29 January 1999 I may be repeating myself, but in all the years I spent at school, I never learned a foreign language. I never really regretted that I hadn't mastered Spanish or French. But then, I've never been to Spain, France, or any other country where that type of knowledge is a necessity. I began to wonder how I can use a computer nearly every day of my life, and not be familiar with areal density or floating point units. And it would be nearly impossible to spend half an hour viewing this site and walk away not having learned something.
Information abounds on every page.
I think that a basic knowledge of one's computer is necessary for optimum performance by the user, but most of us don't have the patience for that type of study. You hardly ever pull one off the shelf, but when you need it, it's very comforting to know it's there. I compare my knowledge of my computer to the workings of my automobile. My technical expertise amounts to seat forward and back and adjusting mirrors. I can change a tire, but I can't figure out how this dumb tire jack works.