Hi, The following may sound on topic, but in essence, it is not exactly related to BN list; technically, it covers any forum we are subscribed to (including this one):
A few days ago, a list member asked me (off list) to teach him some tech stuff. According to him, he didn't really understand tech stuff that gets floated around here. He told me that he uses majority of apps, but doesn't understand what we the listers are saying to him and requested that I (or someone) teach him tech materials so that he may serve the list better. While I was pondering his posts, I thought, "do we - even the geeks - know and understand what we are talking about?" Sometimes I see that we copy each other's words without knowing what it actually means, or paste something "useful" from the Internet but does not understand the content of the material at hand. For instance, the whole discussion of defining a BrailleNote as a computer or not spurred answers that I (the originator) didn't expect - ranging from answers like, "BN is a computer" to "BN couldn't possibly be a computer due to its features" and things in between. My answer to the whole thread was, "BN is indeed a computer - a specialized computer, in fact." To someone who may not know what we were saying, this may sound like a spectacular "answer" - but in fact, it is not a spectacular or official answer. Research is ongoing to blur the lines between embedded devices and general-purpose computers, and the result is that we now call even phones "computers" or mistake notetakers as just a notetaking device, not knowing that they are in fact computers themselves - a very simple yet confusing fact; a fact which may lead to confusion unless if we do know what we are saying. As a long time user of BrailleNote and a subscriber to this forum, I believe that most confusion came about simply because we didn't understand what we are actually saying. Simply agreeing to someone just because they put it in words you can understand does not mean you know everything; just pasting the content just because it sounds "useful" does not mean not all people would understand what the post is talking about; just listing the problems without giving proper context is, in my opinion, somewhat worse than the problem itself - all that comes out of it would be misunderstanding and wrong solution, right? For instance, suppose a newbie asks what an acronym means e.g. WPA, VGA and so forth and some of us answer it without knowing what the actual meaning of the acronym is - just saying VGA is Video Graphics Array would not be enough, in my opinion; I believe if we give a bit of explanation and understand what the term(s) really mean, then the content would be less confusing (FYI, VGA is one of the ways graphics can be programmed on computer screens, and WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) is a more secure way of protecting wireless networks than WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy)) - and that's how one would teach tech stuff, in my opinion (using context and knowing what we are saying). That's all. If you have any comments on this, feel free to send it to me off list so that I may forward it to the lister off list. Cheers, Joseph ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a copy to the list as well. To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [email protected] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
