Computers in the Field

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Hi,
My name is Alex Enkerli and I'm a Ph.D. candidate at Indiana University's
Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology. I'm currently preparing to go
to Mali to work on music/language relationships in the praise-songs of
hunters' associations.
Use of specific computer technologies is part of this preparation so the
discussion on transcription software is quite relevant to me. But it'd be
interesting to know more about computer-use in the field in general.
You could take the following questions as an informal survey about
computers in linganth fieldwork.

If you don't use computers in the field, is there any specific reason for
this decision?
If you use computers in the field, what do you use them for? Using which
software?
What are the characteristics of the computer you use mostly during
fieldwork (old MacOS laptop, brand-new Sony PDA, PC desktop running
Linux...)?
Did you run into any problem so far using computers in the field
(weather-related crashes, theft, people's reluctance toward your use of
technology...)?
How do you bridge the gap between your field data and the rest of your
work?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Alex