I’ve been working on computers for nearly 25 years. There have been many changes through the years, though the basics remain the same. A screen. A keyboard. And a language all its’ own.

The language is “computerese.” A noun: computerese |kəmˌpyoōtəˈrēz; -ˈrēs| noun chiefly derogatory the jargon associated with computers. • the symbols and rules of a computer programming language.

Most of us who use computers know some of the terms in computerese. Click. Click. Double click. Windows. Open. Exit. Cut, copy, paste.

After that it becomes man vs. machine.

A recent survey shows that 26-percent of office workers don’t know what a “firewall” does and some turn it off. A firewall is a form of computer security to prevent unauthorized access to a computer.

Turning it off is not a good thing.

Nearly two of three computer uses don’t know the difference between gigabytes, kilobytes, and megabytes. Email with a 20-megabyte file just won’t go through and many users don’t know why (it’s too big.)

If that many are confused about ‘bytes” then they’ll be more confused to know that there’s also gigabits, kilobits, and megabit per second, as opposed to “bytes.”

Half of all computer users have trouble with file extensions; those three letters at the end of a file name. Filename.doc, spreadsheetname.xls, photograph.jpg, file.pdf, and musicfile.mp3.

Three of four computer users spend more than an hour each week trying for figure out what something means, regarding their computer.

Cookies? Trojan horse? Virus? Spam?

Welcome to computerese. Is this a language you can learn? Yes, obviously, because many tens of millions of computer users get by just fine even with a limited knowledge of computerese.

As with learning any new language, as the vocabulary grows, so does knowledge, and so does ability. If you don’t know a term, “google it.”

Google it? Yes, the massive search engine Google, is now a verb. ‘Google it’ means to look up something in the Google search engine.

Java isn’t coffee or a country. Javascript doesn’t have anything to do with Java. Upload? Download? Yep, they’re different. Think of ‘send’ vs. ‘receive.’

DVDs look just like CDs but they’re different. Mostly.

LCD and CRT are different yet both are computer screens.

And how about those dialog boxes that pop up and tell you what’s going on? Or not. Fully 75-percent of computer users had difficulty understanding what the computer error messages mean.

Ten years ago I worked for one of Hawaii’s first Internet Service Providers. We had nearly 3,000 customers and a single 1.5 megabit connection to the internet. Today, I have two connections from our home to the internet; both faster than what we used for 3,000 customers just 10 years ago.

Bits, bytes? Kilo, mega, giga? Confused? Google it.