Tip - test the recoverability of your backup media/data

This may be another one of the most important and valuable tips that you ever read.
An old friend who was one of my teachers in high school had seemed to go quiet in our email exchanges recently, until I received an email from him indicating that:
(a) he had had a hard disk crash, and was currently unable to recover data from the damaged disk;
(b) his backup software had not been "properly programmed" and had not necessarily backed up (onto his external backup drive) what he thought it was backing up.

The 2nd post I had made on this blog was: Tip - backup your work data

I made the post because backing up your digital life:

• could be very important in the event of a data loss/corruption;
• could be very important if your living might in some way be dependent on your having access to that data;
• could make something which might be regarded as an extreme inconvenience/disaster (loss of data) just a minor inconvenience.

However, what I did not stress in the post was that testing the recovery of the backup media/data is also important, because, after all - and, for example, as my friend seems to have discovered - backup is not of much use if you cannot actually recover it.

So, how do you ensure that you can test it, and how do you test it?
Well, ideally:

• You should have read Tip - backup your work data., and be using a portable or semi-portable external hard drive (or two if you are paranoid - the more the merrier) for backup.
  
• You should not have to be dependent on the software that performed the backup to make the recovery.
• The backup should be in a non-proprietary, uncoded, uncompressed format - so that you can look at the backup media and recover the backed up data, using normal file management tools from any computer, just as if it was any old hard drive with your data on.
• You should then be able to use standard/conventional file management tools (e.g., Windows Explorer, or - my favourite - xplorer²) to copy the data and test it for relevance and usability with the appropriate applications that used/created the data. By "relevance", I mean, it is a copy of vital work data, as opposed to some obscure system files (e.g., desktop.ini) which would not usually be essential to be able to continue working.
  

Tip - Use Adblock Plus, and save your time and traffic

The words quoted below are taken from the site for AdBlock Plus. I have used this add-on in Firefox for some time now, and it is brilliant. It blocks adverts in websites - e.g., Facebook - and saves your bandwidth from being gobbled up by the nowadays all-too-prevalent, annoying advertising junk. If this sounds appealing to you, then check it out.

Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose “Adblock” from the context menu — the banner won’t be downloaded again. Maybe even replace parts of the banner address with star symbols to block similar banners as well. Or choose a filter subscription, then even this simple task will usually be unnecessary: the filter subscription will block most advertisements fully automatically.

Tip - Use free Google Mail and other free Google services

I used a free Google product called Picasa as an entry to the free Google blogging system that hosts this blog. Picasa really seems to be a remarkably good piece of free software from Google, and it integrates really well with blogger.com and the blog site blogspot.com.

How did I get started on this? It all started in 2005 when I was invited by my son to open a Gmail account. I held the view that Google was becoming far too ubiquitous on the Net, and perhaps even predatory in the way it inveigled itself into search bars in browsers - especially in my favourite browser, Firefox. I don't like the way large companies start to become ubiquitous and predatory in the IT world - for example, that well-known company Microsoft. Why? Because it potentially limits the freedom of choice that we consumers have, and I have long disliked the way large corporations try to dictate to the market exactly what they will consume. That's why I am a strong supporter of consumer rights, consumer protection laws, consumer associations, and things like privacy - for example, I used to use JunkBuster (and later it's sister product Guidescope) to help to keep the ad-men and their annoying noise from my Net experience. On Guidescope's recommendation, I have dropped Junkbuster and Guidescope in favour of a plugin to my Firefox browser - the plugin is called Adblock Plus.

Anyway, I opened up a Gmail account, and was grudgingly impressed. Having initially been suspicious, I became assured that:

(a) my much-valued privacy was not going to be lost or exposed to the advertising spammer world, and

(b) I was not going to be inundated with advertising junk, either on screen or in my mailbox.

Then I started to check out the increasing number of utilities that Google offer, and I installed the Google desktop utility, and then Picasa2 onto my laptop. I recommend readers of this blog try out these and other free Google products. You might be as amazed as I was at how brilliantly these products work, what timesavers they can be, and how they open your world up to doing things in new ways and possibly changing your paradigms.

Internet BBC Radio tuner

If you like to listen to the BBC World Service, or other BBC Radio stations (and I do), then you may well be interested in this Google Desktop "gadget". I am a happy user of this gadget.

Introducing ClustrMaps from clustrmaps.com

I have just installed a nifty free graphics tool on this site called "ClustrMaps" from clustrmaps.com. It shows a small map of the world and indicates - by means of clusters of red dots - where "hits" on the blog site are emanating from around the world.

I came across it being used on another blog and was so impressed that I put it into all the blogs that I maintain.

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I have just installed an incredibly useful and free little tool on this site called "Snap Shots" from snap.com. It makes for a more informative blog, and it makes reading the blog more efficient for the reader. I came across it being used on another blog and was very impressed. I initially tried it out on one blog, and have since put it into the other blogs that I maintain. What it does is this:

• When you hover your mouse over a link in the blog (see the little icon to the right of the link?), it gives you more information about the link - maybe even a miniature display of it. i.e., it enhances some links by providing visual previews.
• The further information allows the reader to choose whether they want to follow that particular link to find out more. This would seem to be a better alternative to following the link and only then finding that actually it is not very interesting/useful to you.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while at other times it lets you "look ahead," before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

There's a good discussion about Snap Shots on the blog here. It's all about "drilling" links.

Tip - backup your work data

This may be one of the most important and valuable tips that you ever read.

If you had ever worked in IT on mainframe computer systems, then you would have had several professional best practice rules and lessons drummed into your head, often based on the hard-won lessons of other peoples' experiences. One of them was sure to have been: carry out data backups of your work data on a regular basis. The only time that you will realise exactly how valuable and important this rule is will be when you have a disk crash or similar, by which time it will be too late to help yourself if you have not carried out any backups.

Because the majority of laptop/PC users are not professional IT workers, they may not know any better. Those that are professional IT workers often:

• have not been trained as professionals
• may be rather slack in their work practices in any event
• may have been meaning to get a round tuit
  

- so, this rule is often forgotten nowadays and regular data backups may have been ignored/omitted.

Data backup is actually quite a simple process, though rigorous double-checking and spring-cleaning the work data and its backups can be tedious and could consume quite a bit of time. Fortunately, such spring-cleaning, though useful in conserving storage space, is not mandatory. You need 2 things to make backups possible:

1. A portable backup device.
2. A system (software) to carry out the backups in an automated manner.

Backup device:

• Forget tapes of any sort - not only are they expensive and not portable, but they are also unreliable in the recovery.
• Avoid using CD-ROMs, unless your backup data really is minimal - they are too slow and not easily/safely portable.
• Insist on using USB or Firewire (for faster data transfer) plug'n play portable or semi-portable hard drives. From experience - having tried CD-ROMS, ZIP drives, etc. - I recommend the use of 2.5 inch profile laptop drives in a pocket-sized (i.e., portable) metal case. These devices are robust, cheap, reliable and fast, and can hold large volumes of data - e.g., typically 120+GB, which are likely to serve most users' needs.

Backup system/software:

• Go for something that is flexible and that enables you to automate and schedule backups on a regular basis. I would recommend that you try one of the many freeware and shareware products in the market. I personally have used Handy Backup since 1999, since reading reviews of it in computer magazines and on web sites. It is a brilliant and relatively inexpensive product.
• Is it worth it? For cost-justification, the expense of doing backups needs to be compared to the expense, inconvenience, and loss of business/time in attempting to recover from a data loss if you have not done backups.

Tip - selecting a laptop

If you have already bought a laptop, then you are likely to be committed to making the most of it. If you have not yet bought it and are wondering what to buy, then take this tip born of 30 years' experience of working in IT and 17 years' experience of using laptops as my main/only productivity tool:

• Insist on a Toshiba laptop.
  

Now I know that people could object to such a bald statement - so, why Toshiba? Well, it is because, after trying out or using Toshiba, Dell, Fujitsu, HP, NEC, ASUS, IBM, etc., I have been forced to acknowledge that Toshiba corporation are consistent. Their three most important consistencies are:

• They consistently conform to relatively high production quality standards.
  
• They have consistently been shown to be leaders in laptop technology (along with NEC) - i.e., always being farsighted in implementing features that other manufacturers only belatedly follow.
• They have consistently implemented good ergonomics in their laptop design - including especially: large/full-size keys designed to assist touch-typing; keyboards with good feel and bio-feedback; good and consistent keyboard layout (the Del, Alt and pagination keys are usually in the same/similar locations on all models); good ergonomics in the screen design; solid construction (so they can put up with everyday knocks).
  

These are the most important simply because, if:
(a) you are likely to be spending a lot of time with your laptop and
(b) if it does not enable you to achieve optimal efficiency, effectiveness and productivity when it is being used as a working tool,
- then you will probably inevitably find that it is forcing you to waste time.