals, and plenty of money-saving advice. You can even set up a savings account that people can donate money to!
Gizmodo covers the big Apple announcements of today! – Apple held a big conference today to announce cheaper MacBooks, as well as the iPhone 3GS. In addition, the iPhone 3G will now be $99, according to Apple. So the question is, will this be enough to bring in new Apple fans? We know the fanboys are lusting over it (I’m following a few of them on Twitter – yeah, they get pretty annoying on days like this), but what about us casual users? I haven’t owned a Mac or an iPhone, so now I have to think about whether or not this is enough for me to switch. What about you?
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Let’s discuss in the comments, shall we?
In the past year, as I’ve dived deeper and deeper into nerdism, I’ve made drastic changes to my computer. It all started with Windows Vista. I defended Vista for over a year – my laptop came with it, and all I really needed out of it was decent performance and an internet connection. Nothing fancy. Then one day last year, about a month after I started living off of my writing business (which completely depended on having an active internet connection throughout the day), my internet would not load any pages. I was connected, but I couldn’t do anything. My then-roommate could do anything with XP, but I was stuck.
I took it to a “Windows Certified” computer repair service. They even came over and sat at my desk for over an hour. Nothing. The guy took it home and worked on it for hours. Nothing. His solution? Reinstall Windows. I called Toshiba (the maker of my laptop) and they told me the same. There was no solution. I found forums online with people who had the same problem, but with no fix for it.
Now, as much as I would like this article to be about how much I hate Vista for that, it’s not. I’m setting this up for you. I didn’t have a copy of XP, and every version of Vista comes with a free downgrade to XP if needed – except for Vista Basic. Guess which version I had? So, since I didn’t have over $200 lying around to buy XP, I started looking at Ubuntu, which is a version of Linux. I tried it out, loved it, and made copies of all my important files onto my external hard drive for “safekeeping”. But, as I installed Ubuntu, I learned that I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing, and I promptly (accidentally) erased my entire external hard drive clean. All those important files and business notes were gone.
So I’m an idiot, right? Well, I learned from that experience and made sure I knew what I was doing the next time I had to install a new operating system on my computer. In fact, I had to do such a thing later in the year, when I learned that Ubuntu wouldn’t allow me to run Skype through my computer – and I had already purchased a phone line through Skype for a year. I managed to get a copy of XP and, after unplugging my external drive so that nothing could happen to it, I reinstalled my computer yet again. But I took my time in moving everything off the external drive onto my laptop’s hard drive right away.
Two weeks later, the hard drive failed completely. All my files were gone. Again.
Now, you may be backing up to an external drive or DVDs, or you may not be backing up at all. But just because you are not reinstalling operating systems every few months doesn’t mean you have no need. Here are a handful of reasons why you need an online backup solution:
So when I sat down to finally set up my long-overdue online backup, I had certain criteria that I needed to follow:
So I found Syncplicity, and my search was over.
Syncplicity is a beautiful program. It works for XP users, Vista users (and all you Vista users are going to need it!), and even Mac users as well. You can install Syncplicity, set it up, and have your files backed up before you even figure out how to pronounce their stinking name. Here’s how you can set yours up today and finally enjoy the peace of mind that comes with online backup.
Syncplicity has two plans: a free plan and a paid one. I use the free one, and it’s all I need – 2 GB of online storage. The free plan also comes with the ability to sync files across 2 different computers. This is incredibly handy if you have a home desktop computer and a laptop that you take on the road. When you use their service, you can automatically have a copy of each document or file stored on both computers. Nice and easy.
With Syncplicity, you don’t need to sit and make copies of files all the time. You don’t even need a separate backup folder. The only thing you have to do is tell the program which folders to watch. Syncplicity will automatically back up any files and subfolders in your designated folders. Plus, if you make any changes to a document, the program will back up the new version immediately after you hit the “Save” button. This is the definition of “no muss, no fuss”.
Now, anything that’s backed up will have a little green checkmark next to it, showing you it’s safe. Syncplicity will also be running in the background, taking up very little resources and backing up everything on-the-go. As you make changes, they are being saved. It doesn’t get much simpler than that!
Syncplicity also has extra features, such as easy file and folder sharing with friends, and automatic Facebook integration for pictures that you back up with the program. Check out Syncplicity’s website for more information and to sign up. Do you already have a favorite online backup solution that we should know about? Share it in the comments!
