The Jargon File (Was: Making the most of this mailing list.)

[Amedee Van Gasse (ub)]

On Fri, January 8, 2010 01:55, Mark C. Miller wrote:

> I'm one of the users who frequently asks dumb questions,  The answers are
> out there someplace, but my google searches usually don't return anything
> meaningful because I don't know the right search terms.  It never takes
> long for someone to recognize the terms I need to use and even provide
> the link to the web page with the information I'm looking for.  The last
> couple have had three and four boolean operators in the search.  No way I
> could have put together that complete/complex of a search string.

Meh. When I was in college ("hogeschool" in .be terminology) in 1998 I
already noticed that my fellow students had troubles with finding anything
on the internet using search engines. I thought about writing a book on
that subject, and the idea has never gone away, but by now there are
already much better books out there that explain how you can make the most
efficient use of search engines & other internet resources.

Just search for "how to use google" to get started.

> I've found the list to be a welcoming place, albeit with enough jargon to
> make life interesting.  I didn't know, for example, that when someone
> talked about "kill files" it was the same thing as mail filters.  I had
> no idea where the bit bucket was kept.  I try for the most part to sit
> back, read, and get smarter and try to do my own search before I ask the
> question to the group.  That may not be the right way, but it sure has
> worked.  Information provided here equals the guys at tech support and
> exceeds the Geek-Squad by an order of magnitude.

This may help you with most of the jargon:
http://catb.org/jargon/html/go01.html
Safety warning: do not drink hot fluids while reading! :-)

-- 
Amedee Van Gasse