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Laptop Tips and Tricks For Freshmen (and Upperclassmen Too)

November 1, 2011 by lpahomov 4 Comments

By Marina Stuart
Staff Writer
At SLA, laptops are the pencils, the paper, the textbook, the calculator, the most efficient way to communicate with anyone, anywhere in the world. They are the most important tool ever, and should be treated as such.

This article will help teach underclassmen and remind upperclassmen how to take care of and use the laptop to it’s fullest extent.

How to Properly Treat a 

Laptop
How to carry it: in your bag, or with two hands.
What not to do: carry it by the lid, carry it with one hand, type and walk at the same time, or anything else that could endanger the life of your lappie. All of the previous example could ruin your laptop or cause it to someday end up in the tech office, where once it goes in…you won’t see it for about two weeks.

How to Preserve Your Battery

– Do not always keep your computer plugged in.  Letting the battery drain is a natural part of life and is healthy for you laptop.  Now in school your laptop might be losing power quickly so here are a few ways to keep it from doing that.
– Do not keep your brigh

tness up to the fullest extent.
– Remember to quit applications, too many open will drain your battery and make your computer run slower.
– When you are not using your computer for long periods of time, shut it down, this saves battery power.
All of these habits will serve you well in later years.  By the time you ar a senior your battery could be at 8 percent by lunch, and that is never fun.

General Safety Tips
– Keep your computer clean by not eating or drinking around them.  If your computer does get dirty, spray expo board cleaner on a paper towel and wipe it down carefully.  Keyboard covers do work, but are not necessary for keeping your computer safe.
– Chargers break when used for long periods of time, almost every SLAer will need a replacement changer sometime during their four years. To avoid, try to save up for when you do need to replace it.
– Wrapping the thinner cord around the “wings” on the charger actually hurts it more then helps, so try to avoid doing that.  An alternative is to wrap the smaller cord in the “bunny ears” style.  With a part of the cord looped in the air and the rest wrapped around the actual battery.

A properly wrapped laptop charger.
Other Useful Tricks
– Go to your iChat preferences and turn off the sound. This avoids awkward situations when you open iChat in class and everyone knows it. Or, don’t use iChat in class.
– Before submitting anything in a text box on Moodle, highlight the entire thing and copy it. Then submit.  This will avoid situations where you might lose your work because Moodle has logged you out.
– If you aren’t using the internet, please turn off your WiFi, this makes it easier for everyone else to get on the Internet.
– Save everything, every 10 minutes.
– If an application isn’t working, force quit by typing “option” + “command” + “esc.”
– Bring headphones, they make everything better.
– Get a USB drive, life will be so much simpler during benchmark season.

Proper Vocabulary
“Spinny wheel of doom:” the rainbow wheel that appear when an application is not responding.
“Red light of death:” the light that appears in the headphone jack of your computer when it is not working.
“Apple c” and “apple v:” the shortcut keys for copy and pasting. On the newer computers, the apple key was renamed the “command” key.  But it does the same action.
“Apple q it:” the shortcut key for quitting out of an application.  Usually it is used as a verb.

Everyone should remember these rules when it comes to laptop conduct.

For Seniors: You already know these rules, but it doesn’t matter. Your computers are almost utterly useless now, but they work very well as heaters, paper weights, or flat surfaces
.

Filed Under: Features

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. alisha rothwell says

    November 3, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    Hey thanks there were something i didn’t know!

    Reply
  2. S. Reddy says

    November 5, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    I didn’t know I’ve been wrapping my charger wrong all these years. THANKS!

    Reply
  3. isupovitzaznar says

    November 15, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    I like!

    Reply
  4. Tyanna Pleasant says

    November 19, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    LOL, this is soo funny, especially at the end when you talk about the seniors laptops.! 🙂 “For Seniors: You already know these rules, but it doesn’t matter. Your computers are almost utterly useless now, but they work very well as heaters, paper weights, or flat surfaces”

    Reply

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