Time to get rid of your surge protectors! UPS is here! No, not the delivery service, but Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS). Yes, that's right. No more power surges causing keyboard lockup, data loss, and damaged motherboards. When power surges, a UPS instantly switches your computer to emergency battery backup power and allows you to work through brief power outages or to shut down your system in the event of an extended outage. High-performance surge suppression protects your computer from electrical noise and damaging power surges - even lightning.

In our office, we use APC Smart-UPS. I don't know what we would do without it. Our office has been struck by lightning four times, and we are cursed with power surges whenever a storm rolls in. And you thought lightning doesn't strike twice. We wish! But the Smart-UPS have saved our computers many times.

Q: I own my own business and have one computer that I use. I regularly perform maintenance on it to keep it running at good performance. Do I really need to backup my data? My data should be fine, right?

A: This is what I call the Ultimate Gamble. Would your business really survive if you lost your vital data...financial information, banking, records, company files? Every system needs backing up. Don't wait until you lose all your data to learn this important lesson. Anything can happen. Your hard drive could fail, a storm could hit, a tornado could fly in. The best case to look at is the 9/11 event. The collapse of the World Trade Center stressed the importance for businesses to back up critical data more than just once. Companies such as financial giant Morgan Stanley were able to function only because they created copies of their data and stored them at a second location.

Many companies are reluctant to spend the money on something most hope they will never need, just like insurance. Most companies feel that their computers are reliable enough. Just remember, what you're planning for is a disaster. You're not planning for the computer to just break. Although, a common thing like a hard drive failure could leave you in a similar boat.

So, now you know how important backing up is. But, what should be backed up? For businesses, where every minute of downtime means dollars lost, backing up everything might make sense. For the rest of us, the essential rule of backing up is "Make a copy of anything you can't otherwise replace". This means personal data, financial data, e-mail, etc.

Ok, now your ready to back up! What method will you use? Go to our April Issue to find out!

Have a question for the Technician? E-mail us at newsletter@mypcguy.com.

Have a problem and can't wait for the next newsletter, call us at 410-975-9060.

George Bush:
When you rearrange the letters: He bugs Gore

Dormitory:
When you rearrange the letters: Dirty Room

The Morse Code:
When you rearrange the letters: Here Come Dots

Slot Machines:
When you rearrange the letters: Cash Lost in em

Mother-in-law:
When you rearrange the letters: Woman Hitler

Snooze Alarms:
When you rearrange the letters: Alas! No More Z's

A Decimal Point:
When you rearrange the letters: I'm a Dot in Place

A test that can help you think 'outside the box'
-Author Unknown

Your mind is like a parachute; it works best when it's opened. Recently I have had a dilemma I'm trying to resolve, a weekend in the near future where I have conflicting demands and values, and need to be in two places at the same time. I have agonized over this decision because my intuition is not giving me a clear answer and I haven't felt that there was a win-win solution. If I do one thing, I'm letting down a bunch of people. If I do the other, I'm also missing the mark. Either way I feel like a loser, not a winner. And so I have yet to make this decision, although I must in the next few days. I've prayed, asked friends for advice, looked at the universe for a clear sign of which way to go, and visualized both alternatives to get a feeling for which choice leaves me with the best feeling inside.

This morning I got an e-mail that directly addresses this dilemma. This message reminded me that, whenever possible, you must search for a solution that doesn't force you to be a loser no matter what you decide to do, but rather, allows you and others in your life to be winners:

A Thinking Test
You are driving along on a wild, stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:
1. An old lady who is sick and about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect man or woman you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to pick up, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car? This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application. You could pick up the old lady because she needs to get to a hospital right away; or you could take the old friend because he/she once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him/her back. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. Think before you continue reading....................................

He simply answered: "I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams."

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations and think outside the box.

Moral: You are not always the victim in life; most of the time you are the victor looking at the situation from the wrong view! The view is yours to choose.

--Author Unknown