Where do you get the knowledge?

[sturg]

So I find myself wanting to learn more about my new computer, Apple Apps, Apple music, external drives, how to use terminal, and so many other topics.
But where do you folks that have immense knowledge about all of these things get your information? Did you have jobs in the computer industry, or college degrees in IT, or software, or some other tech specialty? For someone like me that does not have a job that deals directly with computers, and does not have a four year degree in a computer or tech area, where can I learn, really learn about Apple computers? Or even computers in general?
Internet forums like this? Books like any number of "...... For Dummies" type of books? I think that one of the people on here that seems very knowledgeable, Randy Singer, is an attorney.
Where did he learn all the stuff he knows?
And I am too old to be in a position to go back to school and get a computer degree, so that's OOTQ. Any and all intelligent replies are appreciated. Ty.

 

[pigoo3]

One way a lot of us have learned (who aren't formally trained computer or IT professionals)...is many years as a user. Also many of us have been members here for quite some time...and have learned a lot via the thread discussions.

Of course there are books, websites, etc.

And of course...ask any questions & followup questions to those questions here.

Nick

 

[sturg]

Ty nick, yes I agree with you and I have already learned some from reading/posting/following up, etc.

 

[vansmith]

A lot of what I know is just from years of learning and trying things out. Some of my specific knowledge actually comes from adjacent worlds. For instance, my knowledge of the Unix foundations of macOS comes from years of being (and still) a Linux user (don't worry if you don't know what Unix or Linux is - you don't need to). All that to say, a lot of what I think a lot of us know comes from just using these products for a long time. YouTube is also a great place to learn.

If you have the luxury of a spare Mac or a macOS virtual machine, you could learn by tinkering and taking risks since those risks won't impact your day to day life. Indeed, one of the best ways that I learned was using virtual machines; with VMs, you can purposefully break things and try to fix them with the knowledge that reverting back to a working state involves no more than clicking a button.

I might suggest trying to look up advanced topics and working your way backwards, that is, if they mention something that you don't know, work backwards to learn that thing.

 

[IWT]

Apple has its own Apple YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYFQ33UIPERYx8-ZHucZbDA/videos

From here, you can use the Q____ to input a question such as iOS 5.2; iPad, iTunes, Music, Photos; - or more directly - how to use Pencil with iPad?

The site contains, or links to, videos, printed articles and so on.

That's a good starting point.

You can go directly to Apple Support:

Official Apple Support

Find out more about popular features and topics, and find resources that will help you with all of your Apple products.

support.apple.com

Have fun; that's the real secret!!

Ian

 

[Kenney]

Internet searches help a lot. Just don't take the first or second answers as always correct and watch the Dates that the answers were posted. Have a Backup of your system, maybe even two. As mentioned VM"s are a good way to try out different programs and suggestions to problems. There are Free ones. Read (maybe print out) the Specifications / Versions of your equipment and Software that you are using so you will know what it can do and can't do and what works with what.
KenK

 

[Raz0rEdge]

A common mistake that people make when wanting to learn things is trying to learn it all, at the same time. This is unrealistic. Start with one thing and once you have learned enough about it, look into adjacent things and peel the onion that way.

For me, my experience building PCs back when I was teenager to my degree in computer science and 20+ years in the industry has taught me a lot.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I think that one of the people on here that seems very knowledgeable, Randy Singer, is an attorney.
Where did he learn all the stuff he knows?

I started off with a Mac that my girlfriend at the time let me play with while she was out of the country. I played with it incessantly. Then I called into the world's largest Mac user group at the time: BMUG, and every day read all the discussions and learned what everyone knew. Then, when I had questions that even the experts couldn't answer, I researched them and wrote articles about them.

I read books, I talked to others, I went to user group meetings, etc. Basically, you learn by doing, and asking.

If you want to learn about the Mac, a great resource is:

https://www.amazon.com/macOS-Catalina-Missing-Manual-Should/dp/149207506X/?tag=macforums0e4-20

If you want to learn to use the Macintosh command line (Terminal), the best way to learn is by doing. This free utility will allow you to do that without fear of doing something wrong:

Clix (Free)

CLIX | The ACP by Rixstep

If you want to know how to do anything else...just ask!

 

[MacInWin]

Let me add that reading is great, but doing is better. The challenge of reading books like the excellent "Missing Manual" series is that they are like drinking from a firehose. So much information, condensed into one book. Instead of trying digest it all, focus on a few things. Get comfortable with the steps, commands, results, intuitions. Then add another focus, and another, etc. Just get started on it.

I liken it to reading. First you have to learn the letters, then simple words, then simple sentences. then simple paragraphs. You continue to step up in vocabulary, structure, nuance, until you can read novels, instruction manuals, mysteries, etc. But you didn't jump from the A-B-C's to War and Peace in one step.

And never stop learning. I wanted to know more about Time Machine. A search led me to the Eclectic Light Co website where I found a set of fifteen articles going from simple to complex. Do I fully understand TM? No, but I do know a lot more about it than I did before I read, and toyed with, the articles.

 

[Sawday]

Apple has its own Apple YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYFQ33UIPERYx8-ZHucZbDA/videos

From here, you can use the Q____ to input a question such as iOS 5.2; iPad, iTunes, Music, Photos; - or more directly - how to use Pencil with iPad?

The site contains, or links to, videos, printed articles and so on.

That's a good starting point.

You can go directly to Apple Support:

Official Apple Support

Find out more about popular features and topics, and find resources that will help you with all of your Apple products.

support.apple.com

Have fun; that's the real secret!!

Ian

Apple YouTube channel? How come I never knew about this? I'm sure I'm not the only one. It looks great why don't Apple tell people about this?

 

[Groovetube]

I started off with a Mac that my girlfriend at the time let me play with while she was out of the country. I played with it incessantly. Then I called into the world's largest Mac user group at the time: BMUG, and every day read all the discussions and learned what everyone knew. Then, when I had questions that even the experts couldn't answer, I researched them and wrote articles about them.

I read books, I talked to others, I went to user group meetings, etc. Basically, you learn by doing, and asking.

If you want to learn about the Mac, a great resource is:

macOS Catalina: The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box: Pogue, David: 9781492075066: Amazon.com: Books

If you want to learn to use the Macintosh command line (Terminal), the best way to learn is by doing. This free utility will allow you to do that without fear of doing something wrong:

Clix (Free)

CLIX | The ACP by Rixstep

If you want to know how to do anything else...just ask!

I never knew about this app. Very cool.

 

[vansmith]

I don't doubt that you're right @Randy B. Singer but I may be missing something here as that app looks to still execute commands, albeit by holding your hand and scaffolding quite a bit. Now, I'm only having my morning coffee now so it's possible that it is non-destructive and I missed that but might you point me to that?

As an aside, while I (and some others) will extol the virtues of the command line, I'd avoid dipping your toes into that for now until you get a firm grasp on things like the filesystem layout and how permissions are set (at a minimum). The command line is powerful and unforgiving so while it can be incredibly powerful, it can be incredibly damaging as well.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I don't doubt that you're right @Randy B. Singer but I may be missing something here as that app looks to still execute commands, albeit by holding your hand and scaffolding quite a bit. Now, I'm only having my morning coffee now so it's possible that it is non-destructive and I missed that but might you point me to that?

I think that you mostly answered your own question. However, as in life in general, Clix can't make up for someone being a moron. Clix leads you to the MAN pages to tell you exactly what each command does before you decide to execute it. It gives more guidance than, for instance, the oft recommended utility here, Onyx. And just like Onyx, or any other utility, you have to have and use good judgement before using any of the offered features.

 

[vansmith]

Ah, I misread your post and thought that it just 'simulated' commands, rather than walking you through them (and executing them). This is what I get for trying to do anything before coffee!

 

[MacInWin]

As an aside, while I (and some others) will extol the virtues of the command line, I'd avoid dipping your toes into that for now until you get a firm grasp on things like the filesystem layout and how permissions are set (at a minimum). The command line is powerful and unforgiving so while it can be incredibly powerful, it can be incredibly damaging as well.

Used to run a data center for a major university. Our side was the administrative side, there was a scientific side managed by the Engineering department. Every year we would warn the Engineers not to try to get through the firewall between the two areas. What they didn't know was that our real protection was a little routine written by a former Bell Engineer that ran on the Unix box dedicated to be the firewall. When it detected an attempt to penetrate the firewall, it issued the command " rm -R /* " (I think that was it, it's been a while now and those brain cells got recycled.) that ran as root and then shut down. No more firewall, no more connection to the network from the admin side or the engineering side. We had a backup of the drive that sat on a small reel of tape on the shelf just above the firewall. When it disappeared, the sysop would restore from the tape and reboot the firewall. Every year, at the first of the semester, we would need to do that 2-3 times a day, then again near exam time, students would be trying to penetrate to "adjust" their grades. Fun times. We finally called in the head of the IT curriculum in the engineering school and told him what was there, why it was there and why it was going to stay there. He asked for the routine to detect the penetrations, put up a similar firewall on the Engineering side that did the same thing if it detected an outgoing penetration attempt to the admin side. Then he announced to the engineering students what was in place. After a while poking at it, students gave up because when the Engineering AND Administrative firewalls were both down, there was no access to the Internet for any of the dorms or libraries.

But yes, Terminal is a powerful and unforgiving area with much bad juju possible!

 

[vansmith]

That sounds...frustrating. And nothing like the ever dangerous "rm -R /" to haunt you (note to anyone reading this - do not run that command).

 

[sturg]

Ty all so much for these replies. I will dig into your suggestions as time and life allows. I appreciate everything posted here.

 

[MacInWin]

That sounds...frustrating. And nothing like the ever dangerous "rm -R /" to haunt you (note to anyone reading this - do not run that command).

That was the intent. These young college nerds thought they could outsmart my sysop, who had been one of the developers at Bell Labs who created Unix. He had a small library of his "special" tools that could make any *nix box sing and dance (or block some punk nerd). Eventually the nerds got roasted by the rest of the student body. Whenever the Internet was blocked by a security penetration, when it came back students were greeted with "The Internet was not available because a student attempted to penetrate the firewall. Please encourage your fellow students not to try that again." After one day, the greeting was taken down so that they didn't just get used to it. Eventually we started tracking the sources of the attempts and gave the names of the accounts to the Dean of Engineering for him to deal with. He wasn't a "generous" man, so things quieted down after the first couple of "discussions" about it in his office.

 

[BobCollard]

I began taking a course in Micro Computer Repair from NRI, a mail order course back when MSDOS was 2.7 version. I build a computer with two 5 1/4" floppy drives, a Sanyo. Then later when I retired from a Railroad I went to a K - 5 grade school, took the classroom's computers and built a computer lab with 30 Apple II E's and a Macintosh server, two printers and daisy chained them all together. I was a full time volunteer for ten school years. In the mean time I took several junk PCs and combined the parts into a Windows machine that later ran Linux. I worked as a volunteer Forum Moderator for five years on Linux, then when Windows 11 came out, i found my computer was obsolete. I did some home work, bought a Late 2014 Mac Mini, upgraded it with a SSB and a NVMe now running Mac OS Monterey 12.1. Currently 77 years old I also help out on three Apple Forums, like this one. It takes time and education to get to this point. Good luck.

 

[Ken1222]

In addition to the previous responses I would suggest reading magazines. The best three are MacFormat, MacLife, and Macworld. Every one of them has excellent tutorials every month and if you go to their web sites you can search for a topic. When I joined the Apple ecosystem in 2011 at 55 years old I felt overwhelmed since I bought an iPhone, iPad, and iMac all in one shot, but reading the magazines helped me a lot. You can also subscribe to Apple News+ which has a few Apple channels you can follow as well as the mags I mentioned. I still read them on News+ and if there's something I want to save just do a screen capture and you have it at your fingertips for future reference.