The scanner, which 'scans' or reads things is like a reverse printer: instead of drawing what it's told to, it reads and tells the CPU what's on the paper inside the scanner.  ¶ 12:45 AM 0 comments

 
The printer, which not surprisingly, prints things, listens to the CPU and draws on paper what it's told to.  ¶ 12:44 AM 0 comments

 
This completly brainless thing goes by at least 3 names: screen, monitor or display.
I don't mean to be insulting, but it really does nothing except display what the graphics card tells it too. It doesn't talk or listen directly to the CPU at all. It's like a TV without the ability to change channels or tune into stations. Those thin, schick modern displays are known as LCD monitors while the older and cheaper kind are called CRT monitors.  ¶ 12:44 AM 0 comments

 
This piece of plastic is a lot like the musician sound card, except it draws pictures instead of making noise. It listens to the CPU and draws whatever the CPU wants. Sometimes it is also part of the motherboard. This device is called a graphics card. A 'graphic' is really just a picture on a computer and it looks like a big plastic card, hence the name.  ¶ 12:41 AM 0 comments

 
This plastic and metal thing is called a soundcard. It's like a musician, really. The CPU tells it what music or sound to play and it sends the sound to your speakers or headphones - whatever is plugged into your computer. Many computers don't actually have one of these because they are often a part of the motherboard (making the motherboard quite a talented device). It always found inside that beige box, so you might not have seen one before.  ¶ 12:40 AM 0 comments

 
This thing is inside the box and it's called a hard drive. It's like long term memory. It can remember a lot of stuff but it's slow. Fortunately it doesn't ever forget things. Like the RAM, it listens to the CPU to remember information and then repeat this imformation back to the CPU later.  ¶ 12:39 AM 0 comments

 
This thing is called a mouse because it sort of looks like one with a long tail, I guess. It talks, but doesn't listen to the CPU.  ¶ 12:38 AM 0 comments

 
You might know what this is. It's called a CD drive. You guessed it, a CD goes inside. Most of this macine is hidden inside your beigeBox, but the front is normally visabe so you put CDs into it. The common CD drive has a special talent: it can read what is on a CD. Some newer drives can also read DVDs. So it tells the CPU what is on a CD/DVD. If you have a special one of these, it might also be able to put stuff onto a CD/DVD. Then it's typically called a CD/DVD writer. In this case, it can both talk to and listen to the CPU. The CPU will talk to it and it will write something onto a CD/DVD.  ¶ 12:38 AM 0 comments

 
This you'll find inside the box and like everything to follow, it's attached to the motherboard somehow. This is called RAM. It's kind of like our own short-term memory. It's plugged into the motherboard and does 2 things:

1. It remembers stuff the CPU tells it.
2. It tells the CPU the same things later on.

RAM is fast and can only remember a few things. The problem with this short-term memory is that it forgets things really quickly.  ¶ 12:37 AM 0 comments

 
This one doesn't need much explanation. It's called a keyboard because it has lots of things to push, like a piano keyboard. It talks to the CPU and is plugged into the motherboard.  ¶ 12:35 AM 0 comments

 
The CPU and fan are surgically (well, almost) attached to a large piece of metal-studded-plastic called the motherboard. That's a weird name, I know. Think of it as one of those adapter plugs which allow one to many things into 1 wall socket. In this case, it allows many things to talk to and listen to the brain.  ¶ 12:35 AM 0 comments

 
Stuck onto the CPU (brain) is this fan. The brain gets hot when it thinks and needs the fan to keep it cool, otherwise it will burn up and die.  ¶ 12:33 AM 0 comments

 
CPU

In the heart of the box, buried among all the wires and stuck onto a big piece of plastic is the brain or CPU. It does maths and has a plug on it so it can talk and listen to other things.  ¶ 12:30 AM 0 comments

  Intro So let's make this practical. You've got this beige (Why are computers this colour?) box with stuff plugged into it. Let's have a look at the stuff and what's in the box.  ¶ 12:26 AM 0 comments

  Welcome Computers are simple

Why did I write this??
1. I'm sick of people thinking that computers are difficult to understand. They're not!
2. Knowledge is power. If you know how something works, you can use it better.
3. Computers are everywhere and it doesn't look like they're going away anytime in the next 100 years.
4. Computers are interesting, once you get to know them.

So, what is a computer?

In one word:
A calculator.

In one sentence:
A quick and powerful calculator that listens and talks to things.

Word by word from above:
Calculator > The only thing it does is mathematics.

Powerful > It can do pretty complex mathematics.

Quick > It can do sums at a rate of about a billion per second.

Listens > Things like keyboards, mice and web-cams give it sums to do.

Talks > It tells things like your monitor, printer and soundcard the answers to those sums.

That's it really. HOW it does this stuff is another story altogether. If you want to know this kind of stuff, leave a comment on this blog and I'll try to answer it.  ¶ 12:33 AM 5 comments