Why I like to put the practical into computing

My name is Jachin Mandeno and I regard a computer as a tool or a means to an end.

To me computers are much like cars: a car is a tool designed to carry me and my equipment from A to B. If a car does that reliably and provides a reasonable degree of comfort and safety then I’m happy with it. I’m not interested in having fluffy dice hanging from the rear view mirror because they do not improve the car’s functionality.

A computer is also like a Swiss Army Knife, being one tool that can do many things.

My utilitarian view of computers means that this blog has four main areas of focus:

1. Maintaining and protecting your computer (keeping your Swiss Army Knife sharp and in a pouch).
2. Ways in which your computer can help you (learning what your Swiss Army Knife is capable of).
3. Improving your computer (adding new parts to your Swiss Army Knife so it can do more for you).
4. Online services (joining your Swiss Army Knife to another one so that both of them are working for you).

The great thing is that you can usually explore these four areas of interest without spending any money, and I will show you how to do that whenever possible.

Finally, I find that it helps to keep in mind that computers are really just overgrown calculators with telephonic abilities.