Computers

• AMPHION - FRUSTRATED
  • Amphion - Tammy
  • We are also losing MS Word...don't know if we will need it for Triton or not? - AmphionFan
    • I still don't understand... - sm
      • Computers - frustrated
  • So let me get this straight...sm - Amphion MT
    • The way I was told was.... - AMPHION
      • Amphion - Lesson Learned
  • Amphion - MT'er
  • I left Amphion a couple of years ago and never looked back. - anon
    • I have been an MT for years and until the - MT for YEARS
      • I am at Cardioscribes and I love it! nm - anon
        • We quit and will not take this anymore! - Also MT for years

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What type of computers do most of you prefer to do transcription? Laptops or desktops? And if you do use laptops do any of you travel and take your work?

to be dangerous.  Mostly when things go squirrely I just close down everything I can, reboot and cross my fingers.  Amazing how many problems are solved that way.  But I guess I should not even own the computer at all, by some people's reasoning.

I had a courier job once, briefly.  I used my personal car to deliver packages from point A to point B.  To me a car is a thing with four wheels on the ground and one in my hands.  I don't really know much about the internal combustion engine, don't really want to know much.  (I do know how to open the hood and stare at the engine - which is all most guys know too - then jiggle a wire or two, shake my head, close the hood and call AAA.)  I can do a jump start. I know what to do if it's flooded.  I know where the various fluids go.  End of my automotive expertise.

If I were really stranded somewhere, I might try the bent-hairpin trick, but there are people whose sole area of expertise is diagnosing and fixing cars!  Others whose duty is to haul you there.  There are people whose area of expertise is to fix computer problems.  If I think my efforts might mess things up worse, you bet I'm calling tech support!  Don't get between me and the phone.

one keyboard, one monitor and one mouse.  Try Circuit City they have them.  Good luck.

Needing to know which companies provide computer equipment

Does anyone know if a company like Diskriter sends out a computer, do the company monitor this at all times?  In other words, can they see what you are doing, where you are surfing, etc?

Thanks!

I could chime in anytime to see what we were doing.  They did it to me several times.  Plus, they could read our e-mails even though we were at home.  They were more worried about us minding our own business and working and not snooping into medical files.  

When we were connected to the VPN, internet was blocked.  We could surf without the VPN.   We could not put any software or any extras on it except what the hospital wanted. 

I am using my own computer now but I wonder if I would be better off with a company that provides the equipment for more structure.  

Also, what kind of incentive program (if any) do they have? 

I have noticed that more and more employee-type jobs are requiring you have your own computer.  That doesn't sound good to me.  I thought an employer supplied you with the tools to do your job if you are an employee and not an independent contractor.  Some of us don't want them to have access to our personal computer with whatever Spyware du jour is on it.  Or we have to buy our own auxillary tools like spellcheck and medical speller and foot pedals. 

Just another thing taken away from us to add to the growing list. 

You can order a computer with one, but in general they do not come as a standard item on non-custom-built computers any longer.  The USB port is standard now, but not the DB9/COM/serial port she is referring to. 

You can purchase a PCI card (which is what the COM/serial port is part of) from Amazon for about $20 though and install it yourself, thus giving you a COM/serial/DB9 port for the 9-pin foot pedal. 

So....she is correct...MOST (not all) of the computers newer than about 4-5 years old DO NOT come with a serial/COM/DB9 port standard -- not on the back on the computer or anywhere else for that matter.  I

n fact, when I was looking for a PCI card to so that I could install it on my own computer (which is 3 years old), the guys at the computer store wanted to know why I wanted to go backwards (as far as technology) instead of foreward (to upgrade) -- stating that people just don't use serial ports anymore.  They said that the USB port had pretty much eliminated the need for a serial/COM/DB9 port in most instances. 

Too bad that isn't true when it comes to some MT platforms and wavplayers.