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Computer health
If you don't take care, you can damage your health working on computers. Especially if you spend long stretches at the screen. But if you follow some simple guidelines you can enjoy a danger-free time.

Eyes

Most monitors have an antiglare screen. But if yours doesn't, wear tinted glasses1. You may feel a bit silly wearing sunglasses indoors, but it could stop you from getting headaches.

Eyes can become strained by focusing at the same distance for a long time. So, ev­ery ten minutes or so, look away from the screen and focus your eyes on something farther away.

Posture

Sitting at a computer can strain your shoulders and the bottom of your back, so it is important to sit in a good chair. Find one that can be adjusted to support your lower back and allows you to have both feet on the floor. Your elbows and knees should be bent at 90°2. Sit direct­ly in front of your mon­itor and keyboard. Your keyboard should be at the same height as your elbows.

Shrug your shoulders and shake your hands at regular intervals to relieve tension which builds up in your muscles and joints.

RSI

Doctors think that an illness called repetitive strain syndrome (RSS) can be caused by working at a keyboard and using a mouse every day. It mostly affects wrists, fingers and arms, and has symptoms similar to arthritis. It can be very painful and forces people to give up work. When typ­ing, make sure your wrists are completely relaxed and flat, never bent.

Looking after the hardware

Your computer needs looking after too. It will work much better and last much longer if it is taken care of properly. Here are some dos and don'ts of looking after hardware.

DO

Avoid high temperatures and humidity.

Keep drinks and food away.

Use a special program to protect, or "park", the hard disk when moving the systems unit.

Put a cardboard dummy floppy disk in the floppy disk drive.

Store your floppy disks carefully in a plastic box.

DON'T

Don't turn your computer on and off many times throughout the day.

Don't leave the monitor on for long periods at a time with the same image on the screen. You can buy a piece of software, called a screen saver, which will blank out the screen if the computer has not been used for a certain length of time.

Don't let your computer share an electric socket with another large electrical appliance, such as a refrigerator

Times of trouble

If your computer stops working, first check that all your cables are properly connected. It's embarrassing to call a technician only to find your dad had unplugged your machine to do the vacuuming4.

Read your manual to make sure that you're not doing anything wrong. You could try switching off and restarting the system5. If this works, look out for the problem happening again and see if you can figure out what triggers the fault.

Most hardware and software manufacturers have a helpline you can call for advice. Remember, if you take your computer apart yourself, your guarantee may no longer be valid. So, don't attempt to fiddle with the elec­tronics yourself.

If your manuals are too full of jargon to understand, you can buy simpler guides that explain things more clearly.

Organizing your files6

Make sure that your files on the hard disk are organized into different directories so you can find them easily.

At the end of every day, always copy files from your hard disk onto two sets of floppy disks. Then if you lose any files from the hard disk, of if one set of floppy disks corrupts, you will still have a copy of your work. This is called backing up. When you have backed up files that you are no longer working on, remove them from the hard disk. If the hard disk gets too full, data can become jumbled and your computer starts working more slowly.

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