A Back Up Plan by Diana Flegal

As we commemorate the 9-11 terror attack 12 years ago, the thoughts and prayers of Hartline's agents and authors are with those that lost so much that horrific day. We lift up those in authority that are burdened with the responsibility of keeping us safe. Father, we ask that you would provide them with the wisdom they need to guard us. Fill our hearts with love toward all, help us to not foster hatred toward anyone and be peacemakers. Amen.   



I had an external hard drive once, but then my son confiscated it and poof, no more. I was backing up my files with a flash drive, but have been wanting to secure my files a better way. Dropbox was recommended to me.

Yesterday I posted on FB that I was reading up on Dropbox and a gazillion comments entered my comment box. Well okay- 60 plus comments came in. Hartline agent Terry Burns remarked: Dropbox allows me to use my files on my home or travel computer - it keeps them synchronized. A lot of comments mentioned loving the syncing option. It automatically syncs all files to all of your computers and even your smart phone.

All but three of the comments were positive re Dropbox. Enough to show me that many of you are doing what I am doing. Securing our files.

Dropbox protects your work, and lets your team get to their files from any computer, phone, or tablet. Forget email attachments, servers, and FTP — sharing the right files with the right people is fast and simple with Dropbox. Dropbox for Business includes unlimited version history, so you can track changes and recover your work. (Although one commenter said his files were not recovered by Dropbox). Several churches mentioned using it and sharing files easily.

Three other backup options were shared on this list as being helpful also:

Evernote
Capture everything. Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see. Access everywhere. Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there. Find things fast. Search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images.

Crash Plan
CrashPlan+ cloud backup secures your irreplaceable photos, music and documents offsite, safe from the potential mishaps that can befall your computer. Unique multi-destination support means your most important files can be backed up to the CrashPlan Central cloud, an external drive, securely to a friend's computer, or all three for maximum protection.

Mozy
Mozy offers a number of backup solutions to fit your individual needs. For non-commercial backup of your personal files, including music, photos, home videos, and personal tax records, check out the simplicity of MozyHome. If you have a business looking to back up business data, financials, and other important files for multiple users or servers, MozyPro is your best solution.

Maybe it is time you had a back up plan?

Hope this helped,
Diana

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Don't Give Me That Static by Andy Scheer

The past couple weeks, I've had some shocking incidents with my computer.

Colorado seldom has much humidity, and this winter has been dryer than usual. I try not to scuff across the carpet, but almost every time I first touch my keyboard, I feel the discharging static.

Usually my Assus EeePC takes it in stride. But three times it hasn't. The screen flashed to black, then asked if I wanted to restart Windows in safe mode.

I'm grateful that each time, the automatic file recovery has worked flawlessly. I haven't yet lost a word.

But I've sure had some scares. So I'll keep Open Office set to do an automatic save of files every five minutes. Whenever I break for lunch and at the end of the day, I'll continue to back up that day's files onto separate devices. And every so often when I'm working, my fingers reflexively type Ctrl + S.

Yet my work depends on a medium that's inherently fragile, more the realm of magic than mechanics. I think of these words by old-school journalist and writer John Dunning:

Unlike a computer, a great old manual typewriter is an honest machine. You do your work, it does its work. There's no sneaky nonsense, no hidden screens that pop up and won't go away, and at no time in my 35 years as a writer have I ever “lost” anything because I hit a certain key, failed to hold my mouse right, or sneezed at the wrong moment.

I'm not sure my fingers could standing the pounding of a full day at a manual typewriter. But maybe it wouldn't hurt to check Craigslist in case someone is trying to sell a Selectric. Or a humidifier.