The Basics:
How to Deal With Your Computer
and Minimize Problems

This page, and the other pages linked to it, will introduce you to the basics of dealing with your computer system. The key to dealing with computers is to remember three rules:

1. You can't really hurt the computer unless you try.
2. Computers are stupid. They'll do what you tell them to do, even it is not in your best interests. You are the intelligent one. The computer is just a tool.
3. You can't trust computers.

Keeping these rules in mind, let's see how we can learn to handle this tool so it really can improve our organizational capacity, enhance our research efforts, and make our work look more impressive. Many of you who were told that computers would "save you time" realize that, in many ways, this was a false hope. Once you can do something, you are expected to do it (classic case of rising expectations). Select from the links below:

NOTE: Some of this material is dated.
I do not pretend to be able to keep up with all new developments.