One of the first tasks for me when the new year starts is computer backups. I’m obsessive about it.
As more and more of our information and files are stored digitally, it is crucial to be meticulous about computer backups.
I have backups at the office. I have them online (both Google Drive and Dropbox). I have them at home. I have a dozen or so hard drives. You just can’t have enough.
I am in the Windows, Android and Google world rather than the Apple world. One reason for this is more control. With Apple, it’s their way or the highway. In Windows-Google-Android, there is more flexibility with offline backups.
My son Lawrence learned a lesson a few years ago about backups. He assumed everything in the Apple world would be backed up by their cloud. Unfortunately, someone hacked his account and changed some log in info. He lost years of photos. The Apple bureaucracy was too huge and convoluted to help.
Some of my backups are intentionally old. That’s because you can lose a file or corrupt it and then that corrupted file gets synced to all your backups. Then you have a dozen copies of the same corrupted file. That’s when you need an old backup.
I’ve had photos corrupted and lost on Google Drive. The cloud, like everything in the world, is far from perfect. That’s why you need backups of backups of backups on a variety of disks stored in a variety of places.
The key to backup successfully is to have a well thought out plan. It pays off to spend a lot of time thinking about a process and then sticking to that process. For instance, it’s not necessary to back up everything each year. Instead, my files are organized by year. I only have to back up that year, not everything I have. Creating and organizing your computer folders in a logical manner is crucial in this regard.
As for photos, I recommend that everybody print some family photo albums as a backup to digital files. You never know when some digital catastrophe may happen.
I also try to post some of the best photos of the year to Facebook. That’s a nice free source for photo backups and your friends can see your favorite photos of the year.
Don’t forget your smartphone. I have tons of information in a simple notes app. I would be devastated if that got wiped out. So I make sure that I have a way to back that up annually. Smartphone backups can be tricky. Don’t let that cause you to neglect them.
The Great Google says 44 percent of people don’t do any backups. That’s a disaster waiting to happen. And it will happen sooner or later. The time and effort it will take to do annual backups is miniscule compared to the time it takes to recover from losing all your files.
One technique I use is to have one folder for the files I use day to day and other folders for things like photos and songs. That way I can do weekly backups for the files that are constantly changing without worrying about the folders for which annual backups are sufficient.
It’s always wistful when I create the new annual folders for the new year. It’s a very real feeling of the passing of time. For instance, my columns and editorial pages are organized by year.
I’ve been doing the editorial pages of the Northside Sun now for 35 years. It’s a labor of love. I truly enjoy the creativity of providing local, unique commentary for our community. There’s tons of national and international news, but there’s nothing like the Northside Sun. You won’t find that content anywhere else.
Over the 35 years so many local columnists have come and gone. Many moved. Others just got tired of writing and moved on to something else. Many have passed on to their reward. Each one had their unique personality and writing style. It was an honor to help give them a voice and allow them to express their views.
I personally have written my column every week for 35 years. That’s 1,820 columns, each about 800 words. That makes 1,456,000 words, enough to fill 18 novels.
I have now realized that there is not enough time left to view all my photographs, listen to all my favorite songs and re-read all my columns. Just not gonna happen. Besides, I am still interested in so many new things.
You have to wonder what’s going to happen to all this digital information. Globally, data storage is nearing 100 zettabytes, 40 times more than ten years ago. Data center energy consumption is a major national problem, threatening to cause power shortages. Just look at the massive new Amazon data center being constructed in Madison and the energy projects required to feed it.
How much is a zettabyte? It’s one trillion gigabytes. So the world is storing 100 trillion gigabytes of data. Wow!
One wonders if one day there will be a backlash to this massive digitization of our lives. It amazes me that the average American is perfectly content to let their digital devices track them, eavesdrop on them and spy on their every activity.
The top New Year’s Resolutions are: Save more money. Pursuing a career ambition. Quit smoking. Decorating/renovating home. Learn a new skill or hobby. Cutting down on drinking. Volunteering. Spending more time with family/friends. Losing weight.
Losing weight while cutting down on drinking won’t be happening for me. The new Wyatt diet is as follows: Dieting is miserable. So you need to make sure you get the maximum pleasure from the fewer calories you do consume. And nothing does this better than alcohol.
Not on that list is my New Year’s Resolution: to live in the moment and enjoy every precious beautiful moment of life. Enjoy the moment. Time stops for no one. This is easier said than done.
Try this exercise. Pretend that you lost your friend or loved one to a car accident years ago and then suddenly they miraculously came back to life. How happy would you be to see them. What joy you would feel just to hug them, talk to them and just hear their voice and see their face.
That’s how we should be all the time. That excited to be around the people we love. It’s all laid out right before our eyes and yet we let it go.
Life is so joyful, so wondrous, so special. There is so much love everywhere. Pray, pray, pray for the Holy Spirit to open your eyes and your ears to the beauty of it all.
