Rudimentary Computer Intelligence

I am inherently inquisitive. One of my first nicknames was "Why What Noonen" so this is not a trait that I have worked on and developed. This serves me very well in my current job and I would like to share some of the things that I like to look at in detail in addition to a few things you should probably know.

1) When on the web, always look at the url (that thing that starts with http://) there are always clues as to the location that the writers may or may not want you to know. For instance Penny Arcade uses a URL that looks like this: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/12/20/ now what that tells me is that I'm looking at the comic from 12/20/2006. Try it out for URLs that you visit all the time. What you find may be that the "broken" links can be fixed easily if you know the algorithm for the creation of the URL and other data you may want to access becomes much easier to find. Google.com is one of the more interesting if you know complicated search queries.

2) Learn to count in other number formats. Binary and hexadecimal are the best (binary is 0 and 1, hex is 0...9, A...F meaning that A is actually 10 in decimal) but others are fun as well.

3) Learn what the modifier keys do (Ctrl, Alt, Shift) and key combinations (Ctrl+A) for your favorite OS and applications. These key combinations will not be part of your daily life for awhile, but aim at learning a few per week and using them instead of the mouse. Applications have to be developed so that a user can use the keypad instead of the mouse for people with no dexterity. Take advantage of this.

4) Learn what XML is and how it works. Once you understand XML, right click and view source on a web page or two.

5) Play with applications and try to discover hidden things. Most applications have File, Edit... menu items and most of them have predefined items within these menu items. Try to find one or two menu items that you have never used and see what they do. For the applications that you use on a daily basis, you should know every menu item and what they do.

6) Dive into the Control Panel and see what you can do. Have fun, break something, try to fix it. If all else fails, reinstall the Operating System.

The thing that separates Macs from PCs in my mind is that I have infinite control over what happens, how things are displayed, what applications open what files, etc. If you really get gutsy, go to Start -> Run and type regedit and hit enter. Here is where things can REALLY go wrong but look some properties up and see what happens when you change them. Look everything up on your favorite search engine and let the inquisition begin.