Topic: My horrible intro to computers textbook

[lucek]

So I'm back in school. Unfortunatly my computer core credits have expired so time to take intro to computers again. Joy get taught how to turn on a "system unit" again. So the first 3 chapters were like that. Archaic terms no one has used in 30 years bad advice on computer security and bland praise for everything microsoft.

Then came an interlood on computer safty. Avoid eyestrain bad posture and sedintary life oh and cellphones and moniters produce radiation that may be dangerous. Yeah.

Although the radiation from most digital gadgets is considered harmless, researchers have raised concerns about radiation from cell phones and computer display devices. .

Some other gems from this section. Sound is radiation and the sun realeses radiation in the form of heat.

[Noisy Rhysling]

Is this a "Time-Life" book?

[lucek]

Colege level text book.

Let that sink in.

[jt512]

Colege level text book.

Let that sink in.

You can't spell "college," and your initial post is barely comprehensible.  Let that sink in.

[Soldier of FORTRAN]

Must be the radiation

[lucek]

Colege level text book.

Let that sink in.

You can't spell "college," and your initial post is barely comprehensible.  Let that sink in.

Really dude. I posted that quickly on a phone. Why harp on me for bad auto correct and sloppy typos on a forum while i talk about published textbook s that spread misinformation.

[swan]

Really dude. I posted that quickly on a phone. Why harp on me for bad auto correct and sloppy typos on a forum while i talk about published textbook s that spread misinformation.

Unfortunately the word "skeptic" attracts a lot of people who only like to prove that they're better than everyone else, so this forum is crawling with borderline trolls. (They just want a reaction.) If you feel like someone is being a jerk for the sake of it, I'd suggest that just add them to your ignore list. Too many people here aren't worth the effort of even acknowledging, but there are a few really good folks worth interacting with so focus on them instead.

Anyway, your meaning was clear enough and I have to admit it's a bit funny to think about learning to use "microcomputers" in the '70s. My biggest complaint about computer textbooks had been that by the time I'd get hold of a book on some programming language it'd be a year old and, in the current version everyone was using, half of the things in the book had already been deprecated. Fortunately a lot of the online guides are kept up-to-date.

Best of luck getting through the lame stuff so you can start on the important principles and maybe some good CS theory.

[The Latinist]

To be fair, CRT’s did sometimes leak x-rays (though at very low levels), and there were legitimate concerns about people sitting too close to them for hours a day. That is no longer any kind of a concern with modern displays, however.

Also, I’m sorry a certain poster was being an ass to you.

[daniel1948]

Considering what they charge for college textbooks, there’s really no excuse for them to be five years out of date, much less 30 years! Sorry you have to endure that.

[Calinthalus]

I was a CS major and when I went back to finish my degree they forced me to take an Intro to Computing class.  As a programmer, I was a bit offended.


Anyway, there were four sections of the text book.  One on MSWord, one on Excel, one on Powerpoint, and the final one on Access.  They literally had a section on setting the colors of cells in an Access database.  Colored database.  My teacher was upset that I wouldn't use the Access QBE bullshit and would just type what I wanted in SQL.  "No, the textbook says you have to do it like this..."  Possibly the most useless class I ever took.

[brilligtove]

In 1985 my family spend six months in Trinidad. For the duration, my sister went into Form 1. I was in Form 4. My school had a new computer lab -  with computers that were archaic from my Canadian perspective. I didn't care about that though. I was jazzed to be able to help teach my classmates stuff I'd learned on the PETs back at my high school in Canada. Mr. Hackett was a real gent about it. I knew more about coding than he did - by a wide margin - and he let us all run loose and figure stuff out.

In 1999 I got my first job as a coder, with 0% experience. It was a wild time.

[arthwollipot]

Although the radiation from most digital gadgets is considered harmless, researchers have raised concerns about radiation from cell phones and computer display devices. .

Well, that's true. Researches have raised concerns. That's something that has happened. Their concerns have been addressed, investigated, and dismissed.

[Soldier of FORTRAN]

I was a CS major and when I went back to finish my degree they forced me to take an Intro to Computing class.  As a programmer, I was a bit offended.


Anyway, there were four sections of the text book.  One on MSWord, one on Excel, one on Powerpoint, and the final one on Access.  They literally had a section on setting the colors of cells in an Access database.  Colored database.  My teacher was upset that I wouldn't use the Access QBE bullshit and would just type what I wanted in SQL.  "No, the textbook says you have to do it like this..."  Possibly the most useless class I ever took.

Ha, yeah.  Classes are often built around one certification or another.  Sounds like your class would've corresponded to the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) tests.