Demanding Environments Require Special Computer Solutions
Computer technology has invaded every aspect of our working and personal lives; the jobs are rare that don’t require some exposure to computers and other electronic devices. The problem is, some environments aren’t exactly computer-friendly.
Imagine what plunking a computer down in a car wash would do to delicate memory chips, or what the effect on a hard drive would be located in a machine shop, where powerful chemical solvents hover in a fine mist throughout the environment. Yet computers can and do exist and function well in such environments, thanks to tech companies specializing in creating computing equipment and peripherals designed for rugged use. Water- and dirt-proof keyboards and numeric keypads, flat panel monitors designed for a variety of lighting conditions, and tough, indestructible optical pointing devices provide reliable use in demanding situations.
If your company needs computer systems that will be used in something other than a normal office environment, take a look at your surroundings. Is the environment extraordinarily wet or dry? Does the air include lots of dust or chemical solvents? Will the employees who use the equipment necessarily have soiled or greasy hands because of the work they perform? Is it likely that some of the peripherals will be exposed to rugged use or frequent impact?
If you examine the special requirements of your workplace in terms of computer hardware, you will probably find that there’s a high-tech company who has anticipated your needs, and has the perfect selection of computers and peripherals for you.
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics. She expresses her opinions periodically on her blog, http://beyondagendas.blogspot.com
Tag: Computer technologyLife to Computers
Disclaimer/Forward/Whatever
This writing is simply my observations of analogies in computers and life. My observations can possibly be un-intelligent or incorrect. If you seriously want to learn about computers or life, seek the appropriate manual.
Chapter 1
-Psychical Similarities-
A computer is made up of many different hardware components that make it function as a computer, such things as the video, sound, network, or modem card. And also the mouse, keyboard and monitor (and possibly a joystick if desired). The human body is much the same way using many different components to make a complete human body. Such things as the brain, heart, lungs, stomach, etc. And the external components such as eyes, ears, hands, arms, legs, etc. Now just like changing a cord in your computer a body part may be transplanted. But just like a computer you must make sure the parts are compatible. You can’t put a network card for a Macintosh computer into a PC, just like you can’t transplant a kidney for an A blood type to a B blood type. So computers are our bodies to a certain degree, have generic changeable parts (but I don’t recommend getting your parts changed, it is generally not a good thing).
Now for in depth on external features. The devices that I just spoke about are inside or cased where you cannot see them, they also work in ways that you do not understand (unless you’re a hardware engineer, then you’d understand the computer parts, or if you’re a really smart doctor then you’d might know how the body parts work). But external parts are the things you interact with everyday, you understand what is going on through them, you also communicate through them. In computers most external devices can be considered an ‘input’ device or an ‘output’ device. Input is where you tell the computer to do something through that device. Such as typing, using the mouse to click, or recording something with a computer mic. These are all examples of input, since you ‘put’ something ‘in’ the computer. When you hear the speakers, or look at the screen you are using output devices because they communicate ‘out’ to you what is going on in the computer. So if you understand input and output then you would surely notice the human input and output device. To soak in information we use our ear to get audible information, our eyes for visible information, and our skin to get physical information. These are all input devices because they are how everything outside of our body communicates to us.
Now the cool thing about out bodies is the input devices also work as output devices. Every external port of the body can communicate and therefore acts like an output device like on a computer. But the main output device is our vocal speaking, along with our body language and tone of voice. Now an important difference that I must make clear is that what a computer puts out is based exactly on what is put in. It is programmed to do certain things when certain input is given, it can do nothing more and nothing less. A human on the other hand can do many things on a certain input or stimulus that the person receives. We can decide a course of action whereas a computer cannot.
Chapter 2
-Operating System and the Self-
Every computer has an Operating System or OS (say each letter please, don’t say “Auz” use the same rule that you would for FBI or CIA). Just in case you are not aware, Windows is an OS, and in case you are wondering, windows is not the only OS, there is also Linux (there are many distributions of this one), Free BSD, OS/2 (IBM’s), SunOS (I’ve never seen this one) and all the versions of Mac OS with their latest and coolest Mac OS X. The Operating System takes what you’ve told the system and converts the commands to the hardware. The kernal of the Operating System is the software that actually talks to the hardware. The Graphical user interface or GUI (you can call this one gooey). The GUI talks to the kernal, but it also communicates with you or the user, as well So you talk to the GUI, the GUI talks to the Kernal and then the Kernal talks to the hardware in your computer.
We are a lot like an OS, we have a kernal, or inner person that has thoughts and ideas so complex that we can’t always express fully. The hardware our kernal talks to is the body or the brain. Our personality towards others would be our GUI. Sometimes you’re very ‘user friendly’ and sometimes you’re not. And just like on Windows XP you can adjust to allow certain people to know private information or you can completely deny them.
Chapter 3
-Family and Networks-
Now I am using network concepts that I have learned in CNA (Certified Network Administrator), that is a Novell program so sorry Microsoft. Take the basic structure of a small network:
Root:
Container:
Leaf Object1
Leaf Obeject2
Leaf Object 3
Now the family structure:
Parents:
House:
Child1:
Child2:
Child3:
This concludes this article, more about social networks and conditioned reactions will be written in the next
article “Life to Computers Part II”
Michael Hart
www.hartdevelopments.com/joomla
Computer Support - MSCONFIG
The computer. The thing we all love to hate. It does so many important things for us, yet also causes some of our biggest headaches. There is always something that needs to be fixed or optimized, no matter what we do it seems. No matter how well they invent new technology, something still breaks down.
And when it does, you end up calling tech support where either you or the technician is bound to feel stupid at some point. Believe me, it’s the technician in many cases, so don’t feel bad.
In this article, I am going to go over one of the most common computer problems and how to fix it without calling a computer support technician, or your Uncle Bob’s third cousin’s friend, who knows a lot about computers.
Let’s start at the beginning. Booting up, that (for some of us) long process where your computer comes to life. I read a book that explains computers pretty well. In it, the author said that when a computer gets turned on it’s as if every time you woke up, you had to make sure you still had 10 fingers, 10 toes, two eyes, two arms, etc.
That is exactly what a computer does as it boots up and starts the operating system. It uses the registry to examine itself to see if anything it remembers having is not there anymore. So look at the registry as the brain. I do not recommend novice computer users doing anything in the registry. If you would not be comfortable performing your own lobotomy, then leave the registry alone.
Windows comes with tools built into the operating system that makes changes to the registry for you. One of these you should get to know well is msconfig. Every program you download had someone programming it that believes you cannot live without his or her software program running all the time and starting up every time you start your computer.
For almost all software, this is not the case. You can live without his or her program running constantly on your computer. Even Microsoft office and Corel office install themselves into your startup process. They must have thought while writing that program, that everyone will be using their product as soon as they boot up so let’s tell the computer to go ahead and do that for them,.
Go to start, the little button in the lower left hand side of your computer, in most instances. Now click on run. Type in “msconfig”. You will see several options. Normal startup, Diagnostic startup, and Selective startup. We are going to be selective today and from now on, so click selective.
Now on the tabs at the top, choose startup. You will see all the programs that startup when your computer boots up. Some of these are necessary and some are not. If you are unsure what something is, do not remove the check by it. I’ll tell you how to figure that out in a minute.
Some things you will see that need to stay in are “load power profile”, “scanregistry”, “taskmonitor”, “system tray”, and “hotkeyscommands”.
You can leave those in. Now to the right you will see paths to where the programs are and most will provide a clue as to what they are for. Pretty much anything to do with your Internet connection, your printer, your mouse, or other items you know you need should stay checked. Anything to do with your virus program should be left alone as well.
Others like schedulers you don’t use, QuickTime or quicktask, MSN messenger, Yahoo pager, RealPlayer, Quickview, search anything, Microsoft Office, Corel Office, etc. can be unchecked. Microsoft and Corel Office will work just fine when you go to use them without having them in your startup menu.
The same goes for the other programs. They do not need to be running until you decide you need them. Once you begin to take control of your computer and learn what makes it tick, the less you will depend on those long tech support calls.
Once you have unchecked all of the programs you know for sure do not need to be there, hit “apply”, then “ok”. It will tell you that you need to reboot. So go ahead and do that after you save this article or bookmark it so you can see what to do next.
After you reboot, you will get a popup that says something like, “OH MY GOD! You have chosen to change some settings! Are you sure?! Make sure you check the box that says don’t show me this dramatic popup anymore, then close that.
Go back to “start”, “run”, type msconfig again. Go back to the tab at the top that says “startup.” If there is anything you were not sure of that you wish to remove, go ahead, but only pick one! Important, only pick one, then reboot to see if that one caused you any problems. If it does, then you simply go back to msconfig, check the box back again and reboot again. You can repeat this for each of the ones you were not sure about removing.
I hope I have saved you at least one computer tech support call with this article. Your computer should now run a little faster and you know what to do every time you download a new program. Go see if it installed itself into the startup folder and remove it if you do not need it at startup. Happy computing!
D. David Dugan is the president of DD&C and personally helps to maintain their computer support forum at http://forum.dugancom.com as well as their Spyware Information site http://spyware.dugancom.com.
Tags: computer crash, computer help, Computer support, msconfig, pc support, support forumComputer Consulting Prospective Client Red Flags
Is there a pattern to watch out for with computer consulting prospects that might act as a red flag or early warning detection system? Yes there is - and you’ll get better at spotting them as you go along.
It’s more of an art than a science, but if it looks like the Dilbert cartoon, it probably is going to work out that way.
Do Your Potential Computer Consulting Clients Respect Your Time?
If you walk in and you have a one o’clock appointment and they make you sit around in the waiting room for 15 or 20 minutes, unless there’s a real bona fide emergency, your wait time probably won’t decrease once you actually have them as a computer consulting client.
You’re going to show up on time and have to wait. You’ll be running up your non-productive time, because they’re disorganized.
Are They Pleasant?
If they’re late, if they’re particularly obnoxious or abusive or nasty or if you find out that the owners or the managers don’t have any respect for their employees, these are subtle clues.
If you get an early warning sign on your first meeting, don’t immediately walk out the door. Take it all in, put it in your notes. These are the kinds of things to think about, whether you really want these computer consulting clients or not.
It’s a Two Way Street
It’s really a two-way interview process. You should be interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you, to see if it’s a match for computer consulting. They need to have a clear idea of where their business is going, what they think they want to use IT for, and what their experience has been in the past with other technology providers.
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Tags: computer consulting, IT consulting, small business computer consulting