Every profession has its own set of tools - and being a graduate student is no exception! Jason provides his list of the top five most important technological essentials with aspiring academics of all kinds in mind.

---

Every profession has its own set of tools - and being a graduate student is no exception! We grads, however, aren’t in a normal line of work. We have special needs, and not a lot of time, or money - not a good combination, that’s for sure.

While many of you may gawk at the idea of adding new technologies and gadgets to enhance your academic life, I hope that the following will convince you that you don’t need a lot of money or computer know-how to make your life a lot easier - something that all grads no doubt deserve.

1. An External Hard-Drive

Now, even if you aren’t all that computer savvy, you probably know about flashdrives (also sometimes called thumb drives). These have become extremely cheap over the years, are user-friendly, and are very portable.

However, there are two major problems associated with flashdrives that could seriously impact grad students specifically: a) the no-name flashdrives that proliferate the market can’t be relied upon for the safe storage of your extremely important files (like your dissertation!) due to their cheap quality, and even more troubling, b) their small size makes it very easy to lose altogether, either through theft, damage, or just plain ol’ clumsiness.

We all know somebody or have heard of somebody losing their flashdrive. Such a loss can be disastrous, especially when there are irreplaceable things like your research and writing at stake.

After having thought about the several alternative ways to store data safely, it is in my humble opinion that external USB hard-drives are the cheapest, yet most reliable method to store your important files. Not only are these of high quality because they use standard computer hard-drives, but they are almost impossible to lose since they are designed to stay on top of your desk. Since a regular computer hard-drive is used, you also have the benefit of massive storage potential, allowing you to store your music, photos and other larger files as well.

This gadget requires very minor technical knowledge to assemble. All you need is what’s called an enclosure (the thing which encloses the actual hard-drive and connects it to your computer), and a run-of-the-mill SATA hard-drive that you can buy at any computer retailer. Instructions for assembly will vary depending on the enclosure, but generally all you need to do is screw the hard-drive in place, and slide it into the enclosure (diagrams are usually provided).

This Antec Hard Drive Enclosure is the perfect choice to house your hard-drive. It is almost made of a hard metal that doesn’t bend, stands either horizontally or vertically, and comes packaged with the USB cable, manual and screws necessary to assemble the unit. A simple on-off switch is on the rear, so you can have the unit off while having it connected to your computer to save energy.
As far as the actual hard-drive goes, I recommend either a Seagate or Western Digital SATA drive. Both brands are about the same reliability and cost.

Cost Estimate:
- Antec MX-100 Hard Drive Enclosure: $33.00 on NewEgg.com
- 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 3.5″ SATA Hard Drive: $60.00 on NewEgg.com
- TIP: Enclosures can hold any kind of SATA hard drive, no matter the size or speed. Buying the relatively new 10000RPM hard drives for back-up purposes is a bit overkill, however.
- TIP: You only require a small screwdriver to assemble one of these. No extra cabling is necessary.

2. Automatic Back-up Software

Chances are you own an iPod and sync your music to it on a regular basis, keeping your music nicely and easily updated. Well, why not apply the same principle to your important documents?

Backing up your files is extremely important. Most of our work is intellectual in nature, and so we have a very strong dependence on computers. But anyone who has spent any time around computers knows that Murphy’s Law seems to apply the strongest (and most frequently) to the damned things.

SyncBack¹ is a no-frills program you can download and use freely. With it, you can easily choose what specific files or folders you wish to automatically back-up or sync².

The beauty of this program is that you can have it automatically back-up or sync your files at a set time and date, but also do such advanced things as have your files backed up to your e-mail!

I have mine set to sync any new files in my Documents folder to my external hard-drive every Saturday at 10:00am. This means that if any new or altered files appear in either my Documents folder or my external hard-drive, SyncBack ensure that both my hard-drive and my Documents folder are up-to-date! Once the sync is finished (which takes mere seconds), I turn off the hard-drive and I feel good knowing that if my computer blows up tomorrow, I’d still have my important documents in my hot little hands.

Cost Estimate:
- SyncBack Automatic Back-up Software: FREE for Download
- TIP: Program features are explained in a step-by-step process within the program.

3. E-mail Management Software

If you’re a grad student, you probably receive more e-mail than you care to read on a daily basis. Further compounding the annoyance is the clunkiness of most campus webmail interfaces which generally have minimal features and options to efficiently and easily manage your e-mail.

Even if you don’t use your university e-mail, even the best of web-based e-mail services like Gmail could use more accessible features that a grad student would find useful such as:

- Very specific and quick searches (ie. search by date received, by partial subject heading, by attachments)
- Easy-to-use mass delete, to delete those masses of undergrad e-mails you’ve ignored
- The ability to look at and reply to your mail without opening a web-browser and logging into your account
- The ability to read and reply to all mail sent to all of your accounts (ie. your personal Gmail account’s mail, as well as your institutional university address’ mail) at once, all on one screen
- Almost instant new e-mail notification

We recommend Thunderbird, from the same creators of FireFox (which you should be using too!). Their website gives detailed instructions on how to configure Thunderbird for e-mail providers like Gmail, Yahoo and so on. For your campus mail, look for an E-mail Client Configuration Help section (there’s usually a link on the login page) or give your campus computer services people a call.

Cost Estimate:
- Mozilla Thunderbird E-mail Software: FREE for Download
- TIP: Configuring your Thunderbird for Web-based e-mail is really easy with the use of downloadable extensions which make this process easy for even the most technologically inept people.
- TIP: Contact your campus’ e-mail tech support or computer help service for information on configuring Thunderbird. Campus e-mail, unlike mainstream webmail, tend to have a more complicated set-up process.

4. Academic Mailing Lists

The mailing list, also sometimes called a  “List Serv”, is a venerable cornerstone of the academic community. These simple lists provide you with instant immersion into the community of academics that are interested in your field. Through these lists you’ll receive important information that you will find useful sooner or later:

- Academic job openings, including tenure-track, sessional, and post-doctoral positions
- Information on upcoming conferences or events
- Book reviews
- Publication opportunities
- Discussion with and help from peers specializing in your topic of study

Though many people choose not to actively participate on the list, the people who run the list generally do an excellent job on informing you of conferences and job openings. They are also extremely helpful if you are just starting out in your topic: you can ask a question like “Can anyone suggest the seminal works on X?” and you’re sure to receive a few very helpful responses. Remember, these networks can encompass hundreds of smart people across the globe - you shouldn’t pass up the chance to get information that no doubt they’re reading.

For humanities and social science scholars, the absolute best mailing lists can be found at H-NET, Social Sciences and Humanities Online. From African Expressive Culture to Women’s History, you will find your group here no matter how obscure your interests are.You should also join the mailing lists of:

- Your Department (duh!)
- Other Departments relating to your field on your campus³
- Specialized research institutions, such as Research Centers, Endowments, Museums, etc.
- Academic, Professional, and Identity-based organizations⁴

You will get a ton of e-mail, but none of it will be spam and you will have the benefit of e-mail management software to help you sift through this boon of information and networking possibilities!

Cost Estimate:
- Getting information relating to your field of interest with minimal effort: Priceless
- TIP: Generally, it’s a good idea to have two or more e-mail addresses. Being a member of multiple mailing lists makes using a “professional” e-mail, like your campus e-mail, a very good idea due to the volume of the mail you will get.

5. A Laptop Stand and Full-sized Keyboard

If you’re a grad student, you probably have a laptop computer. You use this computer day and night, at office hours and at home. Or you just may be using it to write a 600-page dissertation.

Most people buy a mouse for their laptop, yet many don’t consider buying a full-sized keyboard. This is a severe lack of judgment and will lead to arthritis, carpel tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, or all three simultaneously if not corrected soon.

Buy a full-sized keyboard, preferably an ergonomic one with a palm-rest like the one shown below. Microsoft and Logitech are excellent manufacturers, but almost any brand and type of keyboard will do.

Don’t stop there, though. You still need to make sure your spinal column, neck and eyeballs don’t breakdown.

One annoying feature of laptops is that the screen is never at eye-level on a desk.⁵ You have to crouch or tilt your head down, which gets very uncomfortable, especially during a 6-hour archive session with your hiney firmly pressed on that solid oak chair that wreaks havoc on your delicate derrière.

Just because grad school ages you by 60 years, it doesn’t mean your posture should look it!

Invest in a sturdy laptop stand. The Rosewill one below even has a cooling fan which keeps your laptop cool. I, myself, kill two birds with one stone with the Logitech Alto Stand and Keyboard combination, as shown on the left.

Be sure that before you buy one that it could support the size and weight of your laptop. This simple contraption will raise your screen to eye-level, and with your newly-bought full-sized keyboard attached, you are in perfect write-a-thon form.

Now if only there was something that wrote your dissertation for you…

Cost Estimate:
- Logitech Wave Keyboard: $50.00 on NewEgg.com
- Rosewill Notebook Cooler with Swivel Base: $20.00 on NewEgg.com
- Logitech Alto Stand and Keyboard: $80.00 on NewEgg.com

Conclusion

This concludes my round-up of the top five grad school essentials for the computer. By no means should you limit yourself to the recommended products. They’re only recommended because I personally own the item in question, or otherwise have been extensively researched for high quality. Please feel free to shop around!

As hopefully I’ve shown you, there are all sorts of reasonably priced and easy-to-use tools that will make your grad school life a little more bearable. Believe me, being smart about how you use the most important tool for your academic work just may make it that: a useful tool, and not an annoying nuisance.

1. C|NET Editor’s Rating 5 stars, User’s Rating 4.5 stars [↩]
2. N.B. “Back-up” means “to store duplicate copies in another location”, whereas “Sync” means “to maintain the same contents in both the source location and the other location.” E.g. When you make duplicate files on your flashdrive you are backing up, but when you connect your iPod to your iTunes you are syncing [↩]
3. You should contact the Department’s Student Affairs Officer with a polite self-introduction, affiliation and reason why you wish to join. Departmental mailing lists are at times difficult to get into. [↩]
4. e.g. Modern Language Association, Korean Graduate Students Association, etc. [↩]
5. Unless you happen to be Quasimodo. [↩]