The kids came home one day with a 3D video game, and couldn't get it to work. 
Being Mr. Fix-Anything, I said, "Lemme try." 

To make a (very) long story short .. the tech support guy said, "You need a 
3D graphics accelerator card, Sir." 

I said, "Okay, which do you recommend?" 
"Sorry, Sir. Can't make recommendations. Company policy." 
I said, "Common, man. I know nothing about graphics cards. Help me out." 
He said, "Search online for 3D graphics accelerators with any search engine. 
You'll find everything you need to know."

So I fired up Copernic & typed 3D graphics accelerator in the Query box. 
Bamm! -> received a truckload of hits. But everything looked Greek. 

After an hour of clicking links & perusing reviews (many conflicting each other), 
I became more confused than when I began. Then I stumbled onto an online 
forum, also called a bulletin board .. at a site devoted to computer hardware 
for 3D gaming. [Unfortunately, this particular site is no longer up.] 

I discovered that (to my surprise) games require more CPU clock-cycles and 
graphics horsepower than most other programs. 

When I found the forum, I saw pages & pages full of people posting questions, 
and others providing answers & adding helpful perspectives. 

Finding so many knowledgeable people, all in one place, I thought I'd hit a 
veritable goldmine of techno information. I anticipated posting a quick question, 
and receiving a quick answer .. without being put on hold, or costing me a 
fortune in long-distance telephone charges.

                                                            ***

But first this bulletin board made me register .. after which, they sent me a 
password that allowed me to log-in & post my question. 

The first part of the registration form asked for a User name. I began to enter 
my name, but noticed that others using nicknames - like DocSilly, The Dude, & 
Flying Penguin. 

I had no clue what nickname I should use, but it seemed like no big deal for only 
a single question. While trying to decide, I began filling out other parts of the 
registration form. 

As I was typing in the Occupation field, Wendy walked by, wearing a new dress, 
heading out to meet with her girlfriends. I made some off-the-cuff remark .. to 
which she replied, "You're such a badboy." .. while I was typing R-a-d (Radiation). 

I thought, "Hmmm, Badboy .. that'll work," but accidentally typed Radboy by 
accident. I started to change the 'R' to 'B', but preferred the former over the later.

While at that forum, after asking my question about which 3D graphics accelerator 
represented the best choice, it seemed like no two people agreed on anything. 
Everybody had their own point of view. 

Little did I know that .. a million questions later, I finally decided on a 3D graphics 
accelerator (Voodoo2) & eventually become accustomed to the tag, Radboy (Rad,  
for short). 

I read thru many other posts at that hardware forum, and learned answers to 
questions I hadn't even thought of yet. It no time, I learned how to configure 
a system for maximum performance on a shoestring budget. It seemed that 
there was nothing this community of online enthusiasts didn't know about PCs.  

In many ways, online forums are superior to books. They allow you to ask specific 
questions, and receive a variety of answers in real-time .. from people who have 
real-life experience. My knowledge of the digital world grew quickly. 

Wendy had been wanting to explore video-editing for years. After becoming 
comfortable with a PC, I researched what editing video would require. It wasn't 
long until she began saying things like, "Radboy, you over-clocking stud, how 'bout 
defragging my hard drive tonight?" So I had plenty of encouragement along the way. =)