Number 252 - May 2004

Inhuman Computers
by Elizabeth B. Wright, Oklahoma City PCUG
Older-model automobiles, airplanes and boats could be cajoled, sweet-talked and occasionally reasoned with. That's why many people gave their cars, aircraft and water craft names (usually women's names) and made them part of the family. But that is mostly because they operate by virtue of the internal combustion engine principle. (I'm talking about the days before computer chips replaced some of the mechanical functions of vehicle operations.). Also cars often take on the personality of the owner, much like pets do.    Computers, on the other hand, have no soul, no compassion, and certainly no desire to please. The computer is amoral (not immoral, except in the hands of some people), totally insensitive to invective or other forms of oral communication, cannot be humiliated by ridicule or strengthened by praise, and most certainly doesn't respond to human reasoning. The occasional kick only makes them more intransigent ( and, they break, easily).    But your computer can sometimes be tricked. Since they have no sense of humor or sense of belonging, they do not understand that they can be replaced easily, usually by a superior, yet cheaper, machine. So they are not really trying to cooperate when you succeed in outsmarting them, they just honestly don't know any better.    Computers crash in ways that lead you to believe there is absolutely no way to recover any of your most valuable information. But one of the best tricks of the trade is to just (in the words of a long ago Oklahoma City weatherman) "turn the d-n thing off". Given an overnight rest, many computer crashes can be mitigated, at least for the short term, long enough to move your stored data to some other media, or even to another computer. Along with giving the machine an overnight rest, it is often advisable to unplug it from the electrical outlet after turning it off, to further enhance the rest period. I am not suggesting that this is an infallible procedure, but I personally have had it help more than once, and have talked with a lot of other people who have had similar luck.    Another trick, and this one is rather obvious, is to have more than one hard drive. Storing your important documents on both drives helps with recovery should one drive fail. Again, the computer doesn't care	whether it has one hard drive or a dozen. As long as it knows the drives are there, you can pretty much do your own thing. You wouldn't necessarily have two engines in your car, but two or more hard drives is a good idea. Help is out there to recover your data if one of the drives is still functioning, even if it isn't the boot drive.    Trick number three: Although the computer doesn't tell you so, it does like a cool and hopefully dust-free environment. It doesn't know it needs this, but when it decides to rollover and play dead, it is often because it is suffering from heat exhaustion. The newer the computer, the hotter it will get while it is on. Since many people now leave their machines running 24/7 , the heat problem can become critical. Internal fans are the beginning, but keeping the computer in a relatively cool part of the room is also important. Keeping it in the vicinity of the heat ducts during cold weather is not a good idea. That just causes the internal cooling equipment to perhaps not be able to handle the job adequately.    Trick number four: Dirt and other stuff (bugs for example) can get into the computer case; it doesn't hurt to have someone who knows how to do it clean out the insides of the shell. I don't advise doing this if you aren't really technically adept as those small parts are so sensitive that you could do a lot more damage than just leaving it dirty.    Trick number five: In spite of how you might think you are communicating with your computer with fancy screen icons, word commands and pictures, the computer only knows two commands. They are "on" and "off." Most of the on/off switches are in those tiny chips, but the more you can think in terms of how little the computer actually understands, the more you can see why confusing it with conflicting programs can overwhelm its ability to function. More and more of us are wanting to use the latest and most sophisticated programs on the market, but just be aware that each new addition has the potential to cause your computer to become unstable.    PLAN AHEAD!! BACK UP YOUR WORK!!    Elizabeth Wright is a member of the OKCPCUG and a regular writer for the eMonitor. The Editorial Committee of the APCUG brings this article to you.
Number 252 - May 2004