Accelerated Computing Environments

Keeping your equipment from slowing you down

General Introduction

In what follows, the more specific the recommendation, the less likely it will be useful a year from now. Technology is a fast-moving target. Much of this is hopefully obvious to you. Please be patient. There may still be something useful in it all you can take away with you.

Some suggestions you may not feel confident following. Please ask your CAP consultant for help.

Specific Introduction:

We all know this scenario: You get a new computer. It has a great boot time, fast program loads, and great battery life. But by one year later you can go get a cup of coffee while it boots up, get up and stretch while programs load, and you get 10 minutes maximum running on battery power.

These are just a few of the reasons we all want a new computer every two years. But these degradations in performance are often not necessary. We just need to figure out how to make our computers run faster, longer.

General Environment:

Dust - some places are extremely dusty, and care needs to be taken to protect the computers from the dust getting inside equipment. Mostly this consists of covering the computers when they are not in use.

Humidity – Too much humidity is more difficult to guard against, and it may be necessary to buy a dehumidifier or an air conditioner (see next point).

But too little humidity as also a problem, and can cause static electrical issues (computer freezes, screen blackouts). A humidifier may be needed.

Temperature - most computers are fairly resilient to temperature changes, but some environments will require an air conditioner. People generally do not work in environments that are too cold for computers, but often work in ones that are at times too hot.

A couple of small things short of air conditioning that can help: 1. Prop up the back end of a laptop (with a book or even a doorstop) to provide airflow under the laptop. 2. Buy a USB-powered small fan to direct internal heat away from the computer.

Electrical environment – Spikes, surges and brownouts (persistent low-power conditions) can damage computers. Surge protectors or voltage regulators / stabilizers are the main means of protection. In areas where the power supply is unreliable, solar panels or batteries may be needed.

Generators often can cause spikes, surges and low-power conditions and need to be used in conjunction with surge suppressors and voltage regulators /stabilizers.

About $50 USD

Internet connections - stable and fast Internet has become very important for everyone. Investment in various solutions may be necessary depending on the local context.

Battery life: if you can, get a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and take out your battery when at home and plugged in. Then on the road, use your battery and run it down to about 10% and then (at night) turn it off and charge it fully again.

About $60 USD

Ergonomics: height of chair/table, lighting, use of external keyboard/mouse, etc.

Google search terms: ergonomics, computer, laptop

Hardware Recommendations:

Get a large external monitor if possible. (leave your laptop screen open-closing it causes heat issues).

Get more RAM if you can. At least 2GB.

Upgrade from XP/Vista to Win7 if your machine will take it.

Make sure your Hard Disk has lots of space free (50% is said to be ideal by some).

Better yet, get an Solid State Drive and make sure it has lots of free space (use your old HD with USB-enclosure for storage for those large video and picture files).

To share materials with others, use a (lockable) SD-card USB reader to protect yourself from viruses spread by USB drives.

To get materials from others, have them send the materials to you via email attachments or in Dropbox, or else use Google docs (links below).

Software Recommendations (to be done with help from CAP if unsure)

Set your Operating System for best performance (e.g. Win7>control panel>performance information and tools).

Consider a light-weight (usually free) Anti-Virus program (AVG/MSE). Norton and McAfee have memory hog reputations. Also consider installing non-resident A-V programs to back up the memory-resident A-V installed.

Uninstall all unneeded programs (better yet, don’t install them to begin with). When in doubt, leave them alone. You can research online what you do not recognize.

Run msconfig.exe and un-check all unneeded items. Here you can look up items you don't recognize online as well as un-check nearly everything and then add back what you find you want. Common offenders: anything by Apple and Adobe.

Skype tips:

When on a group call, mute your microphone when not speaking.

Open your chat window so as to be able to communicate while others are speaking.

Agree on someone to be the moderator and handle the chat window and turn-taking.

User Setup:

We all have seen translators painstakingly copy formatting codes into their text, making many mistakes in the process.

Translators working in unformatted mode, furthermore, have what becomes at times a virtually unreadable text in their drafting window.

This inefficient copying by translators includes at times even “content” such as cross-references and footnotes (some of which have become irrelevant due to the translation decisions taken in the text).

For cross-references, it is far more efficient and accurate to simply use a given set from a model and put them in at the end of the process.

The inclusion of many of these notes and references should be reconsidered and discussed with teams.

In the GNT92 there are 2305 footnotes.

This list, with these words, contains 1075 (textual) notes:

331 = unclear 267 = probable 214 = some ancient manuscripts 226 = one ancient manuscript 203 = some manuscripts

GEN 1:26: One ancient translation animals, domestic and wild; Hebrew domestic animals and all the earth.

GEN 4:8: Some ancient translations: Let's go out in the field; Hebrew does not have these words.

GEN 4:22: who made all kinds of tools; one ancient translation: ancestor of all metalworkers.

GEN 10:14: Probable text: and of Crete… descended; Hebrew: from whom the Philistines are descended, and Crete.

GEN 15:2: My…Damascus; Hebrew unclear. GEN 16:13: Probable text: lived to tell about it?; Hebrew unclear. GEN 21:9: Some ancient translations: with Sarah's son Isaac;

Hebrew does not have these words. Ezk 14.14: Daniel: Or, as otherwise read, Danel

We need to consider:

1. Safe mode (now: set user capabilities). 2. Minimal resources (e.g. 2 windows: model/draft). 3. Model text without cross-references and footnotes

(or at least without most textual footnotes). 4. Basic mode. Better might be a blank drafting screen

alongside a preview view of a model text section, or speech-to-text (voice recognition).

Translators (and consultants) should know how to type, or be taught to do so.

Translators (and consultants) should also know how to use the basic keyboard commands in Windows (e.g. ctrl-c, ctrl-v, ctrl-x, ctrl-f).

Anti-virus programs: (other than a memory-resident AV of

choice)

Malwarebytes Anti-Malware: http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Panda USBVaccine:

http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads/usbvaccine/

Other Useful Utilities:

WindowsSpace ($19.90): http://www.ntwind.com/software/windowspace/download.html

CutePDF Writer: http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

CacheCleaner: http://www.ccleaner.com/

Glary Utilities: http://www.glaryutilities.com/

Dropbox: http://www.getdropbox.com/install

Google docs: http://www.google.com/google-d-s/documents/

The goal in all of this is improving our efficiency through the optimization of our computing environments as well as encouraging the same for the teams with whom we work.

“Efficiency” will look different for each of us (e.g. some people might like to get a cup of coffee while their computer boots up).

Do what feels right and is comfortable for you. And suggest the same for the teams with which you work.It’s your (or their) environment and efficiency.