Welcome to my website. My name is Herb Goodman and I am a hobbyist or amateur web developer. My primary focus has been on hosting, developing, and maintaining websites for a few small local non-profit organizations. Just for fun, I have included a few additional pages about my other hobbies, astronomy and amateur radio. As you will see these interests are all linked together. I hope you find the site interesting and even thought provoking. The current theme I call “Earth is Home” features an image of our little blue planet as seen from Mars. It is my small tribute to all the scientists who have worked so hard to bring us the tons of new knowledge from our neighboring planet. If you want to get in touch with me, you can do so from my contact page, but you can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
Best Regards,
Herb Goodman KF4TVi
Out of curiosity I have been asking people the following question: “With so many browsers available now like Mozilla’s Firefox, Google’s Chrome, and Apple’s Safari, why are you still using Internet Explorer?”
Final Update on This Matter ¤ (I decided to rewrite this whole post so it would sound “more betterer”;-) Anyway, There appears to be a never ending influx of newbie or novice PC users, and this is the part that sort of surprised me the most. See I figured that since children are exposed to, and taught to use computers at a very early age in school, by now just about everybody on this planet would have at least had access to, or outright own a PC and know the basics of it’s use.
Well, it turns out that for various reasons, not all children are exposed to computers or taught to use computers in school yet. There are also financial reasons for people not owning their own computer. Apparently everybody don’t have access to thrift stores like “Goodwill” or “Salvation Army” selling used computers for almost nothing. And there are also many people who just put off taking the plunge until they were darn good and ready.
So we have novice PC users with very limited understanding of how the PC works, what all that hardware is for, what software does what, and then we add to all that new stuff they must learn, the complexities of the internet and the world wide web, and they can easily be overwhelmed. They are often not aware that they need to update or upgrade software or that there are alternatives to what they have.
The next level of user is a little more seasoned, they can turn the computer on and off, they know the basics like how to check email, surf the web, download files, play games on Facebook or send out Tweets. They may or may not know which OS and Browser they are using. I have asked a client what browser they were using and not get a response, so I ask them how they go to their favorite website, and the response is “I click on the “e” down at the bottom” (i.e. shortcut to Internet Explorer on the Desktop Taskbar). This group may know what software they are using, but may not know how to update or upgrade it and feel it is too complex a task for them, so they stay with what they have. They feel it is working now, why take a chance that an update or upgrade will break it and then they would be in real trouble.
The next level up is the more technically minded, business people who use their PC regularly and mid level gamers are good examples. This group usually has a pretty good grasp of the computers they use and the software running on them. They usually know the importance of up-to-date software, but will often not update or upgrade immediately. They often will wait a little to let the kinks be worked out of the new version..i.e…I ain’t nobody’s guinea pig
The final level of user is of course the advanced user, these people live on their computers, they know how it works, they fix it themselves when it breaks; and they usually won’t tolerate quirky software, and their software is usually up-to-date. They realize the updates and upgrades are just that, IMPROVEMENTS to what they already have and since most are offered free of charge, why would they not stay current? They do however look into what the update or upgrade does to determine if they actually need it, and if it has the ability to be removed if it screws up something.
There is one additional level that could be added to the scheme of things, and that would include all the technical support people, hardware developers, software developers, and of course the web developers. This is a very special group of people that must take into consideration all the nuances of all the above mentioned levels of users and all their configurations of hardware, software, and experience and make it work.
NOTICE – On Jan 25, 2010 from 1-4 AM EST ALL the websites I host/maintain will be unavailable due to a hardware upgrade. Site owners will not have administrative access either. This may effect web servers, email servers, and all databases. Please make any and all changes to your sites before midnight Jan 24, 2010. I will post updates if the maintenance window is increased due to unforeseen problems and also when everything is back up and running.
Update – Everything appears to be back to normal. If your having trouble accessing any of the sites I manage please send me a message using the form on the Contact Page.Thank You
Just wanted to post a message letting visitors know I have made a few modifications to this site. I have updated a few of the pages, added a few links, corrected a few misspellings, and updated a few behind the scenes things like plugins. If you have any comments or corrections please use the form on the contact page.