It attacks your computer like the South American army ant. Tiny, harmless looking critters by themselves, in larger numbers they can cover, kill and dissolve a full grown cow in a matter of hours.
Okay, maybe not exactly like that. But, wood shop and machine shop owners are experiencing the devastating effect manufacturing dust can have inside their shop computers. And they are looking for answers.
It doesn’t take much to ruin your day, especially, when metallic dust meets sensitive electronic components. Electricity chooses to travel in the shortest route possible, and little bridges of metal dust make great short cuts. Zap! WRRrrrrrr…
And wood dust makes a great insulating blanket. That’s okay if you’re lost in a big wood bin and freezing to death, but to a hard working computer it can be bad news. Heat sinks and fans attempt to dissipate the heat from within your computer, but a layer of dust can reduce or prevent this transfer of heat. Also, computer fans can malfunction when dust and grime are allowed to build up. Things heat up. Computers die. Data is lost. Business suffers.
Okay, what’s the answer then? How do you protect your computer from dust?
The actions you are willing and able to take to protect your computer equipment from dust depend on a large number of individual circumstances. Regardless of your situation, I recommend you take a three-front defensive position and optimize for each of the following areas:
• Computer room environment
• Protective computer dust barriers
• Computer maintenance
Let’s look at each of these areas individually.
Computer Room Environment
Control the environmental conditions surrounding your computers. The ideal solution would be to keep your computers and monitors in a clean, climate controlled computer room. In other words, take them out of the danger area. Of course, this is unrealistic or undesirable to many shop owners, who want, or need the computers to operate in the immediate work area.
So what then? Do what you can to control the dust and air pollutants in the shop. Use and maintain dust collectors for woodworking machines and a ventilation system for the shop area. And, if you can’t move the computers out of the shop, try to move them across the room, away from welding, grinding or direct contact with billowing sander dust.
Protective Computer Dust Barriers
These include computer dust covers, dust filters, computer dust bags, and computer enclosures. Each has its advantages and limitations as described below. Determine which option is the best solution for you.
Standard computer covers are made by a number of manufacturers. Usually plastic or vinyl, they are cheap, but effective in keeping dust off your computers and monitors. However, they may only be used while your computer equipment is shut down. And, you must remember to put them on. Every day. In other words, they are almost useless in a busy shop.
Computer filters, on the other hand may be used while the computer is running. Also very cheap, these small pieces of loose mesh material are placed over fan air intakes in the computer case to remove dust from incoming air. Some have experimented with using panty hose, Brillo® Pads and other household items with some success. The main drawback with computer filters is their small surface area. They clog up quickly in dusty areas and must be cleaned, or changed frequently to allow the unimpeded flow of cool air into the computer case. Another drawback is that they leave other openings in the computer case unprotected, allowing fine dust to infiltrate the CD ROM drives, floppy drives and other small openings.
Relatively new on the scene, computer dust bags are a combination computer cover and computer filter. Designed for the harsh, dusty and smoky conditions inherent to wood shops and machine shops, these innovative covers entirely encase the computer processor or monitor at all times, allowing the entire surface of the bag to act as a huge dust filter to remove dust from incoming air. Monitor dust bags have a see-through, anti-static front to allow a clear screen view, and are very effective in keeping dust, wood chips and other debris out of the cooling vents. At around $20 or less, the recommended life-span of the computer dust bag is 3-12 months, depending on the level of dust in the shop. A possible drawback to using the computer dust bag is reduced access to CD and floppy drives. However, it is possible to use these drives if you cut a hole in the dust bag and cover it with a door flap, which is included with the bag. You may also have to cut an access slot to use your USB ports.
Finally, computer enclosures are typically metal or wood, box-like cabinets which your computer processor and monitor are placed in to protect them from the surrounding environment. A variety of fan and filter combinations introduce fresh air into the enclosure. Computer enclosures have the added advantage of protecting your equipment from blunt force trauma, such as a falling 2×4, chemical splashes and other things harmful to your computer. Filters must be changed regularly. Disadvantages include high price, greater amount of space required, and filter maintenance.
Computer Maintenance
Finally, the third part of a sound computer dust protection strategy is computer maintenance. Yes, that means cleaning. Does that scare you? It’s easier than you think. You don’t have to buy all kinds of expensive tools and cleaning agents, and no heavy scrubbing or complicated disassembly is needed. The most important thing is to maintain a regular computer cleaning schedule. It may be as simple as opening the computer case once every three months to blow out the dust. Educate yourself on the computer cleaning basics and decide the right course of action for yourself.
Just as numerous insects and animals perish when attacked by the army ant, a great number of computers are killed by dust every day. Don’t let it happen to you. Follow the common sense ideas shown here and stop computer-killing dust in its tracks!
Archive for ◊ March, 2010 ◊
Ask people what the phrase “document management” means, and the answers you get will vary widely. For some, it’s a catch-all term used to encompass everything from document scanning, to version control, to document retrieval, to document creation, to electronic and paper archiving, to document retention, and more. However, going deep into document management, there are some key aspects at the core that make management of information effective. These are Metadata and Indexing.
Going as far back as records were kept, hand written documents were stored in folders and boxes based upon an agreed upon structure designed for easy document retrieval. Shelving, filing cabinets, boxes and folders were used to implement a logical sub-structure system for bulk storing documents. An early example of the process was one used by governments for maintaining birth certificates. The storage of birth certificates could be maintained in a filing cabinet labeled by the hospital’s name, in a drawer marked with the year, and in a folder named by the month. This structure of birth certificate filing: hospital name – year – month, is the rudimentary basics of metadata attributes, and is designed to allow for efficient document retrieval.
With the evolution of affordable shared file servers people began producing exponentially more documents, yet the process of storing and retrieving the documents followed similar techniques as the old paper-based storage methods. Documents were stored and managed on shared file servers using folder structures that essentially mirrored the paper filing process.
The benefit of a document management system is that it allows people to store documents in a logical folder structure while also including useful metadata attributes and providing full-text indexing. The combination of a logical tree-based folder structure and metadata allows people to quickly navigate to documents or to perform detailed searches for the information they need. The additional metadata associated with each document generally allows for a flatter (fewer sub-folders) storage hierarchy meaning easier navigation and fewer misfiling of documents because the metadata attributes are displayed on the screen along side of the files as sortable column values. In addition, metadata attributes, when combined with full-text indexing, allows for searching that breaks the bounds of a folder structure and eliminates costly, labor intensive searches when the search criteria doesn’t match the folder structure.
Digitizing metadata can generate great efficiencies. Using the birth certificate example, when a request is received for a copy of a birth certificate using a shared file server based exclusively on a folder hierarchy, the search will fail if there is a requirement to retrieve information not represented by the folder structure itself. For example, a search that requires all birth certificates issued with Dr. Smith as the attending physician over the last nine months. If the doctor’s information is not associated with the folder structure or part of the file’s name, manually opening and reading through the content of all the documents throughout the storage system is the only option for gathering the required records.
When we workout, play games or participate in sports, we induce stress on our bodies and consume energy. There is nothing wrong with induced stress because our muscles are able to respond to it. The more our muscles are used to stress such as high levels of physical activity, the stronger they become and the faster they respond to stimulus. A lot of things have already been done on the ways and means of improving one’s performance in sports. Professional athletes hire coaches, they have nutritionists following their diets, and they get the best in sport equipment. It is safe to say that finding new ways of improving sports performance is getting harder and there really is a limit on how coaching, diet and equipment is able to raise higher standards of athleticism.
The good news for everyone trying to find a dramatic increase in performance is that an inexpensive technology is already available. The technology is called ionic technology and what it does is basically increasing the exposure of humans to beneficial negative ions.
We are surrounded by ions everyday of our lives. Aside from naturally occurring negative ions which is formed when water evaporates, there are also positive ions which sadly is not good for human health. Scientific research shows that exposure to high levels of positively charged ions leads to the following.
Increased blood pressure, Increased levels of acidity in the blood, Prolonged recovery from fatigue, Stress on the nervous system, and Suppressed growth.
The discovery that negative ions produce the opposite effect on humans was a very exciting scientific discovery. Devices capable of emitting negative ions into the surrounding air were soon developed. Negative ion generators are important for city dwellers because there is a much higher proportion of positively charged ions in the surrounding air in the city. This is expected because much of the city’s excess of positively charged ions are products of engine exhaust, and burning of wastes. Most of today’s modern wireless communications such as radios, cellular phones and microwave transmissions emit positive ions into the air.
As we move out of the city where the natural landscape becomes dominant, the amount of negative ions in the air increases also. So if we are able to track levels of both types of ions as we move away from the city and deeper into the country, we see a decrease in levels of positively charged ions and conversely, we will experience higher amounts of negative ions in the air we breathe.
It is no wonder then that if we play in surrounding air that contains higher levels of negatively charged ions, we experience better performance. Scientific research from Japan and the USA is able to explain why this is so. It was already established that some of the health benefits of negative ions in the air include enhanced heart functions, faster recovery from fatigue, strengthening bones, and make respiration or breathing easier. All these beneficial effects on the human body are important athletic benefits as well. It is very obvious that faster recovery from fatigue, better cardiac conditioning and improved respiration are all important to someone who is in a physically active state.
Digital sports watches with ionic technology are made with elements that when bought into close contact with the body, exposes the watch wearer to high levels of negative ions. All ionic sport watches contain Tourmaline and Germanium. Tourmaline is known to be one of the most complex among the silica minerals and this attribute explains why this semi-precious gemstone is a rich source of beneficial ions. Germanium has been found to have toxic effects on certain bacteria.
So if you feel that you got the most already from coaches, diets and expensive sporting gear just to squeeze out additional athletic performance, wearing digital sport watches with ionic technology could be a very simple, inexpensive and effective way to increase athletic performance.