It’s Virtually Done (IVD) Blog

Techies may argue endlessly about whether it is better to leave your computer on or off each night. Some people are on the side of saving energy (the turn it off each night crowd), and others are on the side of saving your electronic components by not excessively turning them off and on (the leave it on crowd). But what are the pros and cons of leaving your computer on while you’re on vacation?

Leaving your computer on, pros:

1. Your computer will continue to automatically update anti-virus and security patches.
   You can set up vacation autoresponder replies on your email client (Outlook, for example) to let people know that you are away, and when you’ll be back.
2. Leaving your computer on, cons:
   It’s an invitation to hackers (source: University of Perdue, http://www.purdue.edu/securePurdue/news/detail.cfm?NewsID=61) to access your idle computer, at their leisure, while you’re away. The easiest way to deter hackers is to turn your computer off.  It’s harder to exploit your computer when it’s off.
3. If you use an autoresponder, and if you get spam (who doesn’t), then guess what? You’ll be replying to the spammers. Bad idea. You don’t want to let the spammers know that your email address is legitimate by responding to the email. That invites more spammers. And vacation autoresponder messages tell potential hackers how long you will be gone. Another bad idea.

You may agree that the cons far outweigh the pros. My strategy, then, will be this:

1. Let my work colleagues and clients know that I’m going on vacation.
2. Turn my computer off while I’m gone.
3. Turn my computer on when I return, and give my computer a few hours to download all those important antivirus and security patches.
4. Then, after some time has passed, open up my email client, and let the emails download after I have all the latest protections.

Have you been thinking about one of those fancy flat panel monitors that take up little space? I wasn’t considering it because I had the space, and I liked my monitor just fine, that is until my doctor told me that my neck and shoulder pain was partially due to my stooping over my keyboard.

My doctor encouraged me to have an ergonomics expert, one schooled in the science of optimizing design and workspace, to come to my home to evaluate my body position as it relates to my workstation. I found a business that consults for free on such matters as long as businesses are serious about making a purchase with them. As a result of the consult, I purchased a new keyboard tray and a new flat panel monitor. (I had already treated myself to a state of the art chair the year before.)

So what does a monitor have to do with ergonomics? I’m glad you asked! The flat panel enables me to add a swing arm to my desk so that the monitor can go anywhere. Ideally this prevents me from stooping because I can move the monitor close to me when I need it, and completely away when I need more desk space.

I can’t say that I don’t have any neck or shoulder pain, or that I don’t occasionally forget and stoop, but it has improved the situation. And I know that I’ve done everything to make my workspace as easy on the body as possible.

I couldn’t wait to connect my new flat panel monitor and free some space on my desk. But wait! Why are all those icons on my desktop blurry? What is going on?

I called the manufacturer (Samsung), and after 2 phone calls, over an hour, and lots of different techs, I was able to figure out several things. All of this became necessary because of my system (3 year old Windows XP).

The following changes can all be made in your control panel under the display properties section.

1. For optimal viewing of my new monitor, I had to change my screen resolution to 1280 x 1024 pixels. Great. Everything got clear, but wait: now everything is way too small. Now what do I do?
2. I tried making the icons large, but they became too large for my taste.
3. I changed the DPI (dots per inch) setting from normal to large making everything 125% of its normal size. Much better, but there’s more. (Warning: this may affect how some programs work. For me, it affects Dreamweaver.)
4. I changed a flag so that shadows appear under menus increasing readability.
5. Per the tech’s recommendation, I changed the monitor refresh rate to 60 hertz. (I think this helps kids with their video games, but I took their recommendation nonetheless.)
6. I saved the best for last: Clear Type. This came as a default setting with my lap top, but had to be installed with my older system. Clear Type is awesome. Check your control panel display properties to see if it is active with your system. If not, here’s where to download it: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

I hope this helps someone else with an older XP system (only 3 years old!) that wants to upgrade to a flat panel, and has eyes over 40 years old.

No matter how your website comes to be, it’s a good idea to have a backup. For the longest time, I thought that this wasn’t necessary. After all, I created my website and have all the original files on my home computer. Surely my web host has back up copies as well. This may all be true, but consider this: time.

* How long would it take your web host to restore a back up copy and upload your site?
* Are you 100% confident that they can do that?
* Are you 100% confident that your webmaster, if you have one, can quickly upload your site if it goes down?
* If you are your own webmaster, how quickly can you upload just the files you need to completely restore your website?

If I were to upload all the files that I have, I would probably use up all of my allowable space I have with my web host, not to mention upload a lot of unnecessary files. That’s why I make a copy of my website using the control panel features of my web host.