Welcome to a fascinating new series of articles that will hopefully break down the complexities of computers so that we, ordinary folk, can understand them.

First let?s examine where we are with respect to technology for folks like us: There is a perception that we are all caught in the jet-wash of a burgeoning technological revolution the likes of which we have never experienced before. True? Well, let?s see...

In actual fact, the largest technological revolution we have ever experienced began back around 1870. Back then, people were born into a horse-drawn world, where most people worked the land, sat up in the evening reading by oil-lamp and bathed in water drawn from a well.

What followed WAS a massive technological revolution: Thomas Edison gave us the electric light bulb; by the time we ushered in the 20th Century, we had the internal combustion engine and were already starting mass production; not long after, we flew for the first time.

By the time the First World War started, radio communication and moving pictures were starting to make their mark and we had found a way to take to the air, regularly.

By the time Hitler began his march across Europe, plastics were already in widespread use and electricity was being delivered to homes throughout most cities.

At the height of the Second World War, we were introduced to jet propulsion and frighteningly advanced weaponry, the likes of which few could have imagined just a decade earlier. By 1950, we had the transistor in our grasp and sideboard-sized wireless kits were reduced to the bakelite, battery-powered portable kind of thing that could be taken to the beach.

In the early 1950s, domestic appliances started to appear: vacuum cleaners and washing machines; commercial air travel became a reality, and at the turn of the decade, Russia landed their Sputnik probe on the moon.

From horse-drawn world to moon-landing in the space of one single life-time. Now that?s a revolution.

Since the 1950s, much of our technology has mainly been used to provide improvements to existing technologies, rather than provide radical new solution as it did in the first half of the century.

Consider that the way we write has not changed - we may use a computer keyboard and printer now, rather than a pen and paper, but the letters, words and the techniques used to string them together remain the same. That does not mean that some of these improvements have not left a lot of us behind.

Many of us find the jargon-filled, geeky world of technology somewhere we would rather not go - not because we do not want to, but because we are left puzzled or confused by the myriad of jargon-spattered phrases that are used to describe and define such a world - and most of us simply can?t be bothered following this up.

But, let?s get some perspective on this - Isn?t what we?re experiencing today actually a mere ripple on the ocean of technology, by comparison to the tidal wave our great-grandparents had to struggle to comprehend?

So now what? We?re not in a technological revolution, but everyone is still fazed by computer technology, and at the start of the 21st Century, a lot of us ordinary folk are freaked out by technobabble. So shouldn?t the custodians of geekdom make technology accessible to us ordinary folk? Well, yes, except they?re not going to - either because they feel they?re a private club or because they don?t feel we need to.

Either way, it?s up to us to get with the programme.

It is with all this as a backdrop that this column is born. A column through which I hope to translate geek-speak into something understandable to ordinary folk - plain English. A place where you will hopefully be able to come to find the definitions to some particular gobbledygook; to find an unbiased, objective, jargon-free perspective on the computer technology available to us, today, and a few pointers about how to use it.

I look forward to sharing this exciting and fascinating journey with you.

.

Bob Mellor is a senior business technologist with nearly two decades experience. He is a Professional Member of the British Computer Society, and currently Technical Services Manager at Bermuda Microsystems Group. He can be contacted on bob@bmg.bm