Equipment
Most of my translation work is done on a very recent desktop computer with Microsoft Windows XP Professional, using Microsoft Office 2000. I also have a laptop computer with pretty much the same configuration. Apart from these, I also have ready access to a second recent desktop computer with Windows 2000 and Office 2000, should disaster strike shortly before a deadline.
Desktop computer (generic IBM compatible)
Hardware: Desktop computer with AMD 3800+ processor, 1 GB RAM and two 80 GB hard drives; 17" CRT monitor; DVD-writer and CD-writer.
Software: Microsoft Windows XP Professional; Microsoft Office 2000, OpenOffice.org 2.x, spellcheckers, Pharos 5-in-1 bilingual and monolingual dictionaries on CD-ROM; Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client, LeechFTP FTP client, Opera 9 browser; XnView image editor, Adobe Acrobat Reader 5 and 8; the latest codecs for sound and video, Audacity sound editor, transcription software; Wordfast, SDLX Edit Lite, OmegaT
Peripherals: HP mono laser printer, Lexmark colour bubblejet printer, A4 flatbed scanner, UPS with lightning protector, SharkPod wireless modem, two USB flash drives (240 MB and 2 GB respectively), crossover cable (used only when required)
Laptop computer (HP Compaq NX6325)
Hardware: AMD Turion X2 64 2.0 GHz processor, 1 GB RAM and one 60 GB hard drive; 14" square LCD monitor; DVD-writer, multiple card reader, PCMCIA slots, USB slots, biometric fingerprint reader, Bluetooth and LAN.
Software: same as desktop computer
Peripherals: able to use desktop computer's peripherals on laptop
Internet
I have an EDGE/3G wireless connection with the South African cellphone operator Cell C, using a SharkPod USB modem. I also two 56k dialup accounts for emergencies, on two different backbones.
Linux
I can use Linux, if necessary. I have VirtualBox, a virtual machine on which I can install Linux and work on it while I work in Microsoft Windows. I have the necessary skills to do a full install of any variety of Linux also.
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