Introduction
First let me say that I am not a complete computer expert. My career in computers started both out of interest and necessity, but I do not have a degree in computer science. Still, I am amazed at how much I was able to learn and how many of my better paid (and treated) colleagues I was able to surpass in skill simply by working hard, knowing how to do simple research, paying attention, and giving a shit.
I am writing this book in the hopes that my expereinces will help users realize that regardless of what the proprietary companies and others have told you, computers are not as complex as you have been conditioned to believe. You can easily learn how they work at more than the GUI (graphical user interface) level, and most of the time you will not really break anything beyond repair if you simply do some basic research, BACK UP, and apply some common sense when working on problems.
I feel that the current culture of computing, mostly in the computer support arena and especially at the University level, is riddled with misunderstanding and sadly, unnecessary incompetence. Let me say at this point that incompetance is not a bad word in my book. It simply means that there is an area that a person can improve on. We are all incompetent in certain areas. The areas we choose to become competent in often depend on our situations. If a person is an IT “pro” and incompetent but willing to become competant, there is no problem there; If they simply become worse as the years go on and even create a culture where not knowing and not trying to find out is okay, then that is an unacceptable problem. I also hope that by writing this book I can shed some light on a dark area of our culture that not only does not need to be dark, but can lead us to wonderful things if cultivated correctly. I am writing in the hopes of a brighter future when it comes to technology and our implementation of it.
As an aside, this entire book will be written using Open Office. If there is something simple in writing style, formatting, etc. that should have been done and is not, I assure you it is because of a mistake I made and not because of any lack of functionality inherent in this amazing free product.