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Sadly, most newer computers do not have the 9-pin port.

Posted By: Gettinganewjob on 2008-07-17
In Reply to: what is 9-pin serial port? - simplyhired

I have had to buy USB adapter to which some do and do not work correctly with this footpedal. Is this by chance an Escription account? Thus far, this is the only software that I have found which requires such an obsolete port. I bought a laptop assuming it would have the 9-pin port but it did not so I tried at least four adapter until I found one that works.


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I realize this also, but MOST newer computers..sm
do not even have the 15 pin serial ports (game ports) any longer. I had purchased a 15 pin game port pedal and used it less than 6 months because my sound card went out and I had to get a new one. I could not find ANY that had a 15 pin game port any longer and ended up having to buy a whole new pedal (usb) in order to work. USB is what is mostly used these days. If she needs a 15 pin footpedal I will gladly sell her mine... been there and did that.
She's correct, folks, most newer computers DO NOT come with serial ports

You can order a computer with one, but in general they do not come as a standard item on non-custom-built computers any longer.  The USB port is standard now, but not the DB9/COM/serial port she is referring to. 


You can purchase a PCI card (which is what the COM/serial port is part of) from Amazon for about $20 though and install it yourself, thus giving you a COM/serial/DB9 port for the 9-pin foot pedal. 


So....she is correct...MOST (not all) of the computers newer than about 4-5 years old DO NOT come with a serial/COM/DB9 port standard -- not on the back on the computer or anywhere else for that matter.  I


n fact, when I was looking for a PCI card to so that I could install it on my own computer (which is 3 years old), the guys at the computer store wanted to know why I wanted to go backwards (as far as technology) instead of foreward (to upgrade) -- stating that people just don't use serial ports anymore.  They said that the USB port had pretty much eliminated the need for a serial/COM/DB9 port in most instances. 


Too bad that isn't true when it comes to some MT platforms and wavplayers.


try another usb port....if you can
and then reboot...something else is probably set for that port
what is 9-pin serial port?

A recruiter asked if I had this on my computer.  I do not even know what this is.  How can I tell if my computer has this.


Thanks


I'm newer TT
but I don't see a problem making line count. You only need 11,000 in a pay period. I think most do at least that and probably more.

Volume fluctuates, as it does at every place that I have worked, especially in the summer and the last couple weeks of the year. I'm flexible and thankful that my supervisor is also. It comes in handy when an emergency comes up with one of the kids or I lose power during a storm, as they allow you to make up time (lines) lost if you want.
TKU very much. I had seen the newer discussion,
but hit server errors when I tried to go back to May, so had not seen the older link. Now that one has me reconsidering.


Probably best to contact some of the new/newer MTs over there
d
Make 8 and 9 as a newer MT with no CMT.
I graduated Career Step just over a year ago. I was making 7 cpl for the past year, but just switched companies and now make 8 cpl for a clinic account and 9 cpl for an acute care account.
There is definitely newer information and ALL IS BAD.

She is so desperate to find someone who hasn't heard....I agree with other poster...RUN. 


sign me Been there, done that.   Learned my lesson to listen!


Sadly...no.
Sounds like I may have to go back to the old way and type it all. 
Sadly it seems
I think this has been brought up before in previous posts, and correct me/forgive me if I am wrong, but as an IC,you should be able to set your own schedule -- its a catch 22 though, because we have to remember in this business that hospitals NEVER close, therefore, the companies do need weekend coverage and coverage into the wee hours of the morning as well. The main service that I work for just asks their MTs to do a committment of between 400-500 lines on Saturday and Sunday and they offer a weekend bonus as well. For those of you that have children activity committments on the weekends or other things, maybe you could talk to your employer about doing a split shift of sorts. Sorry for the long post
Sadly, you are exactly right.
Time was when a good MT could pretty much write her own ticket. Alas, those days are LONG gone. I'm just hoping to eke out some kind of a living until I can retire.
Not true. All desktops have it...newer ones too.
It's on the back.
It is the attitude of newer MTs (not all) such as yourself that cause these problems. sm
Companies do not treat us like sweatshops, hounding us for production. They expect us to be professionals and perform the work at the times we are scheduled, without exception, and produce a certain amount of work. Those production standards have actually gone down over the past 20 years, and our tools to produce more have gone up substantially.

Decent wage? While our pay has not gone up in the past 10 years, $45,000 - $50,000 per year is still more than decent.

Time to get up to speed? Court reporter are required to be at certain speeds to progress to the next level when they are in school and when they take their state boards to be certified, they are required to be a certain speed. FYI: That speed is the equivalent of 125 wpm with 100% accuracy required. There is no time to increase; this is their starting point.

I teach at a local business school part time that also teaches court reporting. More than 75% of the ones who start court reporting cannot get up to speed or cannot take the pressure, so they either quit entirely or TRANSFER TO MEDICAL TRANSCRIPTION because the standards are not as high. For those that make it through the court reporting program, it can take 3 or 4 times to pass the state boards and only 50% actually do so.

So, we need to look at what we complain about. The standards to be a medical transcriptionist, a professional responsible for a direct line of patient care, are quite low compared to other fields.

Part of this is due to new MTs who come into the field to make a quick buck and to work at home while acting like stay-at-home moms.
an upgrade? mean newer version?
This should not be an end of the year thingee seems to me.  I would ask what exactly an upgrade means. No reason not to ask for the facts. Does it mean an upgraded version of MedRite or upgrade to a newer type platform or just what does it mean.
Sadly, none are the best - still trying to find it myself. nm
x
Sadly yes :( - what info do you need? - nm
sss
You are sadly misinformed. sm
AAMT is certifying OFFSHORE MTs and allowing them to join the organization, thus, the name AMERICAN needs to be removed from the name.  Anyone in this industry who does not understand and acknowledge the negative impacting offshoring has had on our profession has their head in the sand. 
Sadly it seems more and more that the better companies...
expect ICs to sign on with the commitment to work a Tues - Sat or Sun - Th. Does that seem flexible to you? Personally I think it's unrealistic to expect a person to want to work either every Sat. or Sun. I couldn't do it if I wanted to. Soccer on Sat. and church on Sun. It's tough.
Anyone using the newer software with Transolutions, not the DOS stuff? How
s
I did get double; I'm talking about newer hires.
nm
DEVENTURE IS NOT UNIQUE, SADLY.

I never worked for Deventure.  But, I did apply there.  During the application process, there were red flags that alerted me to the fact that I did not want to work for them.  It seemed to me that they were either extremely disorganized or downright dishonest.  Sadly, I don't think they are unique.  I've had similar experiences with many other companies during my search for the best job, which still has not been found. 


But, you know what?  I've also observed that many of these companies totally rely on the fact that they can manipulate MTs to the Nth degree.  What was that word of wisdom that was once spoken by one of my favorite TV psychologists?  You teach people how to treat you.  Never was this as true as it is in the MT work world.  Of course, you can go bankrupt while searching for those who will treat you as a human being and not expect you to perform as a tireless, inhuman robot.


Even if Deventure WINS this case, I praise the lady who is allowing her case to be heard.  


I do skip over them because sadly it is the same thing.
Wrong line count and no work. It is just hard because once it gets going it takes over the whole page and it is hard to find anything else someone has posted. I have nothing against TT or its MTs, it just seems like they have some legitimate concerns and they want to be heard. I figured we just must have a lot of TT employees on here and they should be able to discuss things in their own forum.
any new/newer hires who didn't get extra holiday pay will now get...
nm
Not fair, but sadly how most places work
nm
Sadly, its one of the oldest tricks in this business.
Always has happened to me, whatever mode of delivery for the work. In the days of tapes, I would get double or triple what I requested. Now its the same thing, thus why I don't take any jobs on the side now. I would always, always ask for a minimum amount of work, which the owner gladly agreed to, only to be bombed. Then the whole guilt game would start...Not for me anymore! Its so counterproductive in the long run - makes us resentful, right? Why not just give the MTs what they agreed to, right? Oh well!
Another thing.. sadly, at 5 cpl, I think I am on the high end of what is being paid.
I cant tell you how many companies with ES offered me like 2-3 cpl..and to that I had to respond GET REAL!!!
With respect, the real irony sadly is

    that if you've followed these boards for at least 2 years, you already had an idea of what was going to happen.  Several MTs made an effort here to warn as many as possible about the future loss of jobs.  Many of the posts were ultimately deleted.  I agree there is nothing gained from rehashing the past other than we must learn from it.     


        QT made a business decision.  They built a company, made a profit, saw more/better/different profit elsewhere, designed a plan to get from point A to point B and moved on - happens every day in the business world.  From all appearances, they did everything right for a while - had they not, there would not be this group of really great MTs struggling to deal with the loss of a job and the stress of starting anew.  QT had an option - they could let their dedicated MTs know what was going to happen and ask them to ride things out as long as possible or they could just squeeze every last drop from each MT and each account.   Too bad for the MTs but, after all, it's only business.  If there were lies, deception, half-truths, etc., this too is a part of the profit/loss bottom line.  


The real irony  - and this is public knowledge - is that former QT owners have started new businesses and are bragging far and wide (see internet blogging) about their new employees.


        Of course, finding a new scrapbooking job will probably be a little easier than finding and securing a new MT account.  


                You think? 


      I have a prediction (purely for entertainment purposes, of course) - Profits will not sustain the new venture/old lifestyle for very long and that within, oh 24 months or so, there will be a foot dipped into a new MT venture, since the old one was soooo profitable, and old habits are hard to break.      


Sadly, they gave up on quality a long
The original CEO said in a meeting one time that the doctors won't care if a report has a few mistakes in it as long as it is back on time.  That was a big red flag to me.  Apparently it has come to be that way.
Sadly, I make $300 too much to get Food Stamps
I was going to bite the bullet and get them. So obviously I'm overpaid. Time to switch companies.
I agree. Sadly, it is absolutely true, nm
.
Sadly (or not, lol) UP. Gonna make more, gotta
y
We will be adding that feature back, we are just in transition of migrating over to our newer
version of the forum software.  We appreciate your patience.
Sadly, it is ALL the employees of this one particular account and we have no backup accts.
Apparently, the hospital obviously wants the work first to go to the employees and we get whatever is left, which is slim to none some days. Very frustrating.
Did search on Futurenet and got mostly 2004 and 2005 stuff. Anybody with newer info? nm
 
Computers
Try calling the Corporate office for Foxboro and see what you get. I worked in New Jersey and the site closed and corporate there is where you have to call for things. Hope this helps.
Computers

What type of computers do most of you prefer to do transcription? Laptops or desktops? And if you do use laptops do any of you travel and take your work?


Some of us use our own computers, though.

TT computers
They will lease one for a pretty reasonable fee, $9.00 a pay period. Plus, they are go out of their way to help their MTs, speaking from personal experience.
I know just about enough about computers

to be dangerous.  Mostly when things go squirrely I just close down everything I can, reboot and cross my fingers.  Amazing how many problems are solved that way.  But I guess I should not even own the computer at all, by some people's reasoning.


I had a courier job once, briefly.  I used my personal car to deliver packages from point A to point B.  To me a car is a thing with four wheels on the ground and one in my hands.  I don't really know much about the internal combustion engine, don't really want to know much.  (I do know how to open the hood and stare at the engine - which is all most guys know too - then jiggle a wire or two, shake my head, close the hood and call AAA.)  I can do a jump start. I know what to do if it's flooded.  I know where the various fluids go.  End of my automotive expertise.


If I were really stranded somewhere, I might try the bent-hairpin trick, but there are people whose sole area of expertise is diagnosing and fixing cars!  Others whose duty is to haul you there.  There are people whose area of expertise is to fix computer problems.  If I think my efforts might mess things up worse, you bet I'm calling tech support!  Don't get between me and the phone.


Computers
Doubt they'll remove any software but they will quit paying for the antivirus so you won't be able to get the updates anymore once the switch to Triton has taken place.
Get a KVM switch and you can tie your computers together with (sm)

one keyboard, one monitor and one mouse.  Try Circuit City they have them.  Good luck.


Yes they do lease computers
nm
spheris computers
When I worked for them the computer crashed enough on its own...it didn't need any help.  The screen would go blue and it would say something like beginning dump of physical memory.   I was told it wasn't a problem until it did it several times per shift..then they would replace it.
Spheris computers
I have had several lemons too. It is not the computers that are lemons, it is the management and the company who are lemons.
those new spheris computers
Has anyone noticed how they log on to your computer and rearrange your desktop if they don't like how it looks?  Or how they block you from using normal, everyday websites on the brand new computers? LOL  We are trusted with private medical information but the company has nothing better to do than to spy on everyone and make them feel belittled.  I don't think that is very good for morale.
OSi used to supply computers - not sure if they still do
N/M
3 computers 1 connection
Does anybody work on 3 computers at the same time with only 1 DSL connection? Could you tell me how to do it so each is secure from the other and compliant? Thanks in advance for any information.
They do provide computers, but there is a
charge per pay period, I think about $9 or so. You cannot use the new Window Vista. Everything else they will download if you use your own computer. I took a pay cut to go there but am very happy, and they do have bonus incentives. The accounts are pretty decent. Staff is extremely friendly and cooperative.
I also know a QA with 3 computers for 3 companies
Also on salary not paid by the line.
Focus Computers
I believe that you have to own your own computer.  I work as an IC so I do use my own equipment and write it off at the end of the year for tax purposes.  They supply the software that you need to complete the dictations (EditScript).