Your Computer and You

This blog post will be about your computer. Since I have talked about almost all the basics of how to use the internet this post will be about your computer. This will be explaining the parts of the computer and what they do in simpler for so that more people can understand. I will list the parts and what they do.
CPU-Central Processing Unit. This is like the brain of the computer and controls everything.
GPU-Graphics Processing Unit. This is like the eye of the computer. It makes it possible to see all the graphics on the screen
Motherboard- This is where everything is put. It is like the skeleton of the computer. Everything in the computer hooks to this
RAM-Random Access Memory. This makes it easier for the computer to do multiple things at once.
PSU-Power Supply. This is what controls the flow of electricity into the computer
HD-Hard Drive. This stores all the things you save.
Case-This is what holds the computer together and protects the parts or inner workings. This is like the body of the computer

Traditional Motherboard

These are all the main parts of the computer. There are others things that you can add like a CD/DVD Burner and writer, A second GPU for better graphics processing, an SSD or solid state drive which is way faster than a Normal Hard Drive but a lot more expensive. Next I will talk about care of you computer. You never want to move a computer while it is on and running. If you want to move it make sure that it is turned off and unplugged or else you could damage something inside. You also want to keep it clean and not eat food around it. You also want to clean the inside of it out ever so often so that it doesn't get filled with dust and ruin the computer. To clean the inside you just open the side panel and vacuum the inside. Make sure no to knock anything lose. Keeping your computer clean it the first step in making your computer run faster and long. Lastly we will talk about your computer area. Your computer area should not be super messy and close in. If it is closed in then the computer wont have a fresh supply of air and then it will over heat easier and it will get dusty faster. If it is messy then there is a bigger chance that something will be slipped onto the computer and that is a big no no.

Traditional GPU

Keyboard layouts

This post will be about keyboard layouts. There are two main keyboard layouts. Not as in where the keys are but that the keys do. There is the standard qwerty keyboard and Dvorak. Most keyboards come as qwerty originally. The keyboard you are using right now it probably qwerty. You can tell by the top row from left to right spells qwerty. Not all the way across the top row but the first 6 keys. This keyboard layout is the default that almost everyone uses. The way qwerty was invented was to make it so that people would type slower. This is because when it was invented people used typewriters and if they typed to fast the bars they controlled would collide and it would jam. This is now not a big deal if someone fast because we don't use typewriters anymore. On a qwerty keyboard the more commonly use keys were put further apart as so the bars would not hit. This is still a good keyboard layout because we are used to it. Next is the Dvorak keyboard layout. Dvorak is a good keyboard layout because it puts the most commonly used keys on home row. This keyboard layout is used to make you type a efficiently as possible. It also causes less strain on the wrists and hands because of this. I personally still us qwerty but Dvorak is a better layout overall and you can give it a try if you want.

http://dvorak.i-rox.com/
This link is to a post on a website that compares qwerty and Dvorak

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l47HjQ3kCac
This video shows how to Dvorak keyboard has more words on home row and reduces strain on your hands and wist

Search Engines

Bing Logo

Google Logo

A search engine is a program that lets you search for data, websites, documents etc. through the Internet. There are many types of search engines. The most popular are Google and Bing. This post will be comparing the different search engines. First we will start with Bing. Some of the pros about bing are that it looks good, but that is a matter of opinion. Bing's video and image search are good but there is nothing special about it. Bing is also a fast search engine. Bing also had live updating which is it gives you search results as you type out what you are looking for. For the con's the search results can be really weird and have nothing to do with what you want. Next is Google. Google is a very good search engine because it has a very simple layout and it has very good and accurate search results. There are really no downsides you using google over Bing. It also searches to the depths of the Internet to find almost everything that is related to your topic. It also has live updating like Bing. Both a very good search engines and which one you use is a matter of preference.

Popular Websites

Youtube Logo

Reddit Alien

This post will be about some of the most popular websites on the Internet. First of all their is youtube. Youtube, or YT for short, is a website that lets you view and comment on user uploaded videos as well as post your own. You can also share these videos so that your friends can view them as well. Most popular videos that you may have seen on the news are usually referred to as having hits or views on YT. YT is owned by google but was originally founded in February of 2005 by three former PayPal workers. In october of 2006 youtube was bought by google for 1.65 billion in google stock. Youtube is one of the best website for sharing and watching online videos. Another popular website is Facebook. Facebook is , right now, the most popular website for social networking. Facebook has been described in one of my earlier post. So if you want to learn more about it go to that post. Lastly is reddit. Reddit is a social news website where users can post links, pictures or text articles. Reddit has a front page where the most upvoted articles. People give an article and upvote if they enjoyed it or thought it was good. Their are also subreddits where only articles about subreddit can be posted. For example there is the sureddit aww. Only cute pictures can be posted here. There are also post that are considered inappropriate and they have a tag in red on them that says NSFW or NSFL. They stand for "Not safe for work" and "Not safe for life". These are some of the most popular websites on the Internet and you should definitely go to these websites. Here are the links to each website.

www.reddit.com
www.youtube.com
www.facebook.com

Announcement

Hey,

I just added a youtube sidebar that features videos. I cannot choose the videos specifically but I can put in keywords. The videos that you will see will mainly be about tech, so if you want to learn more about computers in general feel free to click on one of the videos. Some of the videos are require more knowledge to fully understand them but you can search around and hopefully you will learn a thing or two about computers :)

Mac VS Windows

Mac OSX

This post is about the two most known Operating Systems (OS). An OS performs basic tasks like input of the keyboard and mouse, sending output to the monitor and file tracking. Basically the OS is what runs your computer. First we will start with Mac. The Mac OS or OSX is made by Apple. OSX is a very secure OS but is very limited in what the user can do. It almost forces you to do things one way (Usually the simplest way). This makes it harder to do things and make it harder for developers to make programs for OSX. Most programs for OSX are made by Apple. This makes Apple more money but makes the Macs have less freedom of choice when it comes to programs. Most programs nowadays are also made for OSX not just windows. OSX also doesn't have many games. OSX also gives you the ability to install Windows on it as well but it doesn't run as good on a Mac as it does on a dedicated windows PC. Overall Mac is a good OS. It gives the user security at the cost of freedom. It isn't as developer friendly because it is hard to make programs for it meaning their is a lack of games and non apple programs on it but it is a very clean and simply look. Next is windows. Windows gives you almost unlimited freedom but is harder to use for people that are new to computers because of this freedom. Windows is made by Microsoft but is on different companies computers. Windows 7 (The newest version of Windows) doesn't get that many viruses but it is more common on Windows than on a Mac. Almost ever program that is made is for Windows. This gives the user the choice of more programs. Unlike OSX, Windows does not give you the ability the install OSX on it. You can still install other OS's like Ubuntu or other variants of Linux. Overall Windows is a more universal OS that gives the user the ability to do almost anything but gets more viruses than mac (Not a big deal considering how little viruses Windows gets) and it is harder to use because of this freedom. There are other OS's like Linux and Ubuntu but if you want to learn about those then you need to look them up yourself. If you are wondering why I choose to highlight Windows and OSX, it is because they are the two most common OS's and they come default on almost every computer.

Windows 7

Hotkeys

Hot keys are a combination of keys on your keyboard that you can press to get things done faster instead of clicking with the mouse. Every program has different hotkeys. For most browser if you press backspace it will go back to the previous page that you were on instead of clicking the little arrow at the top right. First I will start with Mac hot keys in a list form.

Command-Space: Opens up the spotlight for searching everything on your Hard drive
Command-Tab: Goes to the previous application. Holding space then pressing tab multiple times opens a list of applications
Command-M: Minimizes current window
Option-Command-M:Minimizes all window
Command-N: Opens a new window in finder, safari and most programs
Command-C: Copy
Command-V: Paste


Windows hot keys :
Control-C: Copy
Control-V: Paste
Control-X: Cut
Windows Key-Spacebar: This makes all your windows transparent so you can see your desktop
Windows Key-F: Opens windows search
Control-A: Selects all
Control-P: Prints current page

These are just some of the important and useful Hot keys. There are many hot keys that one can use. There are so many hot keys that you can almost use a computer with no mouse. Here is a list of even more hot keys.


Windows

Keystroke	What It Does
Home	Goes to top of page in Internet Explorer Will go to the first line in other applications
End	Goes to end of page in Internet Explorer Will go to the last line in other applications
F1	Displays Help
F2	Rename Selected Item
F3	Find Files
F4	Display "Address" box dropdown menu in Internet Explorer
F5	Refresh the current window
F6	Switch panes in the current application
F7	Activates spell checker in certain applications
Alt & Spacebar	Open current application's window's controls (Restore, Close, etc.)
Alt & Down Arrow	Open drop-down menu
Alt & Doubleclick on Item	View item properties
Alt & F4	Close current window
Alt & Tab	Switch among running applications. Press Tab key to cycle apps.
Alt & Enter	View properties of selected item
Alt & Backspace	Undo
Alt & Print Screen	Copy window to clipboard as bitmap image
Shift & Right Arrow	Add current character to text
Shift & Left Arrow	Remove previous character from text
Shift & Up Arrow	Remove previous line from text
Shift & Down Arrow	Add current line to text
Shift & Delete	Delete items immediately (no recycle)
Shift & Insert	Paste clipboard contents
Shift & F10	Same as right-clicking on item (display item menu)
Shift & Print Screen	Copy window to clipboard as bitmap image

Source: http://www.wa.gov/esd/training/quickguides/other_4.htm


Mac

Command	Keyboard Shortcut
Add Selected Item to Sidebar	Command+T
Close All Windows	Option+Command+W
Close Window	Command+W
Copy	Command+C
Cut	Command+X
Dashboard	F12 (fn+F12 on laptops)
Duplicate	Command+D
Eject Disk	Command+E
Empty Trash	Shift+Command+Delete
Exposé: All Windows	F9 (fn+F9 on laptops)
Exposé: Application Windows	F10 (fn+F10 on laptops)
Exposé: Desktop	F11 (fn+F11 on laptops)
Find	Command+F
Get Info	Command+I
Go to Applications Folder	Shift+Command+A
Go to Desktop	Shift+Command+D
Go to Home Folder	Shift+Command+H
Help	Shift+Command+?
Hide Current Application	Command+H
Log Out Current User	Shift+Command+Q
Make Alias	Command+L
Minimize Window	Command+M
Move to Trash	Command+Delete
Empty Trash	Shift+Command+Delete
New Finder Window	Command+N
New Folder	Shift+Command+N
New Smart Folder	Option+Command+N
Next Window	Command+`
Open	Command+O
Open Inspector	Option+Command+I
Paste	Command+V
Quick Look (at selected item)	Command+Y
Select All	Command+A
Show Original (of selected alias)	Command+R
Show View Options	Command+J
Show/Hide Dock	Option+Command+D
Turn VoiceOver On/Off	Command+F5 (fn+F5 on laptops)
Turn Zoom On/Off	Option+Command+8
Undo	Command+Z
View Window as Icons	Command+1
View Window as List	Command+2
View Window as Columns	Command+3
View Window as Cover Flow	Command+4

Source: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/mac-os-x-snow-leopard-keyboard-shortcuts.html