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This page is dedicated to the proposition that anybody with two brain cells to rub together can use a computer. I know people who are still scared to death of the beasts and refuse to go near one for fear of catching some dread technology bug. Fear not friends. If I can use these silly things, anybody can. That is why I included this page. For those of you who just went out and bought a computer so you could get on the internet but really don't know how to do much else but search and surf.
The same can be said for setting up web pages. In fact, if you have more than two brain cells you can probably set up a good web page. 10+ and you can do professional pages and get paid for it.
Let me begin by saying that I am by no means a computer expert nor do I play one on TV. I have just been around them and worked with them for so long I have managed to pick up some pretty useful information. I can confidently say that I haven't met a piece of software yet that I couldn't bend to my will. Thanks to Xerox, Apple and Mr. Gates you don't need to know much these days to make anything work. To put my qualifications into perspective I will borrow a tip from John (my hubby) and put things into historical context.The very first time I used a computer, I was learning to program in BASIC and storing my work on 5.25 floppies. Granted I wasn't doing really complicated stuff. Mostly graphics. The one I remember being most proud of was a dragon head that breathed fire. :-) Later, I used what was probably one of the earliest versions of Wordperfect. At this point in my life my grand dream was to get my Mom and Dad to buy me an Apple IIe. I can still hear the raucous laughter ringing in my ears.
Then one day IT happened. The school bought a Macintosh ! I saw that little box with the cord coming out the back, heard the words "point and click" and my brain went into shock. Shut right down. I didn't touch a computer for almost three years after that.
As you can see I finally did come back into the fold. Now I pretty much have the exact same reaction to DOS. I'm a PC user, though, and I still have some religious differences with Macintosh. BUT, I can use one now without getting a rash. If you're a new user on a Mac, the first section of this page will be of no use to you whatsoever. The web stuff, however, will work.
After high school I never took computer classes. Everything I know about computers from Windows 3.1 on I taught myself. That is what I hope this page will inspire others to do. You really don't need to pay $300/hr or whatever they charge at a community college or technical school to learn the computer. You also don't need to go out and buy hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of software to get done what you need to do. (Unless you're starting a home computing business of some kind, then you should know more about computers than I do.) The same can be said about web writing and design. I spent NO MONEY on this web page.
