A list of simple instructions from Sabu Francis that can help you use your computer more effectively. This was written for the Indian Architect & Builder in 1995 ...

• Come to terms with the fact that there are many things a computer would never do for you. Your creativity can only be supplemented but never replaced.

• When your computer maintenance engineer visits your office, insist on an overall check of the computer before he leaves. I have found that computer engineers will repair one part of the computer and forget to connect some other wire, or plug in some card improperly or some other such stupidity - resulting in yet another maintenance call!

• Atmospheric heat is not an enemy of the computer. Dust is. Especially graphite dust since they are electrically conducting. According to one maintenance engineer, rats pee is the death potion for a computer. He had to simply replace many computers simply because some rats decided to use them as their toilet!

• E-Mail -- the whole new method of accessing data over the phone wires is here to stay. You must install a modem (14.4Kbaud at least) and subscribe to some convenient e-mail facility in your city. The amount of information that can be at your reach is phenomenal.

• Everyone in your office should be knowing the basics of computers and the basics of the operating system installed on your computer. In case of IBM type computers it is usually DOS. Or it could be OS/2-Warp. If educating everyone in the office is not possible, then at least one person in the office should be fairly knowledgeable. He/she should develop 3 types of checklists: One for initiating the computer and applications, one for shutting them down and the last for crisis management. The last is usually the toughest. Computer crisis can show no symptoms whatsoever. So one of the first item to be included in that checklist is how to detect that a crisis is actually happening! Hardware problems get rectified in due course of time but software problems -- specially data loss -- can be a terrible tragedy.

• Computerize your office vertically -- not horizontally. Some architects tend to computerize only one aspect of their office -- say accounts. In such a situation, there is that invisible horizontal line that divides the computerized portion of the office from the non-computerized. That is like saying that pencils should be used only for drawing. Don't fall into that trap. Make sure that every aspect of your office gets computerized to some extent. It will ensure that the instrument is used most efficiently.

Hardware

• The moment you realize that you need an extra computer to take the load of your office, you should seriously think of setting up a LAN (Local Area Network). A LAN basically consists of centralized file-server -- that is a computer dedicated solely to hand out files to whichever computer (connected on the LAN) that may need it. So all files get stored in one central location only. I had -- for a short time -- made a mistake of having three standalone computers in my office. That resulted in different versions of the same file getting repeated all over the office and people unknowingly using the wrong version.

• One of the popular misconceptions of a LAN is that data is no longer secure. People often see the cable connections that connect computers on a LAN and draw a physical analogy. In fact, you can get extremely high data and time security on a LAN. Even the spread of viruses is limited since all but one computer attached to the LAN can be made diskless.

• Do not directly accept smart sales talk from computer sales representative. Most likely, they are only as much educated about computers as you are and many times they are even lesser educated. Check carefully into their training background and the type of information they have access to. Many salespersons are guided only by sheer mercenary interests.

• One popular exhortation supported by many computer salespersons is: the bigger or faster it is; the better it is. Not necessarily. Many programmes that we use are interactive: There are many pauses in the programme as it waits for responses from you. Such programmes, can be run even on a simple PC-XT or PC-AT. When I wanted to purchase a notebook computer for myself, many salespersons came running after me with 486 based notebooks. However, I wanted to use the notebook computer only for interactive programs, and therefore I decided to buy a good quality 386-SLC based notebook from a reputed company. Obsolescence was my only fear and that was solved when the company offered a comprehensive 3 year warranty. The advantage? The price difference between a 386-SLC and a 486 notebook was so much that I could afford yet another desktop 486 computer in my office!

• Programmes that perform long series of calculations without any involvement from the user deserve to be done on powerful, fast computers. In our field, they include high quality renderings and animations.

• Three sets of factors determine the power of a computer: The bus-width, the clock speed and the no of bits the microprocessor itself can handle at any given time. The last is the most important factor. The adjacent box regarding the innards of a computer should guide you regarding these matters. Choose carefully. From my experience, I have found 386-Sx (or 386-SLC) based computers to be a terrific bargain: All the parts work together at the same no. of bits and you still get the advantage of a 32-bit microprocessor.

A Bit of The Insides of a Computer

A 'bit' is the smallest mathematical number a computer can recognize: It has two possible solutions: 0 or 1. A microprocessor handles a set of bits together to form larger mafthematical values. Thus 8 bits examined together (known as a byte) can represent 256 numbers, 16 bits examined together can represent more than 65000 numbers and so on and so forth. Therefore a 16 bit microprocessor can handle information much, much more quickly than an 8 bit microprocessor even though both may be working at the same clock speed. (Clock speed = The term used for the pulsating rate at which information keeps flowing through the computer as it performs its duties.)

A computer does not merely have a single microprocessor. It has many other devices in it and they are all exchanging data with one another via a path known as the bus. This bus is the basic information exchange channel on a computer motherboard or the board on which all the main parts of the computer are assembled. The bus-width represents the number of bits that can simultaneously flow through the bus at any given instance or pulse. You get the maximum advantage when the bus width is as large as possible. Some popular types of computer configuration (IBM PC genre) are explained below:

• 8088 microprocessor based -- 8 bit microprocessor attached to a 8 bit bus width motherboard.
  

• 80286 microprocessor based -- 16 bit microprocessor attached to a 16 bit bus width motherboard.
  

• 80386 - Sx microprocessor based 32 bit microprocessor with a 16 bit bus interface, attached to a 16 bit bus width motherboard.

• 80386 - Dx microprocessor based full fledged 32 bit microprocessor attached to a 16 bit mother board.
  

• 80486 - Dx microprocessor based 32 bit microprocessor with built in floating point maths capability connected to a 32 bit bus width motherboard (in case of a local bus) or 16 bit bus width motherboard (in case of ordinary bus).
  

• 80486-Sx microprocessor based -- 32 bit microprocessor without built in floating point maths capability connected to a 32 bit bus width motherboard (in case of a local bus) or 16 bit bus width motherboard (in case of ordinary bus).
  

• Pentium (80586 microprocessor based) -- 32 bit microprocessor with built in floating point maths capability connected to a 32 bit bus width motherboard.

Floating point maths capability means the capability of dealing with fractions of numbers. Like 2/3 or the value of pi. All computers basically work in integers only and programmes carry out floating point emulations' to get correct fractions.

However, all computers have the capability of adding in a special floating point co-processor to help in these calculations. Only the more recent microprocessors have the floating point co-processor built in (486-Dx and 586 microprocessors) to the main processor itself.

The story doesn't end there. If there is any device that is attached to the bus that has a smaller bus-width than what is supported by the bus, then you get a bottleneck for that activity and the speed slows down there. For eg: If you install a 16 bit hard-disk controller on a 32 bit bus then there is a bottleneck whenever you are reading/writing to the hard-disk. (What is known as IO speed or Input-Output Speed in Computerese.) Unfortunately for us, many of the cards that are attached to the bus are still 16 bit devices -- they proliferated when the 286 based AT's became popular. So you are not getting your full bang for the buck in many cases!

An increase in the amount of RAM (Random Access Memory) on your computer does not necessarily improve its speed. RAM is mainly used as a scratch pad by programmes to store information temporarily before the final content is saved to disk. If the quantum of RAM was inadequate to perform this task, then many programmes resort to writing the temporary information on the hard-disk that is much, much, much slower. (WINDOWS is notorious for doing this) Thus the computer works at a deteriorated speed.

To make matters worse, many programmes written for the IBM type computers simply do not have the capability to utilize RAM beyond the first 640 Kbytes or so. Programmes that do use greater amounts of RAM often does so in a manner that may often conflict with other programmes. So just loading heaps of RAM may not be the solution. It all depends on the type of programmes you want to run on your computer.

Another wrong advice that is popularly touted by computer salespersons: 486-DX is better than 486-SX for a LAN Server. The only difference between a 486-DX and an SX is that the DX has a built in floating point maths co-processor whereas in the SX you would have to add one separately. But a LAN Server never makes ANY floating point (fractional) calculations whatsoever!

Other Hardware Notes

• It would be advisable to go for a color VGA monitor when working with graphics. If you do go for one, then make sure that is the latest non-interlaced type monitor that is much more soothing to the eyes as there is no flicker. And the price difference nowadays is insignificant.If your budget does not allow for a color VGA then mono-graphics (also called MGA) monitors may be an even better alternative. Mono graphics monitors are based on the Hercules card that offers 348x720 resolution as opposed to 480x640 for a regular mono VGA. A simple calculation will tell you that the MGA monitors offers almost the same no of pixels. Pixels are the dots that make up a graphics image. For a MGA card it is 348x720=250560; whereas, for a VGA it is 307200. However, some mono VGA monitors have the slight advantage of displaying colors as shades of gray.

• Resolutions more than 800x600 are usually useful only for viewing still images. If you want to work on interactive programmes at greater resolutions then you should go for monitors which are at least 17" or more. The regular 14" monitors have too small a mouse cursor and fonts to be really legible at those high resolutions.

• CD-ROM drives are here to stay. If you can afford it, install one as soon as possible. Much architectural reference material has already started arriving on CD-ROMs abroad and it should be here within this year. Also, many CD-ROM drives can play regular audio CDs also as an added feature.If you have a need of a plotter in your office, install the latest 600 DPI inkjet plotters available in the market today. The prices have come down drastically. You may even be able to eliminate tracings and instead take out as many copies of your plots as you require directly on the plotter. Even the most complicated A1 size plot can be plotted within 3 minutes. For taking subsequent copies, all you have to do is press the replot button on the plotter itself!

• If you are thinking of installing a laser printer, then take a deep look at low end color ink-jet printers. Though the resolution is not as good as a laser printer for black and white prints, it can give breathtaking prints in color. They are cheaper and even the running costs are far cheaper than a laser printer.

Software General

• People tend to accumulate whatever software they can lay their hands on. This only clutters up the hard-disk. I use a simple rule of the thumb: If I do not find myself using the software within the week of installation, then the software gets deleted from my hard-disk.

• Isolate all your programmes and system files from the data files that those programmes generate. Once you have all the data files from all your programmes in one place, it is quite a simple task to prepare backups of your data. One good way to do this is to use different hard-disks for the programmes and the data files. Or if you are using a LAN, then put the files in different LAN volumes. Unfortunately, most application software by default installs its programme and system files in the same area as its data files. So when you install any software, you will have to give the correct directory options so that the files get installed with the bifurcation in mind. Also, you will have to update the 'path' command from DOS to properly access your programmes.

• The first command you must learn before you start using any software is the proper method of quitting the programme. More often than not, I have found that people get so curious regarding some programme that they simply dive headlong into it and then -- not knowing how to come out again; they either press CTRL-ALT-DEL or simply switch off the machine. Such a drastic method often leaves unwanted files on your hard-disk and/or corrupts important files.

• Contrary to popular belief, most software has concepts that are not present in the manual version of the task. For example, if you are writing a note by hand, and you wanted to emphasize something you would put them in 'quote marks'. When you use a word-processor you would either make that word bold or italics. The day you realize that many more options are available than what was available when the task was done manually, that would be the day you would have mastered that software.

• Make regular backups of your data files onto good quality floppies or tape cartridges. Preferably every day. AND ensure that the data is free from corruption, BEFORE you take backups else you would be backing up corrupt data and in the process loose the earlier - stable - version of that data!

• Attending classes for using application software like word-processors is a sheer waste of time. All the latest software has such beautiful documentation that it can explain all the features easily. There are also many books that get into complicated details of these applications. Added to that, there is nothing like hands on experience in real-world situations. The tensions of sending a correctly worded letter to a client on time will teach you many more things regarding your word-processor than the simulated environment of a computer class.

• If you have interests in software programming, even then there are sufficient books for you to get by. If you are still confused, then choose the computer class that employs fully qualified instructors.If you do want to get into software programming (or software designing; a term that we would prefer), then do it systematically and completely. You can learn any 4th generation or 5th generation languages like C or C++ or Prolog.
  

• Be extremely disciplined and rigorous in your approach. I have learnt from experience that there is a large inertia that you simply will have to overcome before you can even start being productive. There are two advantages of getting into programming: You can tailor existing software to your exacting needs and you can understand the reason behind the seemingly idiosyncratic procedures that many application software force you to take.

• There are only four main types of software that we architects require: A word-processor, a spread-sheet, an accounts package, and a CAD software. If all software can exchange data smoothly between each other and if they can be run simultaneously, then it would be a distinct advantage. Programmes that run under WINDOWS can be a good candidate- since data linking and exchange are nowadays part and parcel for every Windows programme. These programmes are extremely taxing on your hardware requirements: 486-DX 66Mhz, local bus, with a very large hard-disk (540 Mbytes or more) and at least 16 Mbytes of RAM would be the minimum.

• Your office could also use a good project management software and rendering software to cater to some specialized requirements of an architect's office. Please keep in mind that rendering software will require the best of hardware equipment to work properly in a DOS environment.

• Many software have been built-up over a period of time and such software gets loaded with many features all in one programme. These are usually quite difficult to completely master -though at first glance they may seem very convenient to use since all features are ready at hand. AUTOCAD and WINDOWS-Word are two examples. Then there are many software that perform their tasks in separate modules; each module being invoked separately as a programme. These are usually cruder to use but usually they work better in situations where gigantic programmes cannot fit in. UNIX is a popular operating system containing many small utilities; each contributing its own mite in a larger and more powerful scenario.

• Many software are easy to handle when the data being manipulated is quite small. However, as the data grows larger and larger, the programme becomes extremely cumbersome to use. So when deciding on the purchase of a software, check out the smallest sample file as well as the largest sample file they have. See how well the software handles them before arriving at a decision. There is this popular Windows based graphics package that takes 15 minutes to prepare a print file for a small file, while over 24 hours to prepare the print file for a large file!

• Add new comment