Notebooks

Notebook or Laptop?

Notebook computers are often referred to as "laptop" computers. Unfortunately, they generate enough heat to injure you, if you actually use them, on your lap. If you must use them on your lap, insulate yourself with a thick book.

Notebook Considerations

Generally cost about 1.5 times what a similarly equipped desktop computer costs.
They have poor ergonomics, unless used with an external accessories. UBC HR explain it well at http://www.hr.ubc.ca/health/healthy-ubc-initiatives/newsletter/september-2011/#laptop
They have shorter effective life spans, than desktop computers. After the third year, hard drive, keyboard, screen and battery failures go up dramatically and cost an average of $1000 extra to keep going for the fourth and fifth year.

Departmental notebook computers have the following setup;

Any domain (D_Psychiatry) account holder can log-on, provided that they have logged on to the laptop at least once while connected to our network by wire.
Your laptop will attempt to use the fastest network connection that it has available. On campus, this will be UBC wireless, which is on the “outside” of our firewall and therefore can’t access our servers to confirm your logon or access P: or U: drives. If you have been using wireless networking, you will need to disable it (see below), then logon again, before you can properly use the wired network.
IBM/Lenovo T4x & T6x models also have the following features;

Keyboard light = Press the Fn + PgUp keys
Presentation Mode (Video/monitor/LCD output switching)

Press Fn + F7, to toggle between internal, external or both.
In Windows 7, holding the Windows + P key will activate presentation mode and Windows + X (also in Windows Vista) will bring up the Windows Mobility Centre, where you can quickly access a lot of related settings.

Wireless networking can be be toggled off/on by pressing Fn-F5 or click the wireless icon on the taskbar. T60, T61 and W500 notebooks also have a slide switch, on the front left edge.
Scroll = Holding the blue button, between the mouse buttons, and scroll up/down with the trackpoint (mouse).
NumLock will come on in the last state that it was set. For example, if you had your laptop connected to an external full size keyboard, with number pad, then disconnect from the external keyboard, your laptop’s embedded numeric keyboard will remain turned on.
Screen magnifier = Press the Fn + space, to toggle between your regular screen resolution and a low resolution (large text) mode, if you're finding things hard to see..

Battery life

Battery life is always quoted under ideal conditions. To increase your notebook's battery life;

Turn off wireless networking, if you're not using it.
Turn down the screen brightness.
Get the optional extended life battery or carry a second battery.

Wireless Networking

This has been written for an IBM/Lenovo T60 notebook, but other models will be similar. To connect to UBC Wireless;

Start your browser, answer the first time questions, close the browser.
Have the wireless switch (front left edge) turned on.
Left click the wireless icon (bar graph in bottom right of screen)
Select UBC and click "Connect"
Wait, up to 60 seconds, for your computer to be assigned an address by the UBC network. You'll know, when the hard drive light stops flashing.
Open your browser, which should go directly to the UBC Wireless Network login page
Click the "Autoconnect" link, then "Start" and follow the on-screen instructions.