The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Editorial Ash Nallawalla ash@melbpc.org.au

The theme this month is "Back to Basics". Recently I was reminded of my first introduction to computing. I was doing a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Otago University in the mid-1970s and we had a unit in Computing. The teaching language was FORTRAN IV and the computer was a Burroughs B6700 - a typical magnetic core, "flashing lights" monster in a glass-walled room. We wrote our simple programs on coding sheets that were deposited in a box. Someone keyed those sheets into punch cards and ran the programs. The next day we could collect the sheet, cards, and printout. Often, the program was buggy and one had to repeat this procedure until we were happy with the results. 

Needless to say, I was not attracted by computers until the early 1980s when I saw a Microbee kit computer that could compute the position of orbiting radio amateur satellites. I was a radio amateur for many years (ZL4LM/VK3CIT). Without labouring the point about prehistoric computers, the situation then was that you needed to be an electronics enthusiast to build a PC and to understand programming, as there were relatively few programs for the home user. In the late 1980s, I studied computing formally at Deakin University and filled in some gaps in my learning. 

All computing courses start with a quick primer on number systems, such as binary, decimal, octal, hexadecimal, and so on. One of the first topics covered by the Deakin course included a circuit diagram of a flip-flop. Although my radio amateur background helped me to recognise it as an electronic circuit, I checked the material to ensure that I wasn't in the wrong course. When I read the notes, I learnt that this was one of the building blocks of computing: memory. It helped us to understand how a computer stores a single bit - either it is on or off.
 
Coming back to the present, the schools and colleges are well-equipped to teach the basics of computing. My primary-school-age children use Macs and PCs at school. They know how to install a new program or to log into our Internet service and surf the Web. Come to think of it, I did not have to teach them computing at all. All offices appear to have a PC on nearly every desk and, I assume, that most small businesses have at least one. 
So, who needs to go back to basics? 

I don't believe that every computer user needs to know about number systems, bits, and so on. Yet, when I see our Melb PC members get into computing strife, I think of a few "basics" that they need to consider:

• Practise Safe Computing. People like to send amusing attachments to their friends, who are conditioned to double-click on any attachment. Unfortunately, viruses and Trojans sometimes exploit this weakness to do their damage. You find out about it after it is too late. Get a good antivirus program. Update all your software as often as you can - I am talking about the free "patches" available on the vendor's Web site. 
  
• Care for Your Computer. Keep food and liquids away from the keyboard. Turn it off with the "Shut Down" command before hitting the power switch (modern computers often don't need the latter step). 
  
• Back Up. Your data are (yes, it is the plural form) the most valuable part of your computer. Unless you have an automated backup device such as a tape or other high-capacity device, you probably don't back up as often as you should. I have two hard drives in my PC and I try to keep the programs on the C: drive and data on the other drive. My most valuable data are my e-mail and Web shortcuts, so I copy them to the other drive every time the PC starts. Periodically, I save all my data to a CD (rewritable variety). 
  
• Beware of Junk E-mail. Incorrectly called "spam", you are doomed to receive increasing quantities of junk e-mail. Get an e-mail account on a free site such as Hotmail and advertise only that address in every form that you fill out. Keep your primary ISP address for e-mail that you do want. 
  
• RTFM. A polite version of this contraction is "Read the Flipping Manual!" and it extends beyond software manuals. On the Internet, especially in newsgroups or the Web, look for the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document. Find a good search engine and learn how to do a complex search. 
  
• Attend Melb PC SIGs. Each SIG is different and has its own dynamics. Here you will meet other computer users, which, after all is one of the reasons for belonging to a user group! I know that many of our recent members joined us only for the Internet Service, but we have many other useful facets. See for yourselves.

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