Do You REALLY Understand What It All Means?
Every day we’re confronted with unintelligible processes we’re expected to know. Using the Internet requires learning a whole new language. Be honest. Do you REALLY know what everything you come across every day means? Maybe the true geeks among us understand all the decisions we’re asked to make. Some of them boggle my mind.
I’m talking about things like this prompt I receive when I attempt to get YouTube Videos to work using Ubuntu:
Confirm installation of restricted software. The use of this software may be restricted in some countries. You must verify that one of the following is true:
* These restrictions do not apply in your country of legal residence
* You have permission to use this software (for example, a patent license)
* You are using this software for research purposes only
Hmmm. That doesn’t sound good. Maybe I don’t want to play videos after all. Well, maybe I’ll get chat working instead. I go to Jabber and need to select an End-User Jabber Client. Ok. The purpose of Jabber is “to unleash the power of presence”. Do you feel the need to unleash? I didn’t.
On to more decisions. Which to choose? It looks like PSI is the most popular. It is a GPL. GPL? Ok, let’s look that up. General Public License usually refers to a GNU GPL. Oh, yes, that clears things up. Sure. So we look up GNU and find we need to know what a Linux kernel is.
Wait. Didn’t I just want to get a YouTube video to play and chat with my peers? Do I really need to know what all these acronyms mean? Do I know any more now than I did when I started? I confess that I’ve made a living in the computer world for three decades so all that may make more sense to me than it does to the ordinary individual who simply wants to watch that video!
So maybe this has made sense to the true geeks among us so far. But it gets worse. We choose PSI and are greeted with this end-user-friendly statement:
Psi is a free instant messaging application designed for the Jabber IM network (including Google Talk). Fast and lightweight, Psi is fully open-source and compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. With Psi’s full Unicode support and localizations, easy file transfers, customizable iconsets, and many other great features, you’ll learn why users around the world are making the switch to free, open instant messaging.
What’s that you say? Unicode? localizations? iconsets? I just want to chat with my friends. What DOES all that mean? Ok, the geeks are still on board. The ordinary PC user has learned to ignore geek-speak and gobble-dee-gook and just click on whatever is clickable.
What a call-to-action here: Visit Project Homepage. I don’t want to visit anything. I just want to install PSI. But that is the only button so click it you do. More geek-speak here but Download sounds good so off we go. Look at all those options. If you have Windows or Mac you may get the job done. If you’re new to Ubuntu now what? Well, maybe I didn’t want PSI after all.
So we bring up our trusty Zuula search engine to see if we can figure out how to get Pidgin running. Check out the instructions to install Pidgin. You have GOT to be kidding. No clue. If I have absolutely no idea what to do with all this, imagine the poor Newbie’s dilemma. (That would be a good book title: The Newbie’s Dilemma – if there weren’t already a book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma.)
Wait…we don’t have Feisty Fawn; we have Hardy Heron. Let’s try again. We find Enable Pidgin Plugins in Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). Thank goodness. They’re actually in ordinary English. Maybe we’ll get there after all. The instructions fail to mention going to Applications, Internet, Pidgin and they’re not really about getting it working.
Nothing so far has mentioned where or how to get an account specifically to use in Pidgin. Finally I manage to get an account using IRC by finding AbleNet IRC Network. Finally: success! After I got it working I found Using Pidgin which will be very helpful.
So why didn’t I just use one of the major messengers: AOL, ICQ, MSN, or Yahoo!? I am determined to go totally open source and non-corporate if there is any possible way to do it. Besides, if geek-speak isn’t confusing enough, does anyone REALLY understand the legaleze of all those EULA and TOS agreements we’ve been accepting?
Be honest – do you sincerely believe you KNOW without a doubt what all that stuff means? That there are no hidden agendas in there somewhere? Even if you did, most of them reserve the right to change them at any time so who knows what they say now? Who even reads them?
We really only have two choices: agree or leave. Life’s too short. Let’s just wander over to ProBlogger and check out their new Killer Titles contest.
Gail Gardner
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I learnt a couple of new American words when working with non-local English speakers. It was somewhat tragic at to begin with, yet i couldn’t reprimand them for discovering that variant, as it’s everywhere throughout the media.Whatever i could do was attempt to un-sully their prounciations.
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Geek Speak! I can relate to that! 🙂
Actually, I think the geek speak and acronyms are important.
When you refer to the GPL for example, it say a lot of things to someone who understand what it is. It tells me that this program is open source, and in three letters tells me exactly what my rights are in terms of modification and distribution. It would take a lot of space and time to explain that every time the license was used.
When someone doesn’t know what it is, they can either ignore it as you mentioned, or they can look it up. Once you’ve learned what it is once, you’ll understand the term from there onwards.
The fact is, that open source software is a technical subject. You wouldn’t expect to learn about a topic like chemistry or even blogging without picking up a few new phrases, and I don’t see why this should be any different.
Agree with you that open source software is a technical subject. Definitely for newbie of old people it is hard to work with them. But technology is improving day by day. In this case they can just ignore the subject or explore them as you said. Anyway nice post.
It makes far more sense to improve the GUI to the point where that is not necessary. A personalized glossary plugin that offers a definition in a mouse-over window could easily handle the geek-speak and acronyms.
I’m with you and there are already at least two WP plugins. I’m switching to Linux Mint this week and I like it a lot more than Ubuntu even though I’ve been using Ubuntu a long time and have only just seen Mint.
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Thanks for the wonderful post. That open source software is a technical subject. Thanks again.
Hi, Very nice post on “Geek-Speak and Legaleze – Fess Up!” I really enjoyed the post.
Thanks for the post.
I really like your article “Geek-Speak and Legaleze – Fess Up!”. Thank you for stopping by and especially for taking the time to comment and leave a link back to your blog.
HI,
I learnt a few new American words when working with non-native English speakers. It was a bit sad at first, but i couldn’t blame them for learning that version, as it’s all over the media. All i could do was try to un-sully their accents!
When someone doesn’t know what it is, they can either ignore it as you mentioned, or they can look it up. Once you’ve learned what it is once, you’ll understand the term from there onwards.
Thanks.
Thank you for the article “Geek-Speak and Legaleze – Fess Up!”. I am agree that today open Source is very technical. Thanks again for the post. I found them informative and interesting.
Nice article……I was searching these kind of information ,Thank you so much…..
lovely article very useful and informative to everyone.great work.
Really wonderful piece of information and I appreciate it that you shared something so helpful with the readers of this blog.
GPL is a new arena to be discussed and explored. Thanks for sharing the facts and its advantages.
.-= Suni@Sole F80 Treadmill´s last blog ..Sole F80 Treadmill =-.
I learnt a few new American words when working with non-native English speakers. It was a bit sad at first, but i couldn’t blame them for learning that version, as it’s all over the media. All i could do was try to un-sully their accents!
Hello Hazel. Thank you for stopping by and especially for taking the time to comment and leave a link back to your blog.
I agree that today Open Source is very technical. So were IBM PCs when they were introduced. Back before Windows GUI command line DOS was all there was and the only people who used PCs were technical types.
I clearly recognized the difference in what I was seeking and what my co-workers at IBM were doing. I wanted to USE the PC to accomplish a particular task while they would fill their hard drives with programs so they could play with them. Their PCs had no data on them.
Admittedly, hard drives were extremely small back then by today’s standards. The concept remains the same though. Most computer users don’t want to tweak them or understand the complex workings any more than every person who drives a car wants to know how to tear down the engine.
Ubuntu CAN quickly be just as easy to use as Windows. That will happen just as soon as the brilliant minds behind it realize just how sophisticated their knowledge and abilities are and how simple it must be made for other users.
Ubuntu – or some other variety – of Unix IS capable of changing the world – literally. That must happen soon. People caught on the treadmill don’t have time to figure it out – and when their treadmill crashes and burns they may not have the money to even say online.
It makes far more sense to improve the GUI to the point where that is not necessary. A personalized glossary plugin that offers a definition in a mouse-over window could easily handle the geek-speak and acronyms. That should become standard across blogs.
Just like Windows (where DOS is ever-present but most don’t have any idea it is there), Ubuntu can retain all that powerful capability behind the scenes.
Ubuntu has come a very long way. Boo has provided some very useful links. More and more of us will get up to speed and each of us can then teach others. That is how PCs became common and how non-technical users got online. It is also how Ubuntu can become the operating system of choice among those who realize the importance.
Thank you for blogging. What you write benefits us all.
Actually, I think the geek speak and acronyms are important.
When you refer to the GPL for example, it say a lot of things to someone who understand what it is. It tells me that this program is open source, and in three letters tells me exactly what my rights are in terms of modification and distribution. It would take a lot of space and time to explain that every time the license was used.
When someone doesn’t know what it is, they can either ignore it as you mentioned, or they can look it up. Once you’ve learned what it is once, you’ll understand the term from there onwards.
The fact is, that open source software is a technical subject. You wouldn’t expect to learn about a topic like chemistry or even blogging without picking up a few new phrases, and I don’t see why this should be any different.