"Computer Geeks more offensive than Napoleonic players" Topic

Just be reading an article about "90% of Americans don't know about Ctrl F" (and at least one Brit).

Ctrl F opens the 'Find' window, rather than having to point to edit->find. Apparently the fact that people don't know about it means they are all dribbling fools who shouldn't be let near a computer.

What a bunch of ing ers.

I didn't know either- Ex senior Network engineer for Nortel for 16 years.

Well, for one thing, there are a lot more of them.

I saw this about a year ago, and it's totaly true, my life is SO much better now.

I did not know that until you told me. Thanks for rescuing me from being a dribbling fool. Now I am a dribbling fool who knows about Control F. Much better.

Dribbling fool me still doesn't know the difference between a new window and a new tab however.

OK.
I tried CTRL F.
Now what do I do with it?

Hey, it doesn't work on my iMac!

Because Macs don't use the Ctrl key for such things. Cmd-F works, though.

@Jovian1
Is that sarcasm? :)

Is that sarcasm? :)

No, that was iSarcasm.

Yep, much larger s on the computer geeks I've known than the gamers… unless the gamer was also a computer geek.

No, that was iSarcasm.

… it cost 50% more.

I was quite restrained with my reply on BoingBoing – I didn't point out that at least that 90% knew what to do with a member of the opposite sex!

Dribbling fool me still doesn't know the difference between a new window and a new tab however.

A new tab opens the page in the same instance of your browser, but does not replace the page that you're linking from. So when you look at the top of the screen, you'll see a number of tabs, each with a different web page on them (unless, of course, you opened several tabs from the same link). In the case of Firefox, if I right-click a link and say "open in a new tab", then I stay on the page I'm on, and the new tabs open in the background. I then can click on whichever tab tickles my fancy. Each tab can be closed individually, but I need to be careful to click on the X in the tab corner, not the corner of my browser window.

A new window opens another instance of your web-browser, with each instance of browser having a different webpage. If I click on the red X to close one window, it will not affect the other windows. If I absentmindedly click on the red X to close a tab, I will close all tabs in that web-browser instance, which is why so many of them tell you that you're about to close multiple tabs.

Sorry, got distracted by the difference between tabs and windows.

I don't find computer geeks to be any more annoying than Napoleonics players, to be honest. Neither are at all offensive, in terms of groups. Some individuals might be more than mildly irritating, but neither is all that bad.

That said, perhaps I find compugeeks less irksome because when they're talking about something in their field, I am more likely to be interested in what they have to say than with the other group. Not saying Naps players are boring, just that I find computers more relevant to my interests.

Hmmmm, I wonder what percent of people know about ctrl S then?
--
Tim

Hey, it doesn't work on my iMac!

I thought you used that to do your bikini line?

link

But what if they're cute girl geeks with glasses?

then they are mythical, and can safely be ignored.

Neo – here is the article – look how the comments descend into sneer
link
Naploeonic players tend not to sneer at non-wargamers over bricoles, just each other.

I guess I wasted My degree in Computer Information Systems, I did'n t know about ctrl-F.

You can open links … by clicking on them with the mouse wheel.

Unless you've reassigned your mouse wheel click to something else.

Many of these are firefoxisms;

ctrl-N : open a new window

ctrl-W : close current tab or window

ctrl-H : show/hide history pane

ctrl-T : open a new tab, put the cursor in the address bar.

You can also configure whether middle-clicking goes to the new tab or not. Having it not do so is quite useful. I go to the tmp main page, scroll down it, middleclicking topics. They then line up as tabs. The later ones can be still loading while I'm reading the first few. Hit ctrl-W to close the main page tab and start reading…

Works the same with big long lists of google search results.

Thank you Neotasha,

Unfortunately you lost me at 'in the same instance of your browser'. I do understand all the words. It's just how they fit together that's a bit odd.

Having played with tabs and windows, I have taken the easy way out and only use windows. Tabs seem rather messy. Is there an advantage to using tabs rather than opening a new window?

Less screen clutter, really. There might be some performance benefits when you have a lot of tabs open rather than windows, but I'm not sure.

You can also organise the tabs. IE8 colour-codes the tabs, so that a "parent" tab and all the tabs opened from that tab are the same colour, and more recent versions allow you to group tabs together.

As KatieL has pointed out in the post immediately before yours, you can open links in new tabs without it jumping to that tab.

I guess it would be pedantic of me, then, to point out that ctrl-F is the command to forward an e-mail message in Outlook…

Unfortunately you lost me at 'in the same instance of your browser'.

I should have said, in the same open browser, as opposed to opening the browser up a second time for a new window.

In the case of tabs, everything is all in the same window, but only one page (tab) is visible. With windowed mode, you have two or three or more different windows of your browser open. Each window is basically running the browser program separately. That's nice is you want to shrink down a couple of windows to compare two different pages side by side, but does mean more clutter, and when a window is minimized, you don't really know what's in it, other than it's your browser. The tabs will give you the title of each page.

You can open links … by clicking on them with the mouse wheel.

Unless you've reassigned your mouse wheel click to something else.

Or you don't have a mouse wheel at all…

Thank you for your patient explanation Neotasha.

<Or you don't have a mouse wheel at all.>

Heck, my ibook air doesn't even have a mouse. Yes I know it could, but that would rather defeat the porpoise.

they are all dribbling fools who shouldn't be let near a computer

After 3 decades earning my living with computers I've stopped bothering to learn crap like that. It's all obsolete in a few years anyway.

I go to the tmp main page, scroll down it, middleclicking topics. They then line up as tabs. The later ones can be still loading while I'm reading the first few. Hit ctrl-W to close the main page tab and start reading…

This is particularly handy as TMP is careening toward its maintenance period. Frantically scanning topics and opening tabs so I don't have to wait for the next day has happened more than once.

Add me to the list of dribbling morons.

But when I started on computers we used punch card machines for input, and they didn't have control keys….