Smith's Technology Blog

Last night I set down just before bedtime to check my email. I was checking my business mail (University system where I work) and everything went blank. I have quite a bit of mail, stuff in folders, contacts, calendar, etc. I closed everything thinking it was probably a problem with my connection or something. I logged back into the web mail, and it puts me through the process of setting up a new mailbox. Horror. Where had all my stuff gone, and how was I ever going to function when I didn’t even know what was on the schedule for tomorrow? Glad to say that it is now 24 hours later, all my mail is back and once again my slave driver is back in control. When I got up this morning to discover that the problem with my mail had progressed to others at the university, I was quite concerned (after all, I am the guy in charge of such things at the university). As I was telling my wife of the disaster facing me today, she interrupted me with the Question “You of all people don’t have a backup of something like that?” Great question, and something that has stuck with me all day.

My youngest daughter got married a few years ago; to a great guy I might add (just in case he reads this. Just kidding) and they went off on their honeymoon cruse. I guess it was nearly a year later she came to me almost in tears. Her home computer had crashed, not from hardware failure but from a worm, and guess where all the photos of her honeymoon were? That’s right, on the machine that was toasted. After several hours of triage, I was able to rescue her photos. The irony; she had a CD burner in the machine, but no copy of these irreplaceable photos.

Backing up your information, photos, music, etc. is one of the most important things you should be doing where technology is concerned. Computers have become so reliable that we sometimes forget that they are man made and will fail, not may, will. There are many methods to accomplish this, depending on how much data you have. One of the most reliable ways is a memory stick. They get cheaper everyday, and greater capacity. They are quite reliable and are not prone to fail. Today they can hold a great deal more than CD’s, but can be overwritten easily, so consider that when deciding what to use. CD’s and DVD’s work great for photos, just make sure to protect them from scratches or heat. If you have a larger amount of data, like I do, external hard drives are your best bet. Today a terabyte drive is very affordable. However, use caution. One of our teachers was using one and knocked it off the table. That’s right, it was destroyed. It was her only copy of some of the data. Use care when using these drives, they are great but drops and falls will ruin them. For things like data for business I recommend purchasing a service from one of the better know online backup services. Your business is worth it.

Take care of those backups; much of what you have collected cannot be replaced. Also, today is patch day for Microsoft, and they have several critical patches out. Find time soon to get them on, they are like a software recall and need your attention.

Robert.

Unless you are living under a rock, or somewhere in the outback, (in either case you would not be reading this) you have heard about Toyota’s woes.  The problem they are having has nothing to do with the sticking accelerator, believe it or not.  Their problem has to do with the owners of their product.  True, they have an engineering problem and it needs to be fixed.  If you looked at the Fox news website Friday morning there was a picture of the part needed to fix the problem.  It is about the size of a fingernail.  Small part, inexpensive, and easy to fix.  So why do I think their problem has nothing to do with the sticking accelerator?  Think about it, do you honestly believe that all the sudden the car simply takes off on its own.  If you read about the problem in depth, you will find that the accelerator, over time, begins to stick and the engine takes longer to slow down when the foot is lifted off the accelerator.  I drive a 1980 ford pickup, and just recently I begin to have the same problem.  Like most, I ignored the warning signs when it first begin, kept driving the truck, and almost had an accident because the engine just would not slow down.  The problem, the linkage need a little lubricant.  I’m not saying that a little WD40 would have fixed Toyota’s problem, but personal responsibility of the drivers to have the problem investigated before they had an accident may have been lacking.  Before you start to blast me for being uncaring for those who were injured or killed, let me say I agree that Toyota should have issued a recall much sooner and because the fix is so simple and cheap, it should not have taken so long to begin the fix.

So what does this have to do with technology?  Simple, personal responsibility.  Toyota designed the accelerator to have a part that created friction because the consumer wanted it to have “feel”.  In other words, the new technology they were using to control the engine had eliminated the friction and resistance we have grown used to in the older cars.  To improve user satisfaction they engineered in friction, which can cause sticking.  The point is, technology changed, and the users didn’t change with it.  Compare this to computers.  We the users learn to do things a particular way.  Microsoft designs the system to fit our wants.  Things are fine, but as technology changes we don’t.  We do however expect our actions and desires to continue to have no adverse effects.  That is where the personal responsibility comes in.  Microsoft, and Apple both strive to give us systems that meet our expectations, but from time to time the engineering flaws come to light.  That is when patches come out for their products; call it a recall.  Do you think anyone with a Toyota will ignore the recall?  Some will.  When Microsoft issues a patch, a recall, how many ignore it?  The point is that as users of the product, if we all would take responsibility for what we own and follow the manufactures recommendations, there would be a lot less problems with viruses, worms, and Trojans.   So my advise is to run the updates on your machine.  Set automatic updates to do it automatically so you won’t forget.  Microsoft and Apple, as well as the producers of other software such as Adobe reader, are doing their best to give you a safe and reliable product, but it is up to you to maintain it; just like maintaining your car.

Robert