Monday 8th October

My frustration at attempting to ascertain the current Weblog data on my personal website has proven to be more difficult than I had hoped. That being said I will now be focussed on adding the content on here that I have still been writing while unable to post to the site.

Lessons Learned from my “Computer Crash”.

Lesson One - Backing up data.
If I had one dollar for the amount of people (mainly girls) who when I spoke of my “computer crashing” and the subsequent loss of data, asked me hadn't I seen the Sex in the City TV Show episode when Carrie lost all her information ?
When I replied “no”, they then asked “didn’t you have it backed up?”
You know the answer to that.
No, I hadn’t been backing it up. I know – dumb.

TIP – Learn how to back up. I have now purchased a large external hard drive for backing up and I do it at the end of each week. Here is hoping that this doesn’t happen again too soon.

Lesson Two - Passwords and important information.
First let me say that like most people when I updated and then reset my computer three years ago with the latest security protocols and passwords the last thing I had on my mind was being "too clever".
Let me explain. In my house we have a wireless network and when the technician was setting it up he mentioned that we should be very secure so that no one else could “piggyback” and use my allotted download hours. Being very clever and quite smart he said that we should pick a password that wouldn’t be too easy to hack. Well we were so smart that we can’t even remember what it is.
That has been another issue to deal with now that I have a new computer.
At least now I am less stressed as I know that I can’t remember what it is.
TIP – write down your passwords and file them “old school style” in a filing cabinet with your other important personal data such as Passports etc.
Remember to update it if you change them.

Summary.
Computers do play a role in our lives. They are the way that we can connect with friends and family, manage our business affairs and keep track of expenses etc. However they were designed to make our lives easier not harder or add more stress. Would I say the last few weeks have been stressful – yes very. I hope that the lessons that I have outlined will give you some insight into ways to take away some of the stressful moments I went through.