A 2006 study of I.T. literacy in Europe by Eurostat used the following criteria to assess ability:

• use a mouse to launch programs such as an Internet browser or word processor;
• copy or move a file or folder;
• use copy and paste tools to duplicate or move information on the screen;
• use basic arithmetic formulae (add, subtract, multiply, divide) in a spreadsheet;
• write a computer program using a specialised programming language.

In the survey, persons who ticked none of these six items were classed as having no computer skills, those who ticked 1 or 2 of these skills were classed as having low level basic computer skills, those ticking 3 or 4 were classed medium level, and those ticking 5 or all items were classed high level.

No data from Ireland were available for this study. However, prior to this, the Irish Central Statistics Office did carry out a similar surveys and used the following additional criteria:

• creating a web page; merging a mailing list with a letter document or label document;
• creating a web page;
• other.

But what do these surveys tell us? Do they truly measure literacy? They do in the definition of the CSO and Eurostat. But is this a good enough definition? I think not.

Take the analogy of a motorist. If you can start, stop and steer a car then you have the basic skills. If you know how to comply properly with the rules of the road and know how to check oil levels etc. then you have medium skills. If you have advanced driving skills such as being able to handle a car in a skid then you are highly skilled.

Notice I made no mention of being able to perform maintenance such as changing the oil and filters. This can be left to a professional just as technical maintenance of a PC can be.

The key here is that these surveys have ignored the equivalent the medium skilled motorist. Every I.T. user should know how to check the oil in their PC. They should have an understanding of security issues. They should be able to install virus protection and keep it up to date. They should know how to use a firewall correctly. They should have a basic disaster recovery plan in place. They should know how to safely uninstall applications. And so on.

The grading of literacy would better be as follows:

• Low: Cut & paste; move files; compose documents; web search etc.
• Medium: Preventative maintenance and security; basic house-keeping etc.
• High: Compose webpages; write programs etc.

The strange thing is that the Irish government launched a major campaign called Make IT Secure which offers excellent advice on keeping your PC protected. Sadly however, perhaps due to the insufficiency of the data collected in surveys by the CSO and Eurostat, they do not seem to realise the fact that the vast majority of home users simply do not know how to follow this advice.

• Home is where you hang your @
• The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail.
• Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered mails.
• A journey of a thousand sites begins with a single click.
• You can’t teach an old mouse new clicks.
• Great groups from little icons grow.
• Speak softly and carry a mobile.
• C:\ is the root of all directories.
• Don’t put all your hypes in one home page.
• Pentium wise; pen and paper foolish.
• Too many clicks spoil the browse.
• The geek shall inherit the earth.
• A chat has nine lives.
• Don’t byte off more than you can view.
• Fax is stranger than fiction.
• What boots up must come down.
• Windows will never cease.
• Virtual reality is its own reward.
• Modulation in all things.
• A user and his leisure time are soon parted.
• There’s no place like http://primalsneeze.blogspot.com/
• Know what to expect before you connect.
• Oh, what a tangled website we weave when first we practice.

Hurrah for brave Tom Prescott
Verily half man half biscuit
He knew his Linux inside out
Bought his software from a tout
And when he broke it, he could fix it
Hurrah for brave Tom Prescott

© Paul C - bored at work, order management, Informix Irl., circa 1995. About quarter past one, I’d say.

• You can listen to thunder after lightening and tell how close you came to getting hit. If you don’t hear it, you got hit, so never mind.
• Talc is found on rocks and on babies.
• The law of gravity says its not fair jumping up without coming back down.
• Rainbows are just to look at, not to really understand.
• Someday we may discover how to make magnets that can point in any direction.
• A vibration is a motion that cannot make up its mind which way it wants to go.
• Many dead animals in the past changed to fossils while others preferred to be oil.
• Genetics explain why you look like your father and if you don’t why you should.
• Vacuums are nothings. We only mention them to let them know we know they’re there.
• Some oxygen molecules help fires burn while others help make water, so sometimes it’s brother against brother.
• We say the cause of perfume disappearing is evaporation. Evaporation gets blamed for a lot of things people forget to put the top on.
• To most people solutions mean finding the answers. But to chemists solutions are things that are still all mixed up.
• In looking at a drop of water under a microscope, we find there are twice as many H’s as O’s.
• I am not sure how clouds get formed. But the clouds know how to do it, and that is the important thing.
• Water vapor gets together in a cloud. When it is big enough to be called a drop, it does.
• Humidity is the experience of looking for air and finding water. We keep track of the humidity in the air so we won’t drown when we breathe.
• Cyanide is so poisonous that one drop of it on a dogs tongue will kill the strongest man.
• Thunder is a rich source of loudness.
• Isotherms and isobars are even more important than their names sound.
• It is so hot in some places that the people there have to live in other places.
• The wind is like the air, only pushier.

Something that really bugs me is when journalists use their instead of they’re or there; your instead of you’re and its instead of it’s. Ok, I admit, the latter case is so common that it can be excused, however there should be no confusion with the other two.

Their and your denote possession. e.g. Your cooking is excellent.

There denotes a location or a case when used as an adverb. e.g. Are you there? I agree with you there.

There can also be used as an pronoun. e.g. There is a fly in my soup.

(There can furthermore be used as noun, adjective and intejection … but let’s not labour the point).

You’re is a contraction of you are. e.g. Tell me you’re cooking for me tonight.

The tough one to remember is its and it’s.

The simple rule of thumb is that it’s is a contraction of either it is or it has, whereas its denotes possession. e.g. It’s said, and it’s been long said of The Curragh that its grass is short. This is equivalent to writing the folowing: It is said, and it has been long said of The Curragh that its grass is short.

Make sense? Clear as mud? I doubt it, but it’s off my chest now. (I feel tempted to say, so their! [sic])

Having read all the posts on this blog, I must say that that by rockbeer deserves kudos for clarity, eloquence and sheer common sense.

I empathise in particular, with points 8 to 10 about anticipating what might happen and leaving space between you and the vehicle ahead. Virtually all so-called scrapes/shunts are as a result of drivers watching the car in front, and only the car in front. Attention must be paid to all other vehicles ahead, behind and to either side, and to the road ahead itself.

As one who walks quite a lot I am frequently forced to jump out of the way of the second and/or subsequent on-coming cars who are robotically tracking the bumper in front of them. The NRA report at http://www.nra.ie does not specify but I feel certain this behaviour is the cause of many pedestrian injuries and fatalities.

Well done rockbeer.