Backing Up

Last week a friend was helping me install some new software and he asked me that ominous question, "When did you do a back-up last?" I won't tell you the answer -- it wasn't good. We went ahead and did one but the thing I found most interesting was how little I keep on my computer now and how much is network-based.

My email is not on my machine (since it's Yahoo email) and I like it being on their server both for the reason that if I travel I can get at it anywhere anytime and if my machine crashes I lose nothing. If my machine won't work -- I can walk into any Kinko's and be as productive (if not more) than I would be with my own machine.

And then the other app I use every day is this -- Blogger. And again, all my words are resident on their server, not my computer. I know many people argue against that and find that perilous, but I can guarantee you, they are better at maintaining my words than I ever would be. Blogger also gives me that same flexibility as Yahoo Mail, in terms of being able to blog anywhere I can get on the Net. I can be in Connecticut, Kansas, Calcutta or Katmandu and get online ... actually, not sure about Katmandu, but I wouldn't be surprised if I could.

So when it came down to it there were very few documents that I needed to back-up. I'm in the habit too of looking for my most recent CV or copy of a story as an attachment to email that I may have sent someone and even the act of attaching and sending, is in a way, a form of back-up. Again, if I'm out and need to get a CV to someone, I can go into Kinko's, use their computer, go to my Yahoo email, check my sent documents, get the attachment that was my most recent CV and print it. Even my bio with my picture is available on the web and I only have to send someone a link if they wanted to find out who I am.

Compared with a few years ago, when backing up daily was crucial, we've started to be much more embedded in the network in all our computing. It 's happened almost without us noticing.