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Pentium
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allanco (10/03/2008)
I only ever ask questions and very rarely can I offer advice, I think that makes me a simpleton, but I think the mag manages to cater for most people, and for those that really don't know what they are doing there is always Computeractive!
Eeek. ComputerActive is a bit... patronising.
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It has some useful workshops, though. Seriously. Basic, but a nice springboard to further learning.
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Jason (11/03/2008)
It has some useful workshops, though. Seriously. Basic, but a nice springboard to further learning.
Have to confess, it's where I started (issue 11) and finally got round to cancelling the subscription last year, I found it very repetitive and full of reviews of "consumer" stuff and ready built mega expensive computers, rather than showing people how to DIY and save money in the process, but I guess it still has a market.
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Pentium
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I totally agree Jason, I learnt quite a bit from it myself (When I spent saturdays at my nan's house a few years ago, I used to waddle upto the local shop and buy the issue every two weeks).
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Pentium
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| I feel that there is no need to denegrate any other publication because one may believe it is too basic or simple. I still buy C/Active and also buy MM every week - both magazines are aimed at different markets of expertise - putting MM at the top. However that is not to say C/Active is a lesser publication - I agree with Jason that I too have found very many articles informative and worth keeping in C/Active. Let us not begin a cult whereby a person who reads a certain magazine is deemed to be "computer literate" inferior to those who read others. The whole point of magazines is to bring knowledge, information, help, pointers etc. etc to their readership - if one starts off with Magazine "A" and then goes onto Magazine "B" (I won't use the word "graduates" for obvious reasons) the Magazine "A" has fulfilled its purpose. All magazines have repetative type reviews and this is true of both C/Active and MM - it's keeping the correct balance that is important. At the end of the day I didn't learn to read by getting a copy of "War & Peace" off the shelf - but "Noddy" did prove invaluable in getting me to the stage where I could. (Now have I put something in this last paragraph that I might just regret the phrasing thereof???:w00t
Dave H
What is the difference between genius and stupidity? Genius has limits. - Albert Einstein
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Pentium
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I have War & Peace on my shelf
I'm not saying it's a terrible magazine, but it's far from the best. But as a learning aid, yes, I will confess that it can be invaluable.
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186
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| Some of you have got what I was on about but some of you, I'm afraid are a little wide of the mark. I consider myslef a simpleton in that I have no idea when it comes to the language computers speak. For example open up a program in wordpad and you have a list of command lines which the computer through various drivers, audio and picture files creates an interface. It is those same command lines that govern what the program can and cannot do. In essence, Command lines are the DNA of a program. Now, I can fix a PC when time demands it. (Windows help for Vista is an absolute god-send now it actually gives you answers and not just information) However when one gets to say Linux or hardware faults or finding out what error codes mean then I might as well be trying to Pilot a Eurofighter full of Pigs effluent. Now i consider myself more advanced than the standard plug and play home user (I'm sure I'm not the only one otherwise why are we all on this forum) but not advanced or knowledgable enough to start fixing more cataclismic problems. Also Building my own PC is becoming an ever decreasing mystery(thanks to your good selves). What I woudl be looking for is articles or a weekly column for the user like me. The one in the middle who is not completely catered for and treat with an air of ' a little information is dangerous' by those in the know (locals to me only its seems, now I have found this forum). People who can just about set the Video, there are publications for them, People who like to hack MSFS and build Boeing 747's with Kamikahzee airlines plasered down the side, perfect. Me and simpletons like me. No, well not fully anyway. I have read other publications and to be honest I find them a little to patronising. MM gives you the info you want in a language that is something I or my computer will understand and doesn't spend three pages telling me how to switch the damn thing on. But there does come a point in each issue where I just have to put it down and say, ''But Captain, I don't speak Klingon.'' I think it is that link which the mag would benefit from. Don't what ever you do take this as a critism or a slant because it isn't. I love the mag and the only thing that stops me buying it is WHSmith forgetting to send it each week to my local newsagent (I would subscribe but they are threatening to build a Sainsburys round here and I want to support my local shops). To recap I think it is useful to remember that in order to label oneself a Simpleton one must first acknoledge how much information one must consume in order to achieve the rank of Expert. It is the direct ratio of your knowledge and the Experts knowledge and the ability to put it into a metal picture or graph the difference in knowledge and experience that lets you know that you for all you are more knowledgeable than some. You have a mountain to climb before you can get anywhere near him. I hope that clears a few things up.
Why do they put so much crap on new PC's???????
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Pentium
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| Hi Slow... My criticism was not of your suggestion which has excellent merit (I have suggested similar in the past - didn't get anywhere) - but of your rather unfortunate choice of word - "Simpleton" - which you attribute to a simple, uncomplicated person. Unfortunately I feel it would tend to imply a person not quite "100%" - which I know was not your meaning thereof. Great idea - lets get a better description!
Dave H
What is the difference between genius and stupidity? Genius has limits. - Albert Einstein
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