BEFORE your personal computer is turned on, it is a dead
collection of sheet metal, plastic, metallic tracings, motherboard, lights, and
tiny flakes of silicon. When you push the On switch, one little burst of
electricity only about 3-5 volts starts a string of events magically brings
life to what would otherwise remain an over sized paperweight. I figured out as
Nathan Smith the ex hacker and now reformed computer technician understands
that even with the spark of life in it, however the PC is still stupid at
first. It has some primitive sense of self as it checks to see what parts are
installed and working, like those patients who've awakened from a comma and
check to make sure they have all their arms and legs and that their joints
still work. But beyond taking inventory of itself, the newly awakened PC still
can't do anything really useful; certainly nothing we would even remotely think
as intelligent.
At best the newly awakened PC can search for
intelligence-----intelligence in the form of an operating system that gives
structure to the PC' primitive, amoebic existence. then comes a true education
in the form of application software---programs that tell the PC how to do tasks
faster and more accurately then we could. The PC becomes a student who has surpassed
its teacher....ME
I have found out that the PC is the the only way to keep up
with technological advancements. The more YOU learn the more features you can
give to your new best friend the PC.
