Re: Computer good practices
 

Hmm

1) Learn Excel
2) Vim (most people don't have the 17 fingers required for the OS that is emacs)
3) If not Linux as a desktop, have a Linux server. =)
4) Dvorak. The reason Qwerty exists to slow people from typing on the -original- type writer. Dvorak makes sure both your hands do equal work.
5) Desk space. Arm support is your friend.
6) https when available (as said before, gmail doesn't default to it. There's a nice greasemonkey script to do it though)
7) Learn perl.
8) Firefox over IE. IE's layout engine (Trident) does not follow any standards. Whereas Firefox's (Gecko) almost passes Acid2. Also, Firefox's engine supports xhtml (and IE's can't. =\)
9) Keep your data secure. Truecrypt is a nice way to do this (and hide it)
10) More than one password. The best are at least 8 characters alphanumeric (mixed case is great too)
11) WPA > WEP, for sure. (Though a lot of embedded devices don't have the processing power for WPA). MAC filtering is also a nice idea.

A GPG key is always nice =p (see signature) Most people don't care about privacy enough to use anything (passwords over plaintext over smtp makes me cringe) SMTP isn't exactly great anymore, but it's too widely used.

Re: Computer good practices
 

DO significant beta testing. Someone is bound to find a way to foul up your code.

Re: Computer good practices
 

When naming a file, be as descriptive as possible in as few words as possible.

When naming a file that doesn't have a good description, include the date.

When you have files that you want to have previous versions of, do a "Save As" immediately and append the current date to the name.

Save all your work every 5 minutes, minimum. Computers, all OSs, will crash at some point.

Dvorak over Qwerty if you are looking to increase your typing speed and are not forced to use Qwerty at another computer. (I recall having some trouble going back to Qwerty after using Dvorak for a bit.) Dvorak provides all of the common letters on the middle row. Left hand is all the vowels, right hand is R S T L N (not necessarily in that order).

Learn to type without looking at the keyboard. (Blindfold yourself if you have to.)

Learn to use a 10-key. (Just as important as the alpha characters.)

Back any (iTunes) music up onto a CD or DVD. Bad crashes can result in the loss of data.

Turn off your monitor at a decent hour and go to sleep. Whatever you're working on will be there the following morning.

indieFan

Re: Computer good practices
 

Another thing about Dvorak. It increases your typing speed by have all the keys you use most common right near your fingers. So your fingers don't need to move as much to get to the keys. Since it reduces finger movement, it tends to help reduce the risk of RSI. Veeery good if you tend to type a lot. This goes along with having plenty of desk space. If the keyboard is right up against the side of the desk (like it is in all the computer labs at my school =[) then you are supporting your hands with your wrists.

As indieFan said, touch typing is also great.

Also, don't just turn off your monitor when going to sleep. =p Turn off your monitor whenever you aren't going to come back for awhile. Monitors tend to eat electricity.

Re: Computer good practices
 

Learn Excel to the point of being proficient: Pivot Tables, most functions, macros/VB, charting. This will carry you rather far with this common tool in your tool belt as a productivity item when you are working (you will be able to perform analysis faster than your peers as you will be able to manipulate data very quickly and transform it into information).

Programming?
- Use version control
- Comments in code
- Well-named variables
- Remove unused code

Backup what needs to be backed up. Regularly backup all user data whether it music, game saves, pictures, etc. using full or incremental backup.

Keep a copy of backups offsite just in case you can no longer access the primary site.

Keep all of the software (purchased, shareware, freeware) patched at all times. Set the automatic update option where applicable.

Manage the accounts on the systems (servers, forums, etc.) for which you are responsible. Delete unused/idle accounts. Review access levels of accounts periodically for appropriate levels as the responsibilities or status of users change.

Check the ports on your firewall occasionally. Use an external service to perform port penetration tests.

Check the configuration on your wireless router occasionally. Make sure it is configured for high security. Ensure the firmware is current.

Ensure your Bluetooth is secure.

Encrypt what needs to be encrypted.

Use complex passwords: upper/lower case, numeric, at least 8 characters in length with only one character allowed to be repeating.

Do not send anything in email, post anything, PM anything, text/sms anything, etc...that you would not want the public to read. Once it leaves your PC you no longer own it nor should you have the expectation of privacy. There is a log of just about everything.

Save and save often (files and money).

Use two flat panel screens when working on projects or multitasking so as to increase the amount of screen real estate available for your eyes and brain.

Don't let the cat walk on your keyboard when working on something important.

Re: Computer good practices
 

I agree, but file names should describe the information in the file, not the file itself. Also, dates aren't always as good as revision numbers. Some times computers will mix up dates (3/5/90 comes after 10/1/05) while most computers will not mix up Rev 1, Rev 2... so "Good final chassis version 2/4/05" is not as good as "Chassis .125in box AL Rev 6"

Re: Computer good practices
 

Are there any good sites that any of you recommend about learning to use Excel? I had a computer literacy class in high school where the only thing I learned was some basic Excel stuff (everything else I knew. Not quite sutre why I had to take it :p). So I know a little about functions and graphs but I haven't used it in years.

Re: Computer good practices
 

Use a system for passwords, to ensure you have stong passwords that are trivial to remember even after several years.

Re: Computer good practices
 

http://mrexcel.com/

I would do four things:
a) Peruse the above site (it is loaded with free and not free materials)
b) Google for other sites (they abound)
c) establish a set of objectives you want to accomplish over time...meaning you need to have a reason (a task) to accomplish so you can immediately apply it. I learn much better and faster when I have a task I need to complete and I set aside the time to find a way to do it better than brute force.
d) Jump in

And finally, become a data junkie. That is all the reason you will ever need to learn many of the ins and outs of Excel.

Our team's programmer who has posted in this thread used Excel to graph the POT and PWM values...maybe he can expound on this.

I am sure that more than a few teams are using statistical analysis in scouting, competition and match analysis...not to mention engineering analysis of components (I think there are a few in the white papers section).

I have advised our team members that before they graduate high school to learn as much Excel as they can.

Hope this helps!

Re: Computer good practices
 

Thanks!

I am going to school for Software Engineering so I'm sure it will have plenty of applications. I think I will try to design a scouting spreadsheet for next years game or something. Our team used the spreadsheet of and worked with another team last year and the scouts loved it.

Re: Computer good practices
 

-Use a dating format that sorts well such as 2007_11_21 for today, it will always sort in the proper order

-Learn your OS of choice, whatever you use, make sure you know as much as you can abuot it

-High Resolutions or monitors, I use 3200x1200 on my desktop at home and absolutely love the space, I rarely have to minimize windows now

-Turn off monitors when not in use(I have 2 huge CRTs they eat power like no other)

-Backups get a server, external hard drive something just get a backup copy. even if they harddrive doesn't die on a computer it can still be a massive pain to get the data off the drive

-If you don't need it close it, you finished with mozilla close it down now. haven't touched word in 3 hours? close it. it will free up ram, screen space and taskbar space.

-If you use linux(say on your server) screen and ssh are your friends, use them because you can then access your computer from anywhere and run the applications you were using even on a computer that isn't yours(blockers may have problems with this though)