Irish Society for
Information Technology in Agriculture
Sixth Annual Conference, Portlaoise, 7 November 2002
Farm
computers
- a simple
guide to getting started and to good housekeeping
Mick
Harkin, ICT Associates
Brian Morrissey, Online Services Manager, Irish
Farmers' Journal
Consider
your options
Finding
the best solution
Rely on
your supplier
Take
a blink-break
Focus on the real world
Recording
habit
Setup for
business
Learn the
layout
Usefulness first
Set
up for the long term
Protect your data – back it
up
Protect your data, and computer – against power surges
Don’t overload your system
Cookies
Spam
and spam-scams and computer
Password-protect,
with caution
Double delete it
Get
into the habit
Computer
viruses
Guard
against viruses
Care with email
Some useful websites
When we talk about farm computers we are
discussing personal computers (PCs) which host software that has been designed
to assist farmers in their farm management and farm business activities. The
hardware will be much the same as that used in any other professional
environment, e.g. administration, engineering, accounting. The important factor
is the farm management software that runs on the machine.
When deciding on what computer system to buy it is
important to remember that the hardware is not the central issue. Personal
computers and peripherals are very performance and price competitive and are
generally more powerful than you will require for farm management needs.
The
computer itself should have full multimedia capabilities (text, graphics,
sound…), be Internet-ready, and be set up for you.
The
best piece of advice we can give is to buy a complete farm computing solution
from a reputable farm software supplier. This is a much more practical and cost
effective approach than buying a computer, installing generic software on it and
trying to develop management systems yourself. To get the best out of your
investment you will need regular upgrades, training and support.
It may be reassuring to know that more than 10, 000 Irish farmers are
already using dedicated farm management software to help manage their business
and the number is growing steadily.
Finding the best solution
The obvious thing is to start by talking to your
farming colleagues, by reading farming press articles and to shop around the
various suppliers. When comparing the deals on offer from the different farm
software companies, it is critical that you the select the most appropriate farm
software for your farming purposes. Focus on whether the software meets the
needs of your farm business and whether you reckon the supplier will look after
you into the long term.
A good farm management software package will help you to
manage herd and flock records (quota, traceability, yields…….), subsidy
applications and farm accounts. In addition, a good computer system will help
you and your family to acquire information-age skills, communicate by electronic
mail, gather research information on the World Wide Web, and entertain
yourselves.
Rely on your supplier
Your farm software supplier should be the best
source of information, advice, and help with your farm computer system. He
should set up your machine, help you to get started, show you how to maintain
the system and your data, protect your data from damage, train you on the farm
package and upgrade your software to keep pace with market and regulatory
changes. He should also guarantee to help you with any system or software
problems and support your queries over phone or email.
However, he can only help you if you make a good attempt to learn how to use the
computer and the software. Fortunately, every good
computer and software package comes equipped with a Help system that you
can use, as well as a support
line. Get familiar with your Help system and save time seeking solutions.
Using your personal computer
Sitting staring into a screen and moving a mouse about is not
a natural human activity. The human body was not designed for sedentary work,
and it will complain in no uncertain terms if you subject it to uncomfortable
conditions over long periods of time. Before you take your PC out of the box,
spend a little time creating a good working environment around the machine.
Try to place the PC in a cool, well ventilated, dust-free room. Place
the screen a comfortable distance away from you, close to eye level on a sturdy
table or study-bench that has ample space for the keyboard, mouse, and other
attachments on top - and sufficient foot room underneath. Position the whole
assembly so that it is lit from one side; don't face into the sun or have it
peeping over your shoulder because either of these situations make screen work
tiring for your eyes.
Choose
a comfortable, height-adjustable chair that supports your back when you're
sitting upright with your feet flat on the floor. Don't place desk lights or
other sources of electromagnetic radiation close to the screen; they may cause
it to flicker slightly and this will irritate your eyes. If you're going to do a
lot of typing at the computer, consider buying an ergonomic keyboard and a good
wrist protector to avoid repetitive strain injury to your hands.
Simple as it might sound, taking regular breaks is the secret
to staying healthy in the digital workplace. You should stand up and move away
from the screen altogether every twenty minutes or so. You should also take eye
breaks every so often, focusing on distant objects to relax your eyes, during
long sessions. And remember to blink. That's right – blink! Research has shown
that people working at computer terminals blink far less often than during other
types of activity. This can cause the eye to dry slightly and become tired
prematurely.
If
you have trouble reading the text on your computer screen, it does not mean that
you have to acquire a larger monitor: you can change the point size in your word
processor. If you find the entire computer environment too small to see, you can
change the resolution of your screen so that icons, graphics, and text appear
much bigger. There is a whole range of other accessibility options available in
your PC's Control Panel folder. (You can find out more about correct digital
work practices from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) at www.hsa.ie.)
Learning how to use your farm computer system
effectively will make working with your computer much easier and should deliver
real benefits to your farm business.
The first thing to remember is that the farm software
package has been developed to help you run your farm business. Keep your mind on
how your farm business operates and then work to model the business within the
computer's memory. Don't feel intimidated by the machine and assume that what is
says is always right. Keep your focus on the real world and make the machine
work for you.
Most successful farmers are in the habit of keeping
good records. Dairy farmers in particular know the management advantages of
keeping a herd diary at hand and up to date with service dates, repeats, and
calving dates. If you're not already a good recorder, get into the habit. You'll
find that good records are extremely powerful when transferred to your farm
management system.
Your farm software supplier will explain to you that the components of
good farm computer practice are accurate record keeping, timely data entry or
uploading, regular file backups, good virus protection, sensible password
security, and reasonable physical care of the PC itself.
Your
farm software supplier will help you set up
your new computer hardware and install the dedicated farm management package
you've bought. Better still, the supplier should also
upload the entire record of your dairy herd maintained by your co-operative.
This ensures accurate transfer of data, saves you having to manually
input all the information yourself and helps you get working with the system
immediately. If you're not milk recording, talk to your supplier about other
records that might exist for your herd. Farm software companies
are very good at transferring data and they can
recover most forms of electronic information for
your situation, e.g. milk records from cooperatives, pedigree breeding records
from Herd Societies.
Most
dedicated farm management packages reflect the real world of farming and should
be intuitively understood. Your software will understand that you have a herd or
herds consisting of a number of animals, which reside on a given area of land.
Learn how to input information to individual cow records. Then look at the
different ways you can organise this information. For example, by inputting calf
birth dates for each animal, you provide the system with all the information it
needs to suggest which animals you should enter on
your premia applications.
The
time you spend at the computer will be most rewarding when you output genuinely
useful records or documentation. So begin by finding out how to maintain your
herd register, analyse your milk records, print out premia applications, or
register calf births by email.
Of course you and your family can use the farm computer to
play computer games, communicate over email, browse the Internet and write up
school projects. But make sure that you know how to use the farm software to
best advantage before you look for other ways of using the machine.
Here are some ideas on how to manage the
information resources on your PC. Whether you’re running a farm, working in a
small business, or studying for exams, keeping your information safe and
accessible is very important.
Unfortunately, we are inclined
to think about managing our data files only when we are in trouble - when we
can’t find the information we want or when our system is damaged and we need
to restore our files from backups. But a bit of forward planning will help you
develop good data managing habits that will stand you in good stead into the
future.
The Internet- World Wide Web is, in itself, a topic for
a separate presentation. Its information searching and delivery power is
awesome: for instance, a search using the search engine “Google” for the
expression “cookie” yielded 12.5 million references in 0.14 seconds, and
presented a summary of the results in sets of 10). Information overload is the
problem here, making selection difficult. However, it is difficult to see how
the Web can be avoided and you will have to come to terms with it. Because of the impact of the Internet on our daily
lives, and particularly the part your PC will play in this communications arena,
certain relevant Web topics (cookies, spam) are discussed under this heading.
Don’t panic
Many people are thrown into a panic when confronted with a PC. Their next
reaction is to surrender to the machine and just use it to perform the minimum
tasks they need to carry out, in a mechanical fashion. Don’t be fazed by the
machine: try to learn a little about how it works, what it can do and how it
“thinks”. Find out how to start it up and shut it down correctly, find out
where it stores programs and information, and find how to use its auto-save and
auto-archive function. This will help you to avoid
system crashes and data loss.
Set up for the long term
Spend some time getting the installation correct so the system is working
correctly and safe from physical hazards. Then work with your trainer
to set up folders on your hard drive, in your email package, and in your contacts
application. Design an intuitive hierarchy of folders so that you can
drop files into them, find the files easily, and backup all of your work
quickly. Many people find it best to give files recognisable names and to
include a date.
Protect your data – back it up
Once you start downloading or entering information into your computer system,
you’ll see how valuable the raw data becomes when you can analyse and process
it.
Avoid
data loss by backing it up regularly. Your farm
management package will contain a back up option so use this to output your
information to floppy, zip, or CD-ROM disks; zip disks are the preferred option.
If you are using floppy disks, which are fragile and prone to damage, it is
advisable to keep three sets of back-ups and rotate disks regularly, in case of
disk failure or corruption.
Unless
you are very certain of what you are doing, do not take the “short route” in
sorting a problem by reinstalling Windows – contact your supplier’s
Technical Support to permit them check that the back up is working, and let them
talk you through it.
If
you're working with documents outside the farm software package, it's often
simpler to make backup copies of your documents onto disks than to use the
backup utilities that are part of most operating systems. Remember that your
email address book, your contacts lists, your Internet favourites, and any
document templates that you've created are all worth backing up.
Avoid clutter on your desktop and don’t have
too many windows open at the same time – when closing the windows you run the
risk of inadvertently closing your work without saving it first.
Protect your data, and computer – against
power surges
Recent lightening storms have highlighted how vulnerable personal computers are
to power surges, through both power lines and telephone lines. Experience
clearly shows the phone line is the most likely source of the damage in
practice, so dual protection is recommended. It is recommended that during
lightening storms, people should disconnect their PC from the power
socket and also from the telephone connection. Ideally both lines should be
running through a surge protector.
There
are different surge protectors available at a range of prices starting at around
20 euro, but many of them are of little use. Some provide no protection for
phone lines, which is a disadvantage. In many other cases, if the surge
protector does its job and is blown in the process, the user is not aware that
the system is no longer being protected. This is probably worse than not having
one in place at all.
However,
there are surge protectors available (from some farm software suppliers) for
less than 100 euros that will protect against both sources of
“attack”. In the event
of a power surge the surge protector will blown with no damage to the computer,
following which the surge protector, rather than the PC, must be replaced.
Remember: don't unplug the surge protector and leave the phone line in place or
you will get fried.
Despite your best efforts, a lot of junk files and out
of date information will accumulate on your system over time. You can improve
your machine's performance, and your ability to find what you want, by regularly
clearing out these files.
For
example, you should regularly clean out the Recycle folder, delete any backup
files created by the system, delete Internet
graphics files and “cookies” and bin your
Deleted and Sent emails.
Remember
that, unlike deleting files or data, you can't just use the delete button to get
rid of unwanted programs - you have to use the Uninstall option that
accompanies the package or operating system. And be careful: if you're not sure
what a file does, don't delete it until you have checked it out.
Cookies
Cookies are pieces of information generated by Web servers and stored in the
your computer, ready for future access. They are embedded in the HTML
information flowing back and forth between the your computer and the servers.
The idea of the cookie (according to a published
specifications) is “….to make a more efficient connection between the server
that delivers the cookie and the client machine (your PC) that receives it”.
Cookies are based on a two-stage process. First the
cookie is stored in the your computer in a special file called a cookie list.
This invariably happens without any notification or user consent. In the second
stage, the cookie is automatically (and clandestinely) transferred from the your
machine to a Web server. Whenever you direct your Web browser to display a Web
page from the server, the browser will, without your knowledge, transmit the
cookie containing personal information to the Web server.
It can be argued that certain cookies are “good”
and facilitate the ease, speed and efficiency with which you can perform
transactions on the Internet, e.g. to store shopping lists of items you have
selected while tele-shopping and to use this information to anticipate your
future preferences – much in the same way that Loyalty Card information is
data-warehoused and data-mined by supermarkets. However, they can also be
invasive and trace other transactions that you may wish to remain private.
There
is a solution! Various cookie “detection and crusher” software is available
that lets you automatically reject (or accept) Internet cookies from all sites
or from sites you specify; you can also view and delete existing cookies on your
system. Such a solution puts you in control.
Spam and spam-scams
Unsolicited email or junk mail, appropriately called Spam, is the bane of email
users. Mostly this is irritating and harmless – but can be disruptive, time
consuming and frustrating. Increasingly it is becoming a very real problem for
email users and may, in time, threaten to undermine one of the greatest benefits
of the Internet – its communications capabilities.
Delay falling victim to the junk-information
overload by staying away from email subscription lists unless you are sure about
the person or organisation sending the emails. Nevertheless the spam merchants
will get on to you soon enough.
The
email spams we have received have almost without exception advertised stuff
that's worthless, deceptive, and partly or entirely fraudulent. Amongst the
items on offer are: university degrees, drivers licences, credit cards, identity
cards, weight loss formulas, new hair, reverse ageing, penis enlargement,
improved memory, increased libido, casino gambling, citizenship, pornography,
get rich schemes…!
E-mail spam is unique in that, collectively,
the receiver pays so much more for it than the spammer does. For example, AOL at
one time was receiving 1.8 million spams per day from one source (until they got
a court injunction to stop It). Assuming that it takes the typical AOL user only
10 seconds to identify and discard a message, that amounts to 5,000 hours of
connect time per day spent discarding spam, just on one ISP (Internet Service
Provider). No other kind of advertising costs the advertiser so little, and the
recipient so much. A close analogy would be auto-dialing junk phone calls to
cellular users – imagine the reaction!
An
increasing number of spammers send most or all of their mail via innocent
intermediate systems, to avoid blocks that many ISPs have placed against mail
coming directly from the spammers' systems. Whenever possible, they use the
“disposable” trial ISP accounts so the ISP bears the cost of cleaning up
after them.
You may wonder how they get your email
address?
It's
not difficult to get on a spammer's mailing list. You don’t have to subscribe
to anything. The spam just starts coming, apparently out of nowhere and without
a reason.
But how do spammers discover your email address?
There are many, many ways of doing this. One way is by
“brute force” - by employing tactics similar to those used by Web search
engines. They utilize “spiders” and address-extractor tools to search
the Web pages’ HTML source code for email addresses. They
continue to crawl the Web, following links to other pages, and with every page
comes a new chance of discovering email addresses. Some of these
address-collectors also look in other places where email addresses may show up.
In particular, they exploit Usenet newsgroups and sometimes chat networks.
Another method of harvesting email addresses is by “guessing
and cleaning”. Some spammers “guess” email addresses and send test
messages to a list of the guessed addresses. They wait for either an error
message to return by email, indicating that the email address is incorrect, or
for a confirmation of delivery. They then clean out the failed addresses and
sell on the verified addresses. The generation of guessed email addresses is
automated and is based on the fact that email addresses are based on people's
names, usually following the format - "firstname.surname@domain" or an
initial of the first name followed or preceded by the "surname @domain"
Another
interesting approach was based on a chain e-letter scam. The letter promised a
free CD to every person who forwarded the e-letter, on condition that email was
CC'ed to the perpetrator. In this way he collected a vast list of valid e-mail
addresses at practically no cost.
Address lists are on offer via email – a recent offer being promoted was a
list of 300 million email addresses on three CDs.
Remove lists
don't work: Spammers invariably say they'll remove names on request, but they
almost never do. In fact, clicking on the link to unsubscribe simply verifies
that you have a valid e-mail address. It is then put it on a premium CD and sold
on with the consequence that you well receive even more spam from new sources.
Spammers also have a new scam - they supply an expensive offshore phone number
that you are asked to call to be removed; the call costs $2 or more per minute.
Often the same spam comes from a number of sources so eliminating one source
does not guarantee elimination of the item in the future.
Avoid responding or un-subscribing to
messages or “feedback forms”- simply hit the delete button!
Minimising Spam:
this not a simple exercise. Ideally spam should be filtered out by the IPS
before it is delivered to your machine for you to identify and delete. However,
IPSs are understandably reluctant to remove any non-illegal mail addressed to a
client in case they run the risk of destroying something genuine in error. They
do provide a facility for you, as a user, to visit their website and determine
what type of components you want to employ to remove unwanted email – you can
nominate specific addresses, domains, subject content, etc., so that email that
conforms to the specifications is stopped by the ISP and destroyed before it can
reach your machine. The downside is that this is a time consuming, user-hostile
task and not very effective in the long term because of the ever changing nature
of the spammers. You can also download “mail washing” software from the Web
and use it to analyse headers and text messages, and to filter out unwanted mail
– which you can then delete. However, unless you have a lot of spam mail,
these “solutions” provides little advantage over manually identifying and
deleting messages.
Password-protect, with caution
You can password-protect your PC as well as a screensaver, your email account,
and individual files on your system. Think carefully whether this level of
security is necessary, and make sure you can remember the password. Remember, if
you are sharing the machine with family members, this complicates the situation.
Avoid the “bureaucracy” associated with many passwords and perhaps limit it
to one password for the PC, or its farm business component, if any at all.
Double delete it
Protecting your information can sometimes mean making sure incorrect information
is properly deleted. If you really want to get rid of a file, delete it from
your hard drive and remember to go to the Recycled bin and delete it there as
well.
Get into the habit
Remember to start up, shut down,
and switch off your machine according to instructions. Specifically, don't just
switch off the power to the machine when you're finished a session. The PC
interprets the power loss as a system crash and it creates many backup and
fragmentary files that can become a problem if they build up over time. Backup your data regularly and protect your system
from physical damage and virus attack
Computer
Virus Protection
Farmers are used to dealing with biological viruses
that occur in nature and spread among animals and plants causing disease.
Computer viruses behave in a similar fashion but they don't occur naturally and
they don't spread unless we allow them to.
A computer virus is a piece of programming code, usually
malicious, that is designed to spread among computers and cause undesirable
events when downloaded or activated. Every
computer in the world that is connected to the Internet or shares files with
another machine is vulnerable to virus attack.
Viruses can be transmitted as email attachments, as downloads
from the Internet or from infected floppy disks or zip drives. Once installed on
your machine, some viruses immediately activate, whereas others lie dormant
until they're triggered by some event - such as a particular calendar date.
Guard against viruses
Although computer viruses are a significant threat to your digital information,
you can take preventive steps and work with your farm software supplier to
reduce your vulnerability. It is
important to adopt a “safety first” policy.
The
best protection against a virus is not to install onto your computer, or
open from your email program, any software of unknown origin. The next best
protection is to install and regularly update virus protection software. And the
golden rule with all digital information is to make regular backup copies so
that in the event of virus damage or corruption, you can recover a clean copy of
the data.
Remember that virus damage
to your computer system or your data is not covered under the terms of a
computer warranty. It's up to you to get the advice you need and to take
necessary precautions to prevent system damage and data loss due to virus
attack.
Your farm software supplier will advise you
about which virus protection software to purchase. All
the best anti-virus software can be updated by downloading from the Web. Be
sure to keep it regularly updated; do this weekly as a routine, or if you read
or hear about a new virus download for immediate protection.
Email is the most frequent and easiest computer virus infection
route. Be
very careful opening emails from addresses you don’t recognise, and don’t
click on executable files that arrive as email attachments unless you are
certain of their source and content.
Recently, the more problematic viruses are being spread without the
need for a user to click on an email attachment. For example, Vbs. Kakworm,
needs no attachment and lurks in a hidden signature file in an email.
Beware
passing on hoax e-mails about viruses that are being passed on by unsuspecting
people believing them to be genuine; this can become real time waster.
Contact your virus software supplier’s technical support team via the
Internet for advice in this regard.
Finally,
do not give out personal information or plan meetings with people you meet on
the Internet. Don't respond to online harassment, use your common sense, and
don't do anything online that you wouldn't do in person.