Daddy Bob

DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A

 

September 24, 2006

Q. Can you explain what happens when I defrag my hard drive in terms that a novice can understand?

A. This response got longer than I anticipated. This is not an easy subject to keep short and still cover in very simple terms so I have responded to this question in an article rather then here in the Q&A section. It can be read there or by clicking HERE.

Q. Why is it so difficult to understand computer manuals and most software instructions? Why aren't computers easier to use and understand?

A. This is a question I am asked all the time, especially when someone has a problem and I ask them if they have read the manual. The response I usually get is that they are so hard to understand and don't make sense. Well, here is an analogy that may explain this better.

Try to imagine that you were born on an island that had no outside contact with the rest of the world, and there were no modern inventions of any kind on this island. You are now 21, and were taught to read from some old novels that happened to be there. One day, a ship comes by and drops off a new automobile, then abruptly leaves.  In the car is the owner's manual, that you pick up and start to read.

It starts off with how to start the car by inserting the key in the ignition. What is a key? What is the ignition? You are told to put the gear shift it into Drive, and press the accelerator. What is the gear shift? What is Drive? What is the accelerator? Then you are told to press the brake pedal to stop. What is the brake? What is a pedal?

You see, you must have some general knowledge of a automobile before you can understand the operator's manual. Similarly, you must have some general knowledge of a computer before you will be able to understand its instruction manual.

I am surprised that many people don't know what the hard drive looks like; what RAM is, what USB, Ethernet, Zip, MP3 or other common computer terms mean. Many haven't the slightest inkling of what the operating system is or which one they are using. I ask you then, if you didn't know what a key, ignition, accelerator petal, brake, etc. was, would you expect to be able to understand the auto's operator manual? 

It takes some general knowledge of a computer before you will be able to understand the manuals or instructions. It is no more difficult than learning to drive a car. The only thing lacking is the desire to learn.

Q. What is bandwidth?

A. Bandwidth is a key concept in many applications, originally in radio and optics.  In radio communications, bandwidth is the range of frequencies occupied by a modulated carrier wave, whereas in optics it is the width of an individual spectral line or the entire range.

However, I suspect that you are referring to bandwidth as it applies to web hosting. Here, bandwidth is the amount in bytes of information, files, pictures downloaded from the web server over a prescribed period of time. In essence, it is the rate [data/time], but the time in this case is not seconds but rather a month or a week. So this rate is not like 56K or broadband, etc., which are also bandwidth but are measured per second.

Web hosting companies often quote a monthly bandwidth limit for a website, for example 100 GB/month. If visitors to the website download a total greater than 100 GB in one month, the bandwidth limit will have been exceeded. This can generate a warning, or completely close the site to the public.

This bandwidth calculation includes all pages and graphics on a web page that have not been recently cached in your "Temporary Internet Files" folder. Whether or not your browser caches web pages depends on how you have it set. By default, most browsers do cache many pages, but the experienced web user on broadband usually chooses to not cache any pages.

Caching web pages on a fast broadband connection is not necessary since downloading a web page from the server will almost always be faster than getting the page from the computer cache. This will be especially true if the cache is large, and never emptied.

Monthly bandwidth figures will generally include files that have been uploaded to a site as well as those downloaded.

The biggest contributors to large bandwidth usage are large pictures, audio, video and streaming video files. 

Click HERE to view or download this article in MS Word format

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