Making the Grade!

In this week’s module, Hardware, Software and Network basics, we were asked to view the computer specifications recommended by SIRLS and the College of Law. The College of Law recommends that if students are buying a computer for school, they include the specifications on their list. I am happy to say that my computer is up to their standards in every category. I initially thought that I may have had one or two minor things that were out-of-date. The guidelines were last updated August 15, 2006, and I purchased mine in December of 2005. Given the speed that technology makes advances, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my bit of technology has kept up.
The College of Law first urges students to purchase a laptop, rather than a desktop computer. The reason behind this is, as it is for all laptop recommendations, mobility. With a laptop a student can almost take their work with them anywhere. I say almost, because we are not quite a wireless campus yet! But, Student Union access, College of Law access, and access at the IC in the main library is quite a large range of places to take your laptop. Additionally, there are several shops on University that offer free wireless, though you wouldn’t want to work on highly sensitive materials on their unsecured networks. But, the main point is that with a desktop, none of those options are available to you.
The hardware that I have is exactly as listed on the site. The only differences are that in some cases I have more than the minimum required specifications. For example, I have a 1.4 GB Mhz Intel Celeron processor, while the College of Law recommends a minimum 1.0 GB Mhz processor. I also have 33.4 gigabytes of usable space on my hard drive, slightly higher than the 30 gig, recommendation. I have an Ethernet card (this I specifically made sure of when purchasing the laptop) and an internal wireless card. The only thing I don’t have on the list is a security kit. I’m not really sure what one of those is, but since it’s on the list, I will be looking into it a bit more.
I had to work a little bit to find the specifications for my computer. They all centered on the My Computer icon on my desktop, but the information I needed was in various little pockets. I right-clicked and opened the properties window for the computer to find out the processor and RAM information, as well as double-checking that my computer is running Windows XP. To find out the hard drive capabilities, I just opened the my computer icon, and clicked on c:/ to find out what my space capabilities were. The area that contained the rest of the information was in a place I had never been too. After right-clicking on My Computer, this time I chose the option ‘Manage’. This opened the Computer Management window. There is an option on the list called ‘Device Manager’, and here is where I found the relevant information. It lists all the devices installed on the computer, and you can right-click the ones you are interested in to learn more about there properties. This was a very useful tool.
SIRLS doesn’t add too much to the College of Law’s specs, except that they feel students should definitely own their own computers, while the College feels it provides enough resources for students to not have to won their own. My personal experience is that it has been so convenient to have my own. This way I can download any necessary software, and have a reliable source of connection to the internet. That really would be what I would recommend to anyone taking a virtual course, exactly what these two pages list. Windows XP may be replaced with Vista, but the only course of action a student could take is to find out if their hardware will support this future OS. Living on-campus with a LAN network is ideal, but a high-speed modem did just as well when I was a purely virtual student. The only new pieces of software a student might want to have, that I use through campus computers is Dreamweaver and Adobe Acrobat, full-version. These seem to be useful to have, and with a student rate, it’s almost feasible!
The last thing I have to say is go Firefox, all the way. It is a far superior browser to Explorer. I could only use Explorer this summer in Ireland, and I missed my tabs. Now I would miss tabs and live bookmarks...