[Lingo] What is RAM?

Level: Beginner

If you don't know what RAM is, I'm sure you have at least heard it in conversation, and if you're anything like my fiancée, you likely switched your brain off immediately. I'll try to explain what it is as simply as I can.

Firstly, RAM stands for Random Access Memory, although I'm sure that didn't help much. Computers have several different memory devices built in, each for a different purpose. The most well known being a hard drive. Hard drives keep a hold of data until deleted or overwritten, it holds all your files (documents, photos, videos, operating system (Windows)).

RAM has a different purpose. When you load up any program such as an internet browser, a game, the calculator, whatever; the program gets loaded into the RAM until it is closed. The bigger the program, the more RAM it takes up. If you have an 8 year old computer with 512MB of RAM (That's 0.5GB), you definitely will not be able to play one of the new games out today. Games these days require anything from 1GB to 4GB of RAM. Some games even require more if you want to play on high quality settings.

Depending on your current understanding of computers you may have already shut down. But don't worry about all that mumbo-jumbo, just remember that more RAM is better, and that it's temporary storage for running programs. Also note that when the computer shuts down, RAM is completely cleared, as opposed to hard drives, CDs, DVDs, etc.

I hope this helped, I will probably post a more in-depth article about storage media and memory.

[Essentials] Keyboard Shortcuts

Level: Beginner

So for my first post, and without any a do, I thought I'd start a series of articles about things every human should know about using computers, and this first one is going right back to the basics of using computers.

It never seizes to amaze me how few people actually use keyboard shortcuts on a computer. Are you one of those people who actually take the time to right click something, select copy, right click again somewhere else and select paste? Listen up, you're about to make life surprisingly easier.

The absolute essential keyboard shortcuts are:
Ctrl + C = Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste
Ctrl + Z = Undo
Ctrl + Y = Redo
Ctrl + A = Select all
Windows key + D = Go to desktop
Alt +tab = Switch program

Play around with those, and click here to find more if you're interested, but those are the main ones. It might not seem natural at first, but after not long you will do it without thinking.

Another useful thing to know is when you are entering details into a form or a login screen, you can hit tab to move your cursor to the next field, and you can hit enter while a text cursor is in any field of the form.