{"id":20259,"date":"2017-03-09T22:05:12","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T22:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20259"},"modified":"2017-03-09T22:05:12","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T22:05:12","slug":"getting-conversant-in-computer-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=20259","title":{"rendered":"Getting ‘conversant’ in computer speak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This next blog post is going to sound perhaps a bit boastful.<\/p>\n

If so … that’s just too damn bad.<\/p>\n

High Plains Blogger crashed inexplicably this morning. I couldn’t open it up. I couldn’t post anything new. I was struck. Frozen. High-centered. I called one of my sons, who’s in the business of trouble-shooting people’s computers. He pointed me to the outfit that “hosts” this blog.<\/p>\n

I called GoDaddy. Three clicks on the cell phone and I was speaking to a human being, a living, breathing young man.<\/p>\n

He asked me about the nature of my call. I told him.<\/p>\n

Then, as I was explaining the situation with my blog, how it crashed and how frustrated I was becoming at being unable to restore it, it occurred to me — in real time — that I was communicating effectively with a young man who is fluent in another language altogether.<\/p>\n

Computer speak is a language that I do not to this very moment understand fully. It contains a lot of jargon that only computer techs\/geeks understand. It’s almost like lawyers, doctors, engineers — for that matter, journalists — only understand. They speak in coded language designed to facilitate problem-solving.<\/p>\n

I’ve had previous discussions with computer techs in which I’ve had serious trouble making my case. I have unable to state with any clarity the issue at hand. I’ve apologized more times than I can remember to these 20- or 30-somethings about my ignorance. Without fail, they chuckle and tell me, “That’s all right, sir. I understand. Take … your … time.”<\/em><\/p>\n

So, I do.<\/p>\n

However, today I was able to blurt it out with relative ease — with “relative” being the key word.”<\/p>\n

I will make zero pretense at being fluent in this kind of language. I will consider myself to be minimally conversant<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Both of my sons are much better at this language than I am. I get it. That’s the way it is. And I expect my 4-year-old granddaughter to pick up on this language in due course. Indeed, she well might be learning the basics already.<\/p>\n

However, today marked something of a milestone for this old timer as I got through two relatively painless phone conversations with young computer techs.<\/p>\n

I don’t speak their language entirely. At least, though, I can declare myself to no longer be a total and utter doofus as it regards this computer lingo.<\/p>\n

Don’t ask me, though, what\u00a0“widget” means. I’ll need more time.<\/p>\n\n

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This next blog post is going to sound perhaps a bit boastful. If so … that’s just too damn bad. High Plains Blogger crashed inexplicably this morning. I couldn’t open it up. I couldn’t post anything new. I was struck. Frozen. High-centered. I called one of my sons, who’s in the business of trouble-shooting people’s … Continue reading Getting ‘conversant’ in computer speak<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6990,6989,2122,5561],"class_list":["post-20259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","tag-computers","tag-go-daddy","tag-high-plains-blogger","tag-high-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20259"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20260,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20259\/revisions\/20260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}