More computer questions for people who have been on the isla

[callmedoc]

Hello everyone,

I had a couple more computer questions.

1) Do people bring their laptops to school? if yes--> is it very often or rarely?
2) Someone mentioned that students bring laptops to classes, download the professor presentation and follow along. Do people find this useful/ helpful? I am asking because if this is the case then i will get a lighter laptop.
3) has the humidity cause many problems with computer/laptop? (if it does i may need to get more of a warranty)
4) what type of medical computer programs do people use on the island? graphic intensive? (in other words should i get one with a very good graphic card or will most laptops be ok)

thanks for your patience

See you guys soon!

[aychamo]

Hey fellow

I haven't even applied, but let me try a few answers.

1. I think the majority of people will bring laptops. They are just so incredibly convenient. They are great because you can watch DVDs on them, listen to music, and share files. Apparently there are a lot of lecture notes, etc, that people have on their laptops and you can hookup and share with them.

2. I have no clue. But defeintly get a light laptop when you decide to purchase one. When I bought my laptop (an Inspiron 8600) I got stupid and went for a ****** beast instead of practicality. It's really easy to get stupid when buying a laptop. Think practical. Laptops get heavy really fast. I tote my around now twice a week when I take notes in my undergrad histo class, and it gets heavy with just a pair of notebooks in along with it.

As far as carrying it, check out http://www.targus.com/us/ , they have a GREAT selection of cases. They have backpack cases that have a nice carrying slot for your notebook that is padded, etc so it wont get damaged. (I have the Pulse version). I took this backpack and my laptop to Nicaragua and had a hell of a time down there with it, it is freakin durable as hell, great buy, I really reccomend it. The targus site also has incredible mice. I have their optical mouse, great.

3. I honestly dont know about this in relation to laptops.

4. I think the majority of your medical programs down there will be using MS Word or PowerPoint or Adobe PDF. There will probably be some proprietary programs on some of the CDs that come with books, etc. Like I have the Wheaters Functional Histology CD. It will run on basically any computer. The programs for classes will be graphically based, but they wont require a great graphics card. The great graphics cards are for games that load TONS of images into memory at a time and they keep them all in memory so when the game needs to render a complex scene (ie 10 different enemies running at you shooting crap) it can render it quickly from memory instead of having to load the images from your (much slower) hard disk. You will be fine with whatever graphics card you get.

On a personal note, when I bought my laptop I bougth the 15.4 inch wide screen W-UXGA monitor. It is the most crystal clear monitor that I've ever seen in my life. It is great for games and for a nerd like me. But any screen will do, and as far as just typing notes and reading PDFs and watching DVDs, any screen will do. I would look for the following qualities in a laptop for school: LIGHT weight, wireless G protocol network adapter, DVD player, CD-R burner, big HD (over 40 gig at least). Beyond this, its just play time. Maybe get a small external printer.

I hope this helps!

[camkiss]

I will address the humidity part of this question:
Many a people have lost hard drives on Saba either due to humidity or electrical surges. While the power on Saba is 110V, it is not exactly like US. You will notice your digital alarm clock starts to pick up time faster than it did in the states. Check your warranty closely. I had a Sony laptop that the warranty was null if the computer left the US for mor than 30 days. I lost my screen, and had to get it replaced (I just never mentioned I left the country). I kept my laptop in a tub with humidity absorbers when I was not using it after I lost the screen the first time.
Good luck!
Mike

[aychamo]

Hey camkiss

May I ask what you used for humidity absorbers? As far as the 110v problem, would putting everything on a surger protector be a good idea? Or a voltage regulator of some type.

Oh, and for the original poster, I wanted to add one more thing that would be a good idea when lookin for a laptop. BATTERY LIFE! The new Centrino powered laptops have incredible battery life. And with them you can also get the 2nd battery that fits in place of your CDROM drive, and get some insane battery life (like 7 hours!)

[camkiss]

For humidity absorbers, I brought down these packets (cannot recall the name). They have white or blue pellets inside a Tyvek and plastic packet (about 3" x 5"). You can find them in the closet section of Walmart or even a grocery store most of the time. Put those and the laptop in a Rubbermaid container or extra large zip lock bag.
As for the voltage thing, the first time I went home, I brought back a backup battery that I plugged my computer into. It regulated the surges very well. They are very heavy, though. So either wait ship ine down there, or check on St Maarten for one as you do not want that counting against your weight limit on bags when you travel down the first time.
Mike

[callmedoc]

Thank you all for the wonderful advice. I will see you all down soon.

[ajcarrol]

Hi everyone!

Hope things are going well. Just thought I would add my 2 cents about bringing a laptop. From my experience (I started at Saba this January), you absolutely should bring a laptop to the island. There are a lot of power point presentations in first semester classes. Histology is all on ppt and so is part of anatomy. Plus there are videos of dissections and other useful programs (a copy of Netter's atlas with a feature that you can use to test yourself on how well you know your structures) that are on the computer that will greatly help you out in anatomy.

There is a new histology professor this semester, and her power point presentations are wonderful. She uses the notes feature on all of her slides to elaborate. This means that without a laptop, to get the full set of notes, you would have to get a copy of the slides, one slide per page at the library. The cost is 20 cents per page! So, a laptop is very helpful in cost saving as well as studying. If you have to have a hard copy of the slides, I suggest bringing a printer.

Do make sure that you get a good warranty on your computer. The humidity is always a concern as well as all of the little bugs crawling around.

Hope that helps. If anyone has any more questions for me, feel free to email me @ ajcarrol@yahoo.com. (I don't get to check the forum much any more, so that would be faster.)

Well, better get to anatomy lab...it's dissection time.