A Commonplace Book

We needed a manual because the manual that came with our computer is a true document of the eighties--written in a language similar to English but with other words substituted for the ones the writer must have meant. Like this: "The header function of the CONRAD command defines the glyph component (plus or minus value) of all data fonts and also the parameters of the bit map. For the validity of the command, see Test Bites 6-13." This does not become clearer the harder you think about it, so everything we know about the computer we learned by calling up a friend who bought one, too, and doesn't understand it, either...