I learned programming from the "school of hard knocks" too. Whilst I have a university degree it was not at university that I picked up most of my programming skills and knowledge.

That said, HughBris, you will still be helped but not because you class yourself as a poor "layman". Just ask your question and be prepared to look silly - and spend hours googling if you don't wish to look silly.

PS: no proficient computer programmer or technician got good without burning whole days trying to solve some of the most basic questions like "how do I get Windows to work with my new CDROM drive" or "why does my program keep throwing a syntax error" or even "where is the darn documentation for this product". So when you talk school of hard knocks, this is the kinda knock you gotta be prepared to take.. the knock of failure after failure till you discover how to do it!