Homestead mailing list

[tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

tvoivozhd---in some respects a startup business is easier and cheaper 
than it was fifty years ago---no longer begging capital from a bank, no 
extending credit to customers (get your cash the day you ship your 
product).  However it now demands as fairly high degree of computer 
literacy---prepare yourself in that BEFORE your proposed business needs it.


        


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Issue # 149 - April/May 1995

*COUNTRY SKILLS*

------------------------------------------------------------------------
/Recently a letter told us of a small dilemma:
"I've worked for six years in Charleston, SC, though //I live many miles 
away, and like millions of other people, I'm sick and tired of the 
hassle of daily commutes. I have this idea for a little business of my 
own and want to get a computer to operate it out of my home. Though a 
little embarrassed to admit it, I haven't the faintest idea how 
computers work, or how they'll speed up the operation of a home 
business. Would Mother consider writing an article on how to outfit a 
home office?"

*-Jennifer McCallan
* * Andrews, SC*/*/ /*/ /
/
------------------------------------------------------------------------
/

*HANG OUT YOUR SHINGLE*
*/Part 1 : Computer will help, but the inspiration's up to you.
By J. Presley/*


/ILLUSTRATION: ANNE CARTERWe've had similar conversations with dozens of 
readers over the past few months. In 1987, MOTHER / / began using 
desktop computers to lay text out on each magazine page, a revolution in 
capability compared to the hundreds of hours of cutting paper copy into 
blocks and pasting them onto aboard. Those first small Macintoshes are 
just ornaments today, when MOTHER uses computers to edit, typeset and 
scan in every photograph and illustration. Though at times we catch 
ourselves in wide eyed confusion, the tremendous time savings of giving 
the dull, repetitive work to that beeping marvel on the desk is always 
plain. After referring Jennifer's question to country-business expert J. 
Presley, who lives in a town near St. Louis, MO and works out of his 
home office as a business writer and consultant, he jumped at the chance 
to demystify the computer "revolution" in home business. "J.P." has 
worked with computers for over 20 years ("since they were steam driven," 
he jokes) and will author part two of this series in the next issue. /

Living in the peace and clean air of the country on a little place of 
your own is the American dream. And the single best way I know to 
finance that dream is to operate a home-based business. And please be 
assured that modern electronics--far from being something that is 
difficult to understand, is actually making country-located business 
more and more doable every day. High-speed computers let a single person 
process words, numbers, and images (all of it called data, in 
computerese) that once required a whole building full of clerks, 
artists, and bookkeepers. From even the most remote country location (so 
long as roads, electricity, and phone lines are in--and soon, even if 
they aren't) business can be conducted around the globe using modern 
communication technologies including Federal Express, UPS, and other 
computerized delivery services, the phone company's 800 and 900 numbers, 
faxes, computer-to-computer "modems," and cellular and hard-wired phones 
sending voice and data via fiber optics, microwaves, and satellites. 
Anyone with a good business idea, the courage to take a risk, confidence 
to make mistakes and learn from them, willingness to work hard plus 
determination and energy can do it. You don't need a lot of education or 
a lot of money--and you don't need to know a thing about electronics. 
You do have to be willing to work harder and longer-for less pay than 
you'd earn working for someone else.

But, "It can't be done" was what two young engineers heard when they 
wanted their Fortune 500 employer to develop a small, easy-to-use 
personal-sized computer. So, Stephen Jobs and Steve Wozniak "hacked" one 
together in Jobs' parent's garage using parts you can get from Radio 
Shack. Thus was born Apple Computer, the PC (personal computer), the 
Information Age, and "user-friendly" electronic devices of all kinds 
that can be operated by anybody with one good eye and a pointing finger. 
Come to think of it, you don't even need the eye or hand any more. 
Braille keypads and talking computers are available if you need them, 
and "voice recognition" that converts the spoken word to computer 
printing is near to being an everyday practical reality.

Still, the technology is so new, so powerful and complicated, and 
changes so rapidly that computer phobia haunts us all from time to time. 
Many techno jerks think they can intimidate novices by tossing around 
such jargon as 66MHz 1486 DX2 CPU or MosFet thyristor. The sidebar 
"Computer Jargon" on page 70 contains definitions of the major buzzwords 
and we've put others in italics throughout this article. But, you don't 
need to understand one of them to run a computer or a business.

*What Can't You Do In The Country? *

I can't think of any enterprise other than heavy, 
rail-transport-dependent manufacturing that can't thrive in a rural 
location. Lower property values, labor rates, and taxes can more than 
offset the disadvantage of being far from city markets. In my part of 
the back country and working out of home, barn, and perhaps a small 
Butler-Building-style prefab factory are: one fairly large and two small 
food products factories; a gourmet kitchen supplies distributor; a 
caterer and restaurateur (hours from any major city); a data-processing 
forms maker; an international travel agency (operated by a shut-in using 
her phone, a FAX and Federal Express); two specialty auto-parts 
distributors; several academic and government researchers; a goat 
milk/cheese dairy; two sheep-farmer/ wooldyer/weaver-knitters; a bill 
collection agency; several business and technical consultants; 
newsletter publishers, writers, and editors; one or two computer 
bulletin board and 1900-information services, 
telemarketers/1-800-answering services, and dozens of fine and 
commercial artists, woodworkers, jewelry makers and other craftspeople. 
Oh yes ...a few of my country neighbors even make a living as farmers, 
but the most successful maximize productivity with computers and extend 
their marketing reach through electronic communications.

If you haven't quite hit on a business idea, go to a newsstand and pick 
up the small-business magazines such as /INC/ and /Success/. 
/Entrepreneur/ Magazine is giving increasing attention to home business, 
and /Home Office Computing/ concentrates on it exclusively. Send $9.95 
to Business Start-Ups, Subscription Dept., 50347 Boulder CO 80321-347 
and you'll get 12 issues of a 110-page magazine containing nothing but 
new business ideas. The latest I have seen contains ideas for 101 
service businesses. The magazines overflow with motivational stories of 
people who are "doin' it." Only a few are from New York, Chicago, or LA, 
and nearly all use computers and other modern electronics.

Computer books are awful. I haven't seen one that offers more help than 
you will get from the self-teaching tutorials and manuals--called 
documentation by engineering types--that come with modern computers and 
with the application programs or software that lets the machine do 
meaningful work. Both manufacturers and the larger retail chains offer 
training for free or a small cost. I can't recommend any of the 
instructional programs that you see advertised in magazines or on TV, 
and increasingly, both equipment and software are self-explanatory and 
the manufacturers offer toll-free 800-numbers manned by technicians who 
can answer most of your questions anyway.

Then ...once you've become "computer literate"...forget it all, lest you 
spend too much time on computers and too little on computing ...because 
not even a whole room full of IBM PCs and Apple Macintoshes plus all. 
the magazines on the rack will put you in business.

*Computers Won't Do It For You*

Making a living by working at home doing something you love is great 
...but it takes a service or a product that people need (or that you can 
convince them they need) and above all, it takes time, energy, and 
application--plain hard work. I know I said that before, but it warrants 
repeating. As one successful entrepreneur I know puts it: "My wife and I 
started this business on the kitchen table with $2,500 borrowed from a 
credit card. We both quit our 9-to-5s within three years." With a grin, 
he concludes: "And, we haven't had to 'work' since..."--even though they 
both still put in six or seven 18-hour days a week. But the popular 
adage, "Follow your bliss and the money will come," is wishful thinking 
for all but a fortunate few. Computers will make the work go faster, but 
it is you who must learn to manage money, people, and time. And, above 
all, learn to sell. Great as your idea may be, you can't just hang out a 
shingle and have the orders pour in. "Build a better mousetrap and the 
world will beat a path to your door" is bunk for anyone but mice. Every 
business has to sell aggressively--especially in today's pennypinching 
times.

"Where to learn?" you ask. The best way is to work for someone who 
already knows.

Otherwise, teach yourself as much as you can before you take the plunge. 
The best primer I've run across is a TV program that's available on 
video tape. Like myself, you may have mixed feelings about the boob 
tube, but the 13 part series "Venturing" by Vermont Public Television is 
sponsored by the Farmers Home Administration and designed specifically 
to educate small business operators located in rural areas. It uses real 
people facing real problems--such as the Humes of Chester, VT, who had 
to expand their hand packed"Green Mountain Gringo Salsa" overnight to 
fill a surprise order from Blooming dale's. They bought $5,000 worth of 
used machinery, rather than spend $100,000 they didn't have for all new, 
and fulfilled their three-year business plan in only three months.

Chances are one out of two that you'll fail rather than repeat the 
Humes' success. But you'll be ahead of the pack with "Venturing," which 
will both inspire and teach you the basics of business planning; about 
finances and the difference between investment equity capital and 
leverage (your own saved money and borrowed funds) and between kinds of 
money: income, cash flow and profit; about sales and marketing; managing 
growth (harder than you might think ask the Humes); about hiring, 
motivating and firing, and more. The tape set costs $59.95, which is tax 
deductible (you'll learn about taxes, insurance, permits, and licenses 
too.) Call 1-800-866-1666 and tell them MOTHER sent you. And/or, for 
less than half that amount you can get the more dense, faster paced 
video: "How to Start a Business," produced by another Public 
Broadcasting entity, The Nightly Business Report. Call 1-800-535-8364.

A good next step might be marketing and finance courses at the local 
community college. Read everything that doesn't bore you so much you're 
wasting time. (Most business text books are almost as unreadable as the 
computer books.)

Most important, perhaps: learn to write a business letter that is clear 
and gets right to the point but still manages to be friendly and 
sincere. Never more than one page, and a half-page is better. Business 
people never have enough time and are put off by rambling 
correspondence. As the saying goes: "Time is money."

*_THE BIG GAMBLE: _*

Over 50% of new enterprises fail, but a carefully crafted business plan 
puts you way ahead of the pack.

You'll find good books on business writing ...and on budgeting time as 
well.

Finally, examine and, if need be, adjust your attitude toward business. 
If you came out of the flower-power'70s like me, you may retain a 
smidgen of anti-business, "profit-is-evil" bias that's out of step with 
a global economy where even the ex-USSR and China are striving to 
"maximize profits" as the saying goes. Any business must bring in more 
money than it spends. The difference is profit. As Samuel Gompers, the 
early Union leader put it: "The best thing business can do for the 
working man is to make a profit." If you still dislike the sound of the 
word, read Paul Hawken's lovely book /Growing/ A Business, available by 
mail from just one of the successful mail-order businesses Paul has 
founded: Smith & Hawken, 25 Corte Madera, Mill Valley, CA 94941(tel: 
415-383-2000.)

Finally, if you'll forgive a little flag-waving, the best thing you can 
do for the nation is to start a business. Our country needs jobs, and 
more of them are created by small enterprise in these days of corporate 
"downsizing" than by GM, IBM, and the other big guys put together. Over 
700,000 new small businesses were incorporated in the USA in '93. That 
is 2,000 every day of the year. The greatest increases were technology 
intensive enterprises started in the proudly rural states of Montana and 
Wyoming.

Enough preaching. If you have something to sell and know how to sell it 
(or are willing to learn) ...go for It. A computer and peripherals, 
communication electronics, and a modern phone system will enable you to 
manipulate words, images, and numbers and send them around the world at 
light speed. With preparation, hard work, and a little luck, the money 
will come in. With nothing but preparation and hard work it will come in 
too, just more slowly.

*Beating Computerphobia*

Today's computers are so small and powerful you can carry your entire 
business in a shoulder purse or attache case. But, powerful as they are, 
modern computers truly are "user-friendly." If you were scared away by 
early computers that were low powered, overly complex, and useless in 
any practical sense during the 1980s "home computer" fad, rest assured. 
You don't have to know the programming language BASIC and write your own 
programs as we did years ago. You no longer have to memorize such MS/DOS 
operating commands as COPY:*.* B:PRNT:LTR/Mthr (and type them in without 
so much as a spacing error) to print out your letter to Mother. Its all 
done now by pushing a few keys.

If you have avoided computers because you don't understand how they 
work, welcome to the club. Even after working with them for half a 
lifetime, neither do I really ...though I will try to explain the 
electronic heart and soul of a computer--the transistor--next time. But, 
do you understand how your car works? Neither do I, but we can both 
start one and make it go where we want. Same is true of computers; all 
you need know is how to turn them on and steer.

Much of the fun of getting into computing is choosing and learning to 
use the machine. But, before you go shopping you should understand what 
a computer can and cannot do.

A computer can manipulate words, figures, and images in marvelous ways. 
But, it cannot create a single thing. You must originate data. Unless 
you are copying someone else's work, you must think up and input every 
word in a report, every figure in an accounting ledger and every line in 
a picture.

The computer (1) converts your input--the punch or a keyboard letter or 
number or a line "drawn" on the screen--into a digital data stream, a 
light speed-rapid sequence of tiny electrical pulses, then (2) converts 
it into images of letters, numbers, or lines that appear on your TV 
monitor so you can watch what's going on, then (3) processes the data 
(shuffles it around) as you direct, and (4) stores it in an electronic 
filing system. The tool that the computer uses to perform these wonders 
is a book of electronic code called a program or software. I'll discuss 
software first because its is more important than the machinery--called 
hardware.

*Software*

Software performs quickly and electronically all the work you used to do 
with paper, pen or pencil and eraser, slide rule and calculator, 
typewriter and "white-out," scissors and paste, or paint and canvas. It 
will even do animation and more complex simulations that are called 
"virtual (meaning computer-created) reality." A program can store all 
your correspondence, accounting ledgers, and artwork too in the 
electronic memory banks--so you don't commit your work to paper till it 
is perfect and you need hard copy.

Here are the major software categories:

1. Operating Systems (opsys) are programs that connect the computer's 
inert little plastic and silicon electronic components to each other and 
link the computer to the TV-set monitor, to the keyboard and the 
printer, giving it all a semblance of life. They include Windows (which 
rendered Microsoft Corporation's bespectacled founder, Bill Gates an 
exemplar of the "Revenge Of The Computer Nerds" by making him a 
multi-billionaire before age 35) and Apple's closely held system (newly 
named MAC/OS) for Macintosh computers. Forget them all. Operating 
systems are transparent to the user, which means that you never know 
they are there. They come on when you activate or boot the computer and 
the code containing complicated commands like COPY:*.*B:PRNT1 is in 
there, but it labors away silent and unseen. These days, if you want to 
copy or print a letter all you have to do is tap a pair of keys or 
activate an icon on the screen.

2. Application programs make the machine do specific, useful things.

Word processors let you manipulate language--write words and sentences 
and paragraphs on the easily erased TV monitor instead of paper. Unlike 
working with a typewriter, you can edit--erase, cut and paste, correct 
spelling and punctuation, etc.--by manipulating fleeting electronic 
images rather than toiling with paper and ink. Good-bye white-out and 
erasers. Farewell scissors and paste. So long (Praise be!) to carbon 
paper. And, you'll have no carbons to file, as all copies go into an 
electronic filing system.

After typing in the text of that letter to MOTHER, you edit by using the 
keys, a handheld mouse, or stationary trackball to move a little 
blinking blip on the monitor--the cursor--to something you need to 
change. You hold down a button, moving the mouse or whatever so the 
cursor moves along a line of text. As you move the cursor, the 
background behind it turns black, highlighting the selected portion. 
Then by moving the cursor to a menu of commands around the border of the 
screen, you can elect to delete or cut and paste highlighted words, 
lines, whole paragraphs, or pages with a push of the button.

With the dictionary/thesaurus included in all word processors you can 
correct spelling, look up definitions and synonyms, and with templates 
can address envelopes, construct and fill in forms, or create 
personalized form letters--any word work you can think of. Accessory 
programs will check your grammar and punctuation, and others will even 
"think"--or more properly, arrange and amplify your ideas-for you. Then, 
with the push of a button, your printer will run off one to a million 
copies in any of a thousand typefaces in any number of columns or other 
format on plain Xerox paper.

A word processor has reduced the time I need to "input data" by a factor 
of 10 over a marvelous IBM Self-Correcting Electric typewriter, despite 
the fact that I'm a lousy typist and short two fingers to boot. 
Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are the two leading full-featured sellers 
at a list price of about $500 and a street price of just under $300. But 
if you don't need outlining capability, automatic table of contents, 
envelope addressing, and a huge thesaurus--there are dozens of others 
that will perform basic text originating work for a lot less. It's worth 
mentioning that the word on the street is Microsoft Word's newest 
version (6.0) for the Mac is a disaster. It's incredibly clumsy, 
complicated, and so slow you're tempted to resort to handwriting. Go for 
version 5.1 if it's available.

Desktop publishing programs used with your own printer or a print shop's 
press let you lay out and print anything your word processor can 
generate--from letterhead stationery to business cards to flyers or 
brochures to full-color slick paper coffee-table books that are 
indistinguishable from those produced by the big publishers. Adobe' 
PageMaker is the industry standard at $500 list, but many less ambitious 
programs are available for $50 and up. Indeed, the latest releases of 
the full-featured word processors include enough page-layout and 
graphics capability to produce most flyers, brochures, and newsletters.

*_IF_*_* YOU HATED THEM IN THE 80S...

*_You were right, but today's computers are light years faster and miles 
more versatile and user-friendly.

Spreadsheets are for analyzing figures. Just as with any printed 
bookkeeping or accounting form, you plug numerical data into cells in 
labeled columns. Then you can tabulate and analyze it automatically. A 
great feature is the "what if" function. For example, I help client 
firms set up pension plans. We must make assumptions as to each 
beneficiary's anticipated age, sex/expected longevity, and years' 
service at retirement ...plus interest the plan will earn on invested 
contributions, tax implications of integration of benefits with social 
security, the effect of deferred taxes (and more) ...to arrive at the 
contribution needed to pay out promised benefits over a given time at 
least cost. Very detailed, complicated stuff--all of it educated 
guesses--and small changes in any assumption can change costs, taxes, 
and ultimate payout. Thankfully, the computer can do all the 
calculations so you can try out various alternatives. For example, you 
can ask: "What if there's a change in the interest we will earn on 
investments?" Punch in a different interest rate, press the DOIT key, 
and the computer will recalculate the whole plan quickly, without error. 
Microsoft's Excell is currently the most popular number cruncher for 
both Apple and IBM. Lotus 12-3 practically invented the genre for the 
IBM standard, and their latest release for Windows is reportedly the 
fastest in the business. Lotus' new IMPROV lists accounting formulas in 
plain English rather than symbols. Borland International's Quattro Pro 
is in the same league. All use graphical rather than typed-out commands; 
all automatically tabulate data in a wide variety of tables, color 
graphs, or charts; and all list for $495 but sell for less. Indeed, at 
this writing, you can get Quattro Pro in a special promotion for under $50.

Relational database programs let you file and arrange text, numbers, or 
picture references in cross-indexed files and then massage them to your 
heart's (or your profit & loss statement's) content. Say you have a 
20,000-name customer mailing list. You must input every name and address 
and all the order, return, and other sales figures. But then ...without 
having to shuffle file folders or index cards, the computer will 
generate lists of all customers who live in a particular state, or who 
have (or have not) purchased a certain amount over a given time period, 
or who have blue eyes and a given birth month, or any other combination 
of traits. You send reminders to customers who are overdue in paying 
bills, and some advanced or industry-specific programs will analyze a 
customer database to predict (for example) which of your customers in a 
given state are most (or least) likely to delay payment for a certain 
class of merchandise delivered at a given time, and how long they'll 
hold payment. This makes for pinpoint marketing and accurate billing. 
Imagine, by pressing a few keys, you can generate a mailing to only 
those size 9, petite females in the 19-29 age group who have shown a 
preference for lace and the color blue and who live in the South (so you 
can do an August promotion for a sassy little lacecollared chintz 
shirtwaist dress you can get in 8-10-petite/pastel-blue only, but for a 
song). Just think how many people-hours of typing, envelope shuffling, 
postage-meter cranking are simply eliminated forever by database programs.

Graphics programs let you create images: draw, paint, draft, or design 
in black and white or color on an infinitely erasable computer screen. 
Then you can transfer the image to paper, blueprint, video, disk, or 
slides. You can buy disks of images or "clip art" to plug into your 
work. Or, a digital scanner lets you copy pictures from any source, 
while a "video grabber" takes TV or can corder or digital still--camera 
images and puts them on your computer screen (in motion if you like). 
Then you can edit, enlarge, reduce, or combine images as you wish. The 
programs won't make an artist of you--or they haven't made one of me. 
But I do use Aldus Super Paint to make up ads and MacDraft, a simple CAD 
(computer-assisted design) program to design office layouts. If your 
computer is a recent model that's fast enough and has a lot of 
electronic memory, you can use such programs as Adobe Illustrator ($600) 
to do publication-quality color illustrations or Adobe Photoshop ($800) 
to edit National Geographicquality photos, or you can use them in 
combination. Advanced motion-picture or CAD programs let you do such 
simulations as wind tunnel-testing aircraft, exposing a building design 
to an earthquake, or testing metal pieces turned out by milling machines 
that are still in the idea stage.

*Papedess Office*

If you create an electronic filing system and get a scanner, you may 
never again have to file a carbon copy of a letter or a clipping. Every 
electronic document you create is called a file. On the home-base 
monitor screen (the desktop), each is indicated by a little icon of a 
typed letter with is name underneath. You accumulate files by putting 
them into an electronic folder, indicated on the screen by an icon of a 
manila folder. When you move a file into a folder, it disappears from 
the screen. Put al your folders into an electronic file drawer and the 
folders all disappear, though all the data are there if needed. Just 
move your cursor to the icor of the file drawer and click the mouse 
button. A list of folders or named icons of all the folders appears. 
Click on the folder you like and the list of icons of files it contains 
pops up. Click on the file you want and it appears on the screen. Don't 
decide to go into the carbon-paper and onion skin copypaper business.

To file electronically the correspondence you receive as well as 
articles and other printed matter, you need a scanner (a piece of 
hardware we'll discuss in the next article). Tabletop or handheld models 
use lasers to record the image much as a copying machine, but instead of 
printing on paper, they translate the image into a digital reproduction 
you can read on your monitor and file electronically.

*_FEATURECREEPEREA?_*

A real word (really) that means an excess of features added to justify 
an exorbitant price. Software often suffers from this.

Another warning: Business programs have reached their optimum practical 
utility, so are liable to "featurecreeperea"--a real word that means "an 
excess of features added to justify an exorbitant price." At under $500 
a program, most software isn't exorbitant considering its capabilities. 
But, as noted above, word processors are adding drawing and 
desktop-publishing subprograms while spreadsheets offer presentation 
graphics along with text-generating capability and graphics programs 
contain enough text-generating capacity to write a book. All the extra 
features take up limited space in the computer--most of it for bells and 
whistles or redundancies you'll never use.

Instead, look into integrated multifunction programs that package 
several applications into a single shell so they work well together but 
duplicate no major functions; you can plug numbers from a spreadsheet 
and images from an art program into a report on your word processor with 
the punch of a few buttons. Some, like Microsoft Office, combine several 
full-featured, $500+ programs into a single package you can get for less 
than one of its components. Others such as Microsoft Works incorporate 
only the most-used features of several programs into one package for a 
hundred dollars and change. Either is a bargain, as full-featured copies 
of all programs included would run you $1,500 or more. Universally 
acclaimed the best-engineered both for IBM-standard MS/DOS-Windows and 
Apple's Macintosh is ClarisWorks by the software arm of Apple. This is 
the first multifunction program to offer seamless integration of 
competent word processing, spreadsheet, database, drawing, and 
communications, without filling up the whole hard disk ...a bargain at 
under $200. Though you might outgrow it in time, it's an excellent 
startup package.

But this is all generalized business software. Your business may have 
special needs, and new specialty programs are coming out every day. For 
example, I use ClarisWorks for all my own business-letter writing, 
accounting, and database work. Though fine for routine writing, the word 
processor lacks niceties like an automatic word-count feature or a 
really comprehensive thesaurus, dictionary, and spelling checker. So, I 
use Microsoft Word to originate articles and books. WordPerfect or any 
other full-featured writing program would also do.

Once you have mastered the three basic business programs and those that 
are specific to your own trade, you may want to add some that have been 
written to help educate the kids, entertain all ages, and make 
information of all kinds more useful. Few stores stock more than a few 
programs, and they charge full retail prices. You'll have to buy by 
mail. Be sure you read the magazines to learn what a program can or 
can't do. Then, buy from a well-established seller. Like many, I have 
had bad experiences with fly-by-night mail-order firms--specifically, 
trying to return a malfunctioning program. One software-selling company 
that I can recommend (following the leads of the largest user clubs on 
each coast) is the MacWarehouse for Apple and PCWarehouse for 
IBM-standard. They deliver products quickly and are very responsive to 
problems. Look for their sale ads in the magazines and call for their 
catalog at 1-800-255-6227.

In the next installment we will examine hardware--the computers, 
printers, and other machines you will need to run your software.

*COMPUTER JARGON*

*F*ollowing is an attempt to explain in plain English the high-tech 
terms that some computer sales-people-will use to try and snow you, and 
that computer nerds toss off at cocktail parties. It is a jargon of 
condensations, acronyms, and technical and specialty-terms that have a 
legitimate professional function just like legal or medical terminology 
or plumbing or electricians' lingo, even if it is meaningless to laymen. 
None of it is necessary, but knowing the lingo does instill a degree 
ofconfidence and allay computerphobia.

*Computer*. An electronic machine or *hardware* in which *software*, or 
a detailed set of commands, can store and manipulate words, numbers, and 
pictorial information (all called data) in something approaching the way 
the human mind and memory work.

* Digital*. The dirt-simple, binary code that is the language of modern 
electronics. Usually written as a series of 1s and 0s. Named digital 
because you can communicate it with your fingers. It works like an 
abacus; hold only your pinky up and you are indicating 0001, or the 
number 1; hold up your middle finger and you are indicating 0100 or the 
number 4, among other things. But hold four fingers up straight and you 
are indicating 1111, which stands for the number 15.

A computer transmits digital signals at great speeds using a tiny 
electric current that is either high voltage (1) or low (0). Current 
flow (thus, digitized-information flow) is regulated by a timer running 
at millions of pulses per second, or megahertz, abbreviated as MHz. Each 
item of data that passes through with each timed pulse is called a 
*bit*. Each group of eight bits is a *byte*. You hear of old-fashioned 
"8-bit computers" and more modern "64-bit models." The more bits a 
computer can handle with each pulse of its timer,the faster it can 
process information. A machine passing through 64 bits 66 million times 
a second is said to have a"64-bit processor operating at 66 megahertz" 
and is one fast machine.

The heart of electronics is the *transistor*, a little wafer of silicon 
impregnated with boron or another intentional impurity that regulates 
current flow infinitely faster and more economically than vacuum tubes 
used to. It acts as a switch, turning current from low to high and back. 
A single transistor is encased solidly in a pea-sized blob of solid 
black plastic standing on three wires. Having no moving parts, it is 
called a solid-state device.

A computer chip is ten, a hundred, or a million micro-transistors and 
other micro-mini electronic components printed or burned with lasers 
onto a tiny silicon wafer. The chip is more properly called an 
integrated circuit or IC. The wafer is encased inside a little 
rectangular housing with pairs of tiny metal legs poking down like a 
caterpillar.

The solid-state "brain" of a computer is an IC called the *CPU* or 
central processing Unit, such as the Intel 486 Or the new Pentium found 
in IBMs or the Motorola 6036 or the new Power PC in Apple products. The 
CPU relays digital pulses (bits) in 8-bit/ 1-byte lots through a bus in 
groups of 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 bits or more at a time. The more bits the bus 
can handle in one pass, the faster the computer. A 66 MHz 486DX has a 
32bit bus and could pass through all 25 years of MOTHER'S sage advice in 
a few seconds if you could read it on the video monitor fast enough.

Banks of transistors in memory chips constitute the computer's *RAM* or 
random-access memory. This is where data are kept temporarily while the 
computer is running and is lost when the computer is shut off, 
"crashes," or dies unexpectedly. To save your letter to Mom before the 
computer is turned off and the RAM goes blank, you transfer it to *ROM* 
or read only memory--usually a *floppy* data disk or *hard disc/drive*, 
both coated with the same brown iron oxide that records information on 
VCR and audio tapes. A hard disk is housed permanently in the computer; 
floppies or diskettes are removable.

As you've often heard, a computer is an empty brain. it needs software 
to convert ROM stored data to moving electrical pulses, manipulate it 
for you, then convert it back to a form you can understand.

First there's the *operating system*. It is an active electronic road 
map through the computer's architecture that tells data where to go and 
how to get there. Stored permanently in RAM, it boots when you switch 
the machine on, moves data from disk to RAM to CPU to be massaged, to 
the TV monitor to be read, and off to be printed.

*File* is the term applied to each document or image you create in 
computer memory. Files can be printed out, go into ROM to be stored, or 
simply erased with the push of a button.

*Information Superhighway* is a new buzzword defining a network of 
high-speed computers, fiber optic cables, and satellites that will 
permit anybody to send or receive any kind of information from or to 
anywhere on earth or beyond. A full-fledged system will require that a 
fiber optic interface is run to every home office in the nation. At 
present (called ISDN or Integrated Services Data Network) and available 
in only a fewer of the largest cities, it will not be available 
everywhere for anther decade. And, though the technical capability is 
inevitable, it remains to be seen whether 500 TV channels, any movie 
ever made on command, or cross-country video-gameplaying will be 
practical. I suspect that farremoved rural homes and offices will be 
better and more cheaplyserved by satellitedirect digital communications 
similar to the new small-dish TV services. (More on that later in this 
article series.)

*Bugs* are small design errors that crop up in all new computers and 
computer programs, and must be corrected in use. A *virus* is an alien 
program created by a frustrated computer genius and hidden away in an 
innocuous-appearing program or item of information. It can get into the 
machine when you load in strange data--and can really mess things up. 
Some virulent viruses have made computers physically self-destruct. Be 
sure to run programs or data from anything but a new, factory-sealed 
disckthrough a virus-killer program before putting it into your 
computer's internal memory. Especially, distrust material received from 
an unknown source--including anything you retrieve from a telephone 
on-line service.

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