J. Kent Garman, M.D.

omputers continue to add features and cost less. Very good desktop machines can be purchased for under $1,000 from Apple, Dell, Gateway, eMachines, Hewlett-Packard and Sony. Laptops can cost twice as much. In general stay with name brands for better service and reliability. As to specifics, make sure your new computer includes the following:

• A large hard drive with at least 80 GB of storage

• Built-in memory (RAM) of at least 512 MB

• Multiple high-speed inputs (USB 2.0 and FireWire)

• Built-in Wi-Fi (802-11G) for wireless networking in laptops

• CD-ROM and DVD writing capabilities (not just reading).

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor at Play
I personally am still a converted Macintosh user and love the machines. Do not forget that you will not have virus and other security problems with a Mac since there are rarely virus problems in Macs. I highly recommend that you visit one of the Apple Stores in your area or go onto the Apple Web site <www.apple.com> to look at the newest computers. They now offer a $500 to $600 Mac mini and a flat screen iMac G5 with the computer built right into the flat screen.

Apple continues to make radical improvements to its computer line, the latest being a major operating system upgrade called Tiger <www.apple.com/macosx>. PCs continue to use the long-in-the-tooth Windows XP operating system, with an upgrade (Longhorn) at least a year away.

Some PC users swear by the new tablet computers that allow handwriting recognition. I have not personally used these, but the concept seems to be very useful. Go to <www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc/default.mspx> to see details on this new computer technology. This Web site also has information on the numerous models of tablet PCs available.

Now for a few new, innovative and fun things to do with your computers.

New Ways to Keep in Touch
First, it is now possible to do live video and audio conferencing between two computers anywhere in the world. This technology has been around for a few years, but it is much better now with a higher quality picture and sound and almost no jerkiness in the video, depending on the speed of your Internet connection and equipment. To do this successfully, use a high-speed Internet connection (no dial-up phone connections), a high-speed connection (USB 2.0 or FireWire) between your Web camera and computer and one of the newer, improved FireWire or USB 2.0 CCD Web cameras. For the Mac, there is only one excellent choice: the iSight camera and free iChat software <www.apple.com/isight>. There are numerous cameras available for the PC. PC software required also is free, and the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) software is available from <www.aim
.com>. This Web site has a lot of information on videoconferencing. You do not need an AOL account to use this software. Since this software uses the Internet only, a telephone call is not necessary. Macs and PCs can easily videoconference together using the iChat and AIM software programs.

Once you have this equipment and software set up, you can converse with and see the person with which you are communicating. We use it for regular visits with our grandchildren. You also can keep in touch visually with your spouse when you are traveling.

Never-Ending Search
The next innovation is one that I consider to be one of the most important advances in using a computer: computer content searching. Apple just released the new Tiger operating system, which has a built-in search feature called “Spotlight” <www.apple.com/macosx/features/spotlight/>. Spotlight consists of a single text input box into which you can type one or more keywords. Within seconds a list is generated that consists of all files that include your keywords in the title or contents of the file. These files include documents, PDF files, e-mails, contacts, images, music, calendars and applications. Although you may say this is no big deal, it actually is an amazing tool. I was able to find files that I thought I had lost; previous search technology only looked at the title of the file. This feature works by building a continuously updated index of the contents of every file in your computer.

The PC operating system upgrade promised in a year is supposed to have a similar feature. PC users, however, can actually access this capability now. Google has just released a new free tool called “Desktop Search.” Go to <www.google.com/intl/en/options>, and look for “Desktop Search” in the “Tools” section. Download and install the software, and you will be able to do rapid content searches of your PC just like the Mac.

Cutting Edge E-Mail
Ideally e-mail will never be the same with the new large-memory capacity e-mail providers. Most e-mail providers only allow from 100 to 250 MB of storage space for e-mail messages. (Stanford gives only a paltry 100 MB of storage unless you buy more expensive memory space.) This is easy to exceed and usually results in your e-mail account refusing incoming e-mail until you delete some messages.

Google started the e-mail race by giving users of their free Gmail program <gmail.google.com/gmail/help/about.html> 1 GB (or 1,000 MB) of storage. Google recently increased the size to 2.25 GB (or 2,250 MB) of free storage space. Yahoo jumped onto the bandwagon by increasing their free Yahoo! Mail <billing.mail.yahoo.com/bm/MailReg?.v=8> space to 1 GB. You also can buy the Yahoo! Mail Plus, which has 2 GB of storage for $20 per year.

One problem with the free Gmail program is that it can only be obtained by invitation from a current user. The program is considered to be a “beta” program by Google, and the company is limiting the number of users. My suggestion is to check with all your colleagues and friends to find out if they are Gmail users with the ability to give out subscriptions.

If you can get Gmail, you will love it. If you cannot, go for Yahoo! Mail. It is likely that other free e-mail providers will soon increase their storage space to remain competitive.

I hope you will try out a few of the ideas in this article. Also I need to acknowledge all the readers of these articles who have thanked me for them. I actually enjoy writing them as much as you seem to enjoy reading them.

Editor’s Note: The mention of certain brand-name products is not intended to be construed as an endorsement by ASA and is essentially the personal preference of the author.

J. Kent Garman, M.D., is Associate Professor of Anesthesia, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.