Literacies

This is a fairly "geeky" site and techy acronyms abound.

PSU, FPS, CPU, OC, mods, X-FI, SLI, SPDIF, SCSI, SATA, blades, DDR, LED, RAID, ubuntu, red hat, PCIe, VPN, GSM, HDD, NT, NTFS and dll.

Chances are you know some or maybe even most of these since you are in an Ed Tech program. I am always learning something new when I'm on Tom's and the everpresent wikipedia is right there to help with the acronyms, abbreviations and words that I haven't heard before. For a "newbie" all of this can be a little overwhelming. It's easy to get lost in the endless numbers and letters that describe a high-end user's system. Many of the posters and readers (and certainly the moderators) have built their own computer systems from various components and the gang here loves nothing more than to spout off all the cool gear they have purchased or are thinking of purchasing. As I said before, the goal is generally maximum performance. Often this is for gaming or for running servers and networks. Sometimes it is just a hobby. To get as high-tech as possible or to go retro and rebuild old systems (Commodore, Atari, 364s, Apples, etc) and make them to do cool things.

I know my tech literacy has grown from using Tom's site and I'm sure first-time users have a steep learning curve as they try to grasp all the shorthand and lingo. Once they do, they are one of the gang and can talk shop all day (or night) long.