“Just think how happy you would be if you lost everything you have right now, and then got it back again.” Frances Rodman

Not too long ago I left my debit card at a restaurant in Boston. I got worried and wanted to cancel it ASAP but the numbers are written on the back of the unfortunately lost cards. Thankfully I had my iPhone to search the web and find the right numbers to call. However I pledged to correct this situation. So I added all the credit card phone numbers to my cell phone contacts. From now on if I lose my cards I will not have to scramble to find a number. Do the same to minimize the freakout factor.

I unfortunatley could not find a photo of Mr. Rodman to go with the quote so instead here are some people enjoying the beach at Coney Island.

“You are your choices.” Seneca

To continue from yesterdays post about removable media I want to talk about CDs and DVDs. Both are great and really good. We do not have to worry about this media too much. It just seems to work unless you get a serious scratch on the disc and this can usually be buffed out enough to get the data. The problem with these options is the hardware. You need to have a burner or the hardware in your computer that does the recording. Now computers come standard with CD burners but this means you can use CDs and record on them but it does not do anything with DVDs. This can be confusing. However DVD burners usually can do both CDs and DVDs. Now a regular CD can store up to 700 MB while a normal DVD can store up to 4.7 GB or 48oo MB. Any of these can be used for media as well. Meaning I can store everything I have ever written on a DVD or I can burn a movie I made to it so it can be watched on a regular DVD player hooked to a TV. The same thing goes for CDs and music. Now to make this more confusing there are types of DVDs called double layer. This means you can store up to 8.5 GB on a single disc. Not every DVD burner has the ability to use double layer so be careful. The other consideration is rewritable formats. This means you can record on a CD or DVD multiple times. I am not a big fan of these because I find them unreliable and more expensive. I like the ones you burn once and then toss if it is useless data. They make great Frisbees or craft items (scales of a fish). Lastly be aware of your burner and what type of media it uses. As an example some burners only use CD-R minus so in this case do not buy CD-R plus. The best thing to do is look up the manufacturer of your hardware and see what they suggest. Give it a try.

Note: Picture is from artist George Radebaugh. See other sculptures made out of recycled Cds

“I haven't lost my mind, it's backed up on disk somewhere”

So you are a the local library and you type something up but you want to save it so you can access it later at home. The question is what do you save it on? A floppy disk, CD, DVD, Thumb (flash) drive are all possibilities and they fall under the heading removable media. There are pros and cons with all of them but I want to discuss just the floppy and thumb drives today. 3 1/2 floppy disks, called this because they measure 3 1/2 inches, were useful at one time but I generally recommend saving the data to the computer and junking these things. Floppy disk are not just outdated in my opinion. If you buy a new computer today it most likely will not come with a floppy drive. The reason they are outdated comes down to their weaknesses. The storage size is only 1.4MB. Most of the time you cannot store good photos to the floppy. Also it is unreliable. If you get it wet,too hot, too cold or, the worst sin of all, put it near a magnet it will be erased. Now the plus is if you can find them at the store they should be cheap. I do not recommend these but I do suggest you reuse them as chic geek coasters. What is the alternative? USB thumb drives have become inexpensive very quickly. They plug into the USB port on the back or front (newer computers) of your computer. They work on any machine Macintosh, PC, Linux. It has a much larger amount of storage. The smallest and cheapest of the thumb drives will run you about $5.oo but will store the equivalent of 23 floppy disks. The largest size I have seen has been 8GB or 8000MB or 5741 floppy disks. Also it is very stable. Do not take these to extremes but hot or cold or near a magnet is fine. I have had friends that have left them in their pockets with the caps off and then washed their clothing.
They continued to work but I do not recommend doing this. The downsides are that some are coming with software preinstalled. Occasionally it will be a small problem for older operating systems like ME or 98. The other problem is that it makes a lousy coaster. You can get them just about anywhere even at the grocery store. Give a thumb drive a try.

Note: No matter what you use keep a backup somewhere on a computer or burned to a disc. Never rely on any electronic too much. It will let you down when you need it most. Be prepared!!!

"There is no danger that Titanic will sink. The boat is unsinkable and nothing but inconvenience will be suffered by the passengers."

Over the next week I hope to look at some ways of protecting your computer and your data. I will cover some of the basics that most tech people agree on doing or using. The reasons for the upcoming posts are simple: data is fragile. And as we go into the holidays people have days or sometimes weeks off. This means your work computer goes unattended and your home computer goes without maintenance.

Let's start with a procedure that like flossing is usually skipped by most people until they have an emergency. Backing up your computer is essential. Many people feel that this is overdoing it. But things happen: electrical surges, viruses, and accidents happen. A friend had a power surge go through the house and destroy every last electronic device even though he had surge suppressors plugged in.

Even if you do not back up your writing or mp3s, think of your digital pictures. Resumes can be rewritten and music can be found again but pictures are electronic data that can never be reshot. Once a photo is gone it is gone. Here are two instructional websites that have tried to clarify backing up. Lifehacker explains the process in plain English and Microsoft does it in a more technical way. I will talk about other options in the future like online backups and so forth.

Don’t put this stuff off. Unfortunately the only people that backup currently are people that have been burned already. Never think your computer is unsinkable. Chances are that you will hit a proverbial iceberg sooner or later.Give them a try!