Posted on 12/03/2008 6:29:45 PM PST by smokingfrog
Backing up data is a pain in the neck. The only way to make people do it is to automate the process. Mozy does that.
Many of us have suffered a data-destroying computer crash. But some stories are better than others. Josh Diulio, a marketing exec from Monroe, Mich., left his HP laptop sitting on a ledge on the balcony of his apartment building while he ran inside to get a drink. When he came back a crow was perched on the open laptop. The crow, startled by Diulio, leaped up and away, tipping the laptop just enough that it fell seven stories to the street below—where, just for good luck, it was run over by passing cars. Then there's the tale of Duncan Mowatt, a graphic designer in Seattle, who was having trouble with an external hard drive. The cause was a mystery until one day Mowatt's girlfriend picked up the drive and saw thousands of ants and ant larvae pouring out of it. She freaked out (as one might) and threw the drive across the room, where it smashed into Mowatt's laptop and wiped out its hard drive, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
I do automation work for the national guard. one time when we was on an exercize I took a new laptop dell 830 to the TOC I had to make room on the table to place it. I sat it on a an ice cooler that had its lid on sideways I sat the laptop on it(powered on at the time)the corner dips on the lid and the laptop goes in the ice cooler that was full of water. I took it apart dried it out and what do you know it still works lol
haveing had the JOY of a several toughbook models they really arent worth the cash. they are overly expensive sure you might drive a car over it but you can be 2 better laptops for the price of one. Most of them I see the military bought, the dells hold up better and we can actually get the dells repaired. I know one guy bought a toughbook for personal use he paid upwards of 2000 dollars(used) had a small screen NOSPEAKERS and a sucky graphics card.
I believe it. Since solid state stuff arrived, that sort of thing, I often take computer cards and simply run warm water over them and let them dry before reinstalling them.
Unless they have coils or old-style looking capacitors.
But I still wouldn’t throw a laptop in the bathtub when it was turned on!
I wasn’t saying I doubted he did it, just that I doubted he was smart enough to vote Obama. ;-) (Woo Hoo, another vote for Buchanan!)
Well, I think that’s the point. Nobody’s going to buy one unless they think they’re going to drive a car over it and are willing to trade some performance and some extra cash for the ruggedness. Nice to have a review from someone who’s actually had a couple, though. I work in an industry where I might actually look at one sometime and the vote of no confidence from a previous customer will count for something.
I had that experience myself with an Ebay purchased computer. I don't remember how I managed to kill off the MBR, seems like two or three Windows 2000 disk formats. I've never had much luck with Ubuntu. I've tried every new release for the last couple of years now, and I'm never happy with it.
PCLinuxOS for me these days. It just works. Best distro for Windows users to cross over to.
I’ve had a few computer crashes over the years, but no one died, at least in the immediate vicinity, so no, no (apparent) fatalities to report here ...
Do not use Carbonite. It is an online backup. I tried it and the blue screen of death started happening. Trying to restore the data was a nightmare. Just an FYI
Do you also have a Rinnai tankless water ehater? How is it?
The usual ones, I suppose. The ones that are the bane of IT existence: salesmen and executives.
But, but, but, RUSH advertizes it! It has to be good! Next you’ll be telling me Lifelock isn’t any good.
Yeah I love the ads for those. Save 5% of the energy because it’s tankless (no steady state losses), but then you have to use electric instead of gas, tripling your cost per BTU. Kinda makes that 5% not seem like such a good deal, huh? Guess it wouldn’t be too bad if you’re in an all-electric area with no gas available. Still think I’d put in a propane tank even then.
My gas bill, with a gas hot water heater and a gas dryer varies from $32 to $39 a month. There is no way i can justify going electric for hot water. My electric bill runs $150 to $300 a month. Not including hot water, heat, dryer. NO WAY do I want to add to that!
Me, I'd use rsync to an external USB/eSATA/NAS. 1TB of storage is relatively cheap these days. Having it in your possession rather than paying some on-line service (where you really don't know what's going on behind the scenes - regardless of privacy policies) more than justifies the price of the drive.
Well, especially when you pay double-and-a-half to triple for the same amount of heat when using electric.
Although, believe it or not, instantaneous gas water heaters do exist. I saw them install one on this old house. Now since it’s instantaneous, the gas service requirement is enourmous compared to a storage type unit, just like it would be with electric, so the line to the water heater and/or the service/meter size for your entire house might not be big enough.
With my low gas bills, I still couldn’t justify it. Even if the unit were free, the payback on the labor to install alone wouldn’t be justifiable.
If you go from electric tank to tankless, yeah, it may work.
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