1. Restart! We humans often solve a lot of issues with a good night's sleep and so does technology. Luckily, technology doesn't need 8 hours of sleep. Step one in any trouble shooting situation, even for professionals, is to shut off and turn on the computer, phone, projector, DVD, printer, game box, TV, cable modem, PDA, Gameboy, that thing with lights that gets the Internet, etc. Make sure to really "Restart," "Shut Down," or Turn "Off" - not "Hibernate," "Sleep," etc. When dealing with multiple machines, such as a modem and wireless base station, or laptop and projector, shut everything off, wait a couple of minutes, and turn things on, waiting for each machine to start up and "see" the other machines. For example, turn on the modem, wait, then turn on the wireless base station. Or turn on the projector, wait, then turn on the laptop.

2. Check the Cables. Ever find yourself looking for something around the house that ends up being in your pocket? Even seasoned computer geeks have been known to reinstall entire operating systems before realizing a cable was unplugged. Turn everything off and gently make sure all cables are plugged in nice and tight and in the right places before trying to fix things on the screen. Then, you guessed it, "Restart."

3. Backup. Fear is natural if you're not good at something and a mistake would be bad. So what do we do to not be scared? Geeks banish fear by making sure that if things break, they will not lose valuable data, or time. You can do the same thing. The basic idea is to make copies of things so they are saved on two different computers. For smalls files like that great novel you're working on, send yourself an email with the file attached to a web-based email program like Yahoo. You can also use thumb drives for backups. For all your documents, burn a CD. Photos, music and videos take up a lot more space, and may need a data DVD, or an external hard drive to fit everything. No matter how you do it, back up so you aren't working scared.

4. Cut, Copy and Paste. Unlike humans, technology is essentially digital (at least for the time being). The key here is that digital copying is easy and the copies are identical. For this reason, you shouldn't ever re-type anything you have already typed. You should "Copy" what you've typed and "Paste" it where you want it. And you can do this between applications, such as email and the Web. So don't type the address of a Web site into an email. Copy it from the Web browser and Paste it into the email (this also eliminates typos). Since the beginning of time the File menu (or right click) has had Cut, Copy and Paste, options. You can use this to cut, copy and then paste, text, photos, files, folders, etc. Try it, you'll like it.

5. M.I.S.S. with it. Humans love to mess with stuff to learn about it and technology has a lot of menus to mess with. Computer menus that drop down, right click menus, phone options, camera settings, preferences, properties, settings, etc. Exploring all your options with technology has an academic name for it, the Menu Item Search Strategy (MISS). The basic idea is that any new gismo has the same old menus like File, Edit, Options, Preferences, Settings, etc. If you take 10 minutes to explore these options, your "world" if you will, you'll learn what the gizmo can do and save time later when you need to do things. Sometimes when geeks don't really know how to do something, they make it seem like they know by searching through menus really fast until they find what they are looking for. MISSing around is time well spent.

6. Where is it? If you have a document that you’ve typed, a picture someone sent you, a music file, a video, etc. it is somewhere on your computer (Or perhaps “in” a folder on a network at work, but still somewhere on a computer). You may be used to finding files by using Microsoft Word’s "Recent Documents" menu, by opening your email and finding the attachment, using a search box, or by a short cut icon on your desktop. But this poses a problem. The document is not “there.” It exists in an actual location on a hard drive that is mapped out by a series of files and folders that start with your hard drive as the "top" level. The "Where" of documents is very important to know in order to be able to find, backup, and organize your files. Geeks seem to naturally be able to see this abstract "geography" of hard drives in their head, but it is not a natural born skill to all. For most, it requires practice. Almost daily you should find yourself clicking on a folder like “Documents” and organizing your files using only your computer's Windows or Mac operating system and clicking and dragging. A very important aspect of this, and where a lot of people go wrong, is the process of saving and naming files. When you save a file, it asks you what you want to name it, and where you want to put it. A lot of people just name it and don't remember where they told it to be saved. The first step is to give everything a name that is descriptive, not "img032" or "sample resume," but "June1 2006 beach" or "Resume John Doe." At work you may move files from your computer to a server, etc. It will make your life much easier if you understand the "where" of these files as well. Bring a geek some pizza and ask them "where" questions, or take a basic class on Windows or Mac's operating systems. Anyway you can, learn to answer the question, "where is the file?".

7. Geek Words. Like a lot of specialized work, technology has its own language. You've probably noticed this if you've ever overheard a gaggle of geeks talking shop - it's like a foreign language! Geekland is just like any place you are going to where you don't speak the language, you need to be able to at least ask where the bathroom is and say "hi." Here are a few key words. Most Computers are made up of an Operating System (OS), probably by Microsoft or Apple, which is software that runs it. Phones and things have OSes too, made by different companies. Hardware is the computer, phone, mouse keyboard, etc. Applications are software, but for specific "applications" like Microsoft Word for writing, or Photoshop for graphics. The OS and Applications, along with all your text files, photos, music, etc. are stored on a Hard Drive, a metal spinning disk that holds your stuff safe when the computer is on, or off. Hard drives on chips are called Flash Drives and they have no moving parts. They are in cameras, phones, music players, thumb drives, etc. Phones have hard drive kind of things called SIM Cards which hold your address book and info. RAM is Random Access Memory, often-called just Memory. It is a chip with no moving parts, so it's faster than a hard drive. Your OS and applications are booted into memory when you start up your computer or an application. A Processor or CPU is also a chip, and is a sort of a central nervous system that runs most everything computers try and do. A Server is simply a computer made for storing and broadcasting files, email, Web pages, music, video, etc. A Service Provider sells you a connection to the Internet, which lets you access email, the Web, chat, etc. These are all part of the Internet, not "the" Internet itself. The Internet was concieved in the 1960s and birthed in 1983; the Web in 1993. The Internet is a worldwide network of wires and computers that can all talk to each by routing and switching little chunks of information called packets that enable email, graphics, sound, etc. to travel around the world. The Web uses the Internet via Web Browsers and servers to do its thing with packets. Wireless access to the Internet is simply a radio signal of the same Internet stuff that flows through a wire. A Web Browser is an application, like Internet Explorer, that allows you to see the Web. Different companies make different Web browsers. Most are free. Email can either be accessed on the Web via a Web Browser, which means your emails are not stored on your computer. Or you can use an email application to grab the email from your service provider, or work and bring it "down" to your computer's hard drive. Email can have Attachments. Attachments follow email as if on a string. When email is checked Attachment are files that are separate from your email. OK, so, let's review: Internet Explorer is not the Web, it's a Web browser. The Web is not the Internet, it's on the Internet. Attachments are not in email, they are attached to an email. Memory is not hard drive space, it's RAM. Your computer is not evil; it's just young and dumb. Remember, when cars were first being used, they didn't have blinkers and roads didn't have stop signs. Give us a few decades and we'll make technology easier to use.

8. Play. OK, you're backed up and ready to do the MISS with a new application. Or you have a new phone and 10 minutes to yourself. Do you start the great American novel? Call your boss? No. Why? Because pressure like that keeps you from learning. Did we learn how to play football in the Superbowl? No. You may have noticed that your 8 year old nephew plays with his phone a lot and seems to be able to answer all your questions, or that computer gamers are also really good with computers. This is because we learn faster and better by playing. So, play. Make a grocery list to learn word processing. Call your partner downstairs and try and send them a photo of your dog on your new phone. Playing is the last of tip on this list and probably the real secret of the geek world.