Hey folks

[Wannabee A+]

As my nickname would suggest, i'm totally new at this thing called A+. I've always been interested in computers but never got the time to explore those things. Finally the time is here. I'm from the Netherlands and 33 years old. I've just started the A+ course and find it very interesting. Stumbled across this site by accident and i kid you not i'm hooked. Two thumbs up to Charles.

[Paleo Pete]

Well, welcome to the forums, and thanks from all of us. We have a great group of very knowledgable people, and they all help make this one of the best places on the net for computer help.

The best thing about a forum of this type is that it always turns out to be a group effort, and when you have several very good techs working on a problem as a team, you almost always get good results.

Stick around, you'll find you'll learn lots of practical knowledge the books just can't teach you, no matter how good the books are. I've been through two sets of A+ training manuals, one is 2 books 2" thick each, and I've learned more on Internet computer forums than I ever did from books or tinkering with various machines.

Another thing you might consider is picking up cheap obsolete computers at resale shops, such as Goodwill, and rebuilding them for practice. You'll learn lots that way without spending major bucks if you crash one. $20 versus $1500 is a big difference when it fails the "smoke test". (One of mine did) http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif When you see smoke, it's time to say OOPS!!

I also find lots of good deals on older software that way, like 3 or 4 copies of win3.11 for $2 each, one on 5 1/4" floppies, several versions of DOS, under $2, and a couple had licenses! Also found MS Works for win3.11, Word Perfect, Norton Utilities, games galore, PFS Window Works (very good win3.11 office program), and plenty more. Never paid more than $5 for any of it.

Then there's books...I have two boxes full of DOS manuals, windows manuals, BASIC user's manuals, user's manuals for Word, Works, Word Perfect, Lotus, IRC, and a bunch of others. Again, never more than $2.

Actually I should move this topic to the A+ forum, but I guess it'll be OK here...

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Soon as I come up with all the answers...they change the questions!!

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)