Computer Disaster Recovery Planning

Aloha!

Though hurricanes are rare in Hawaii, we have suffered them. Tropical storms can wreak havoc too. We may be overdue for an earthquake, and volcanologists say pressure has been building in Mauna Loa. Hawaii is paradise, but natural disaster is ever lurking.


Making a disaster planning checklist can take some of the anxiety out of potential natural calamities. When you work on your checklist, be sure to consider your computer system/s. Ask yourself the question: What would I do if my computer were damaged, or destroyed, in a natural disaster? This question is especially pertinent if you run a business.

You may have heeded my advice about data backup in a previous blog and are now religious about this practice. Well, what if your computer AND your external hard drive where you back up your data were destroyed? (Imagine your laptop and external hard drive crashing to the floor during an earthquake. Not a pretty sight!)

Even if you have signed up for an online backup service, which backs up your essential data to a server on the Internet, what about the application software running on your computer? Do you have the installation discs in a box somewhere safe and accessible to reinstall on a new system if your current one goes down?

What if there was a fire on your premises caused by a natural disaster and all the discs in that box were burned up? You'd have to buy them all over again, unless you can find sympathetic software vendors who will let you download the applications, after you prove by you own the licenses. But what if your license paperwork gets damaged too, or you didn't save the email from an online order? What if you never bothered to register the software?

I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just alerting you to the possibilities. In this modern age where the computers are largely indispensable, businesses should devise some sort of computer disaster recovery plan. It's not too tough to create one. Just make a list of programs that are critical to your operations, note the license info, where data is backed up and how often, and envision how you'd respond in a disaster that damages the computers, data, discs, etc.

One part of a preparedness strategy is to have a copy of every critical computer-related tool that you need at your business available in a box at home (e.g. copies of your software discs, licenses, and recent data backups). If you work from a home office, then have that same stuff stored somewhere offsite, like the garage of a trusted neighbor, friend, or relative. Or perhaps in a fire safe.


Then write a step-by-step action plan detailing how to respond to a computer disaster, and indicate how much downtime you could expect before you are operational again. Solicit input from staff if you are the office manager to make sure all bases are covered. When this action plan is finalized, keep a copy somewhere offsite, perhaps even in your smartphone.

Computer disaster planning is just like any other type of planning. The purpose is to position ourselves to respond to challenging circumstances with maximum intelligence and minimum panic.

Wishing you akamai computing!

Mitigating Data Corruption

Aloha!

Have you ever had the unfortunate experience of being told by a computer tech, "Sorry, I can't recover your file. It's corrupted."? Or perhaps, worse, have you been notified during the computer's start up process of a corrupted file that prevented Windows from loading? If you have suffered neither calamity, lucky you! But read on - the longer you work with computers, the more likely you will get stung. And it won't be pleasant. It could occur at the absolute worst time. 

What is data corruption? How does it happen? How can you up the odds to prevent it? And how can you safeguard your data so if bad things happen, your pain will be minimal? 

Let me answer the last question first. To safeguard your important data, take a break from this blog and back up your data now. Don't proscratinate! Back it up to a flash drive, to an external hard drive, to CD or DVD, or to an online backup server. Then make a plan to do this regularly - as often as you create valuable data you can't live without, such as documents, photos, music, email, etc. If you don't know where to start, ask a friend, a colleague or a computer tech. Or do a web search. There are plenty of detailed articles on this topic as well as youtube videos. 

Why the urgency to back up? Well, presuming that the data you need to back up is in good shape (not corrupted), and the medium you are backing up to is healthy (so it won't corrupt the data you will store on it), having data backed up somewhere safe, secure, and accessible enables you to recover the good data should any of its counterpart if your computer go south. If the latter happens, you can restore the backed-up data and be back in business quickly. You're blood pressure will drop, and relieved you will be (as Yoda might put it.) 

Now, back to the "what is data corruption?" question. First, what is data? Simply put, computer data are 1's and 0's, binary electrical states, that are stored long-term on your computer's magnetic hard disk drive. Any document you are currently working on, that was, say, created yesterday and opened a few minutes ago, had been saved yesterday on your magnetic hard drive, and opened today from the same location on the hard drive. It now resides in electrically in RAM, the computer's temporary Random Access Memory. If you make further changes to this file, you must save it again to the hard drive or you will lose the changes. RAM is temporary storage.

Because data is electrical when in use, if you are working on your PC and the power goes out and you haven't saved the file you were working on, you will lose any changes. Your changes have effectively evaporated. What can also happen with a power outage is the entire file could be corrupted because a portion of it was loaded into RAM, and when the power went out, a critical portion of the file did not get recorded back to the hard drive. Without that portion, the entire file is not readable, which means it can't be opened.  

To mitigate data corruption in the above examples, first, save your document every few minutes. In some programs, you can select an auto-save feature to save automatically for you every 5 or 10 minutes, or whatever increment you deem necessary. Also, plug your PC into an Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) unit which provides constant power through a battery should you have a power outage in the room or building. If the power goes out while your computer is plugged into a UPS it will continue to run for several minutes, giving you time to save your work and shut down the computer until power is restored. Laptops run through a battery, so they are not a susceptible to power outage problems.

Data can also be damaged by a failing hard drive. Certain portions of the drive can begin to fail without reporting this. One day your computer may not even start. It's best to run regular hard drive tune-ups by using utility programs, such as the built-in checkdisk program in Windows, and by taking quick action to diagnose computer software glitches before they worsen to the point of a hard disk crash. I've done the postmortem on plenty of computer hard drives and data could be been preserved if the owners had responded to the warning signs earlier, such as the computer slowing down considerably when doing simple tasks.  

Some strains of malware are also designed to damage computer data, in some cases, wiping it out completely. So keep your Internet security program up to date and scan the entire computer at least weekly. 


To summarize, I have explained what data corruption is - data damaged by, for example, electrical events like a power failure, a failing hard drive, or by malware; I have suggested how to prevent data corruption - by using a UPS unit, running hard drive utility programs, running counter malware software, and acting quick when quickly when quirky things happen; and I have recommended that you safeguard data by backing up often. Very worst case, if you are pressed to get back to work and you have a good backup, you can load your backup data on another computer.

Last, I recommend you take some time to understand how your most prized programs use data - where it's stored, how you can access it, how you can back it up, how you can restore it. The data used by Microsoft Outlook, for example, is much trickier to work with than the data stored by Microsoft Word. Get some tutoring on this if needed. It will save you much grief in the future.   


Wishing you akamai computing!

Keeping Software Current

Aloha!

The simple act of sitting down in front of your computer and getting some work done or playing a game isn’t what it used to be since we all started plugging into the Internet over a decade ago. Now, because of our online status, we have to be constantly vigilant about security threats, especially if we are intrepid explorers of the Web.

As much as the Internet is an intriguing and enjoyable means for connecting with the world at large, it can be equally risky (and risqué), offensive, and irksome. Hey, sounds about like living in any big city, no? And that’s what the Internet is – human civilization online. All the best and worst of humanity is at our fingertips and mouse clicks. Imagination has free reign.

In previous articles, I have explained the importance of running security software on your computer. Here I want to stress the importance of keeping such programs up-to-date.

Nearly every software vendor provides online updates for their programs. In the realm of security software, these are critical for ensuring your continued protection against online threats – viruses, spyware, hackers. Bottom line: for security applications like antivirus programs, it’s best to run the update before you scan for malware. Most programs have an obvious “Update” button or link you can click to start the update process. (Some updates require you to reboot your computer, so before updating, you should close all open programs and save all open files.)

Operating system makers like Microsoft, Apple, and Linux (the many distributions thereof), regularly provide updates, patches, service packs, etc. In my experience, most of the time, it’s important to install such updates. They provide additional protection, bug fixes, and product enhancements.

Before doing a serious update, like installing a new Windows service pack, it’s best to backup your data, as some service pack updates have crashed computers. You can’t be too paranoid when it comes to backing up your data.

You can update just about any program, be it your CD burning software, your PDA software, your music player, you name it. Even your networking hardware, such as your router, can be updated. If you are unsure about how updates will affect your system, you should consult a computer tech, the software vendor, or your computer manufacturer.

Wishing you akamai computing!

Unplug, Reconnect with Nature

Aloha!

There's a book out that addresses the issue of our near addiction to being online. The title is "Hamlet's Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age", by William Powers. In the book the author offers some suggestions to help us manage our relationship with the online world, instead of the online world managing us.

There is some interesting historical material in the book too. For instance, an addiction to being 'connected' does have precedent. People in the past apparently got hooked on checking mail at the post office. And even in Roman times the government was inundated with 'data' in the form of documents.

As Shakespeare would say, nothing new under the sun. It's just a different medium now - the Internet.

In spite of the precedent, I believe we modern people have a cause for concern. In an interview on PBS's The News Hour, Powers shared an encounter he had with some young adults after one of his public lectures. One of the young women he spoke with was in tears and expressed her gratitude toward the author for showing her another, healthier, way of living with technology. What this implies, and we can witness it all around us, is that young people today are so frequently plugged in - via phones, computers, and other devices - that they are living as if they have no other choice.

Powers focuses on how face-to-face relationships suffer when we get too caught up in the online world. I think it goes beyond this issue. Given the precarious state of our natural environment - evidenced in part by human-caused climate change, and in part by the degradation of ecosystems as world population explodes - allowing our young people, who are the future of our country, to live so much of their lives disconnected from interacting with the natural environment, bodes ill for humanity's future on this planet.

The more we abstract our experience from the natural world, the less intimate we are with it, and the less we care - unless Nature creates havoc in our personal lives in the form of storms, floods, droughts, or perhaps even wild animals attacking our pets and children because of our encroachment of wildlands.

Not to sound apocalyptic, but I think if we don't find ways to unplug ourselves more often, we're going to evolve as a species into something that doesn't really belong on this planet anymore. And maybe that's our destiny. But it seems a shame that we compel all the other creatures on the planet to suffer our growing pains as our eyes are glued to a LCD screen.

Wishing you akamai and occasionally unplugged computing.

Computer Jokes

Aloha!

Let's face it: Sometimes we want to pull our hair out when things go wrong on our computers. We lose our patience and our sense of humor and want to chuck the damn thing out the window. Given that fact, let's change course for a moment and get some levity about the subject. It's time for a little computer humor.

Ever heard of these computer viruses? 

• Airline virus: You're in Dallas, but your data is in Singapore.
• Congressional Virus: The computer locks up, screen splits erratically with a message appearing on each half blaming the other side for the problem.
• Government economist virus: Nothing works, but all your diagnostic software says everything is fine.
• New World Order virus: probably harmless, but it makes a lot of people really mad just thinking about it.
• Politically correct virus: Never calls itself a "virus", but instead refers to itself as an "electronic microorganism".
  
  Here are some indications that computers are male: 
• They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
• They look nice and shiny until you bring them home.
• They'll do whatever you say if you push the right buttons.
• Big power surges knock them out for the night.
• Size does matter.
  
  Or perhaps computers are female after all because: 
• They are picky, picky, picky.
• They hear what you say, but not what you mean.
• When you ask what's wrong, they say "nothing".
• You do the same thing for years, and suddenly it's wrong.
• They make you take out the trash.

And you think calling tech support is frustrating. Here's how the tech support person experiences things:

Circular argument

Tech support: How may I help you? Customer: I'm writing my first e-mail. Tech support: OK, and what seems to be the problem? Customer: Well, I have the letter 'a' in the address, but how do I get the circle around it?

Local difficulty

Customer: My 14 year-old son has put a password on my computer and I can't get in. Tech support: Has he forgotten it? Customer: No he just won't tell me it because I've grounded him.

Language difficulty

Customer: 'How do you spell 'Internet America'? Is there a space between 'inter' and 'net'?' Tech Support: 'No space between 'inter' and 'net'. It's spelled normally.' Customer: 'Ok. A-M-E-R-I-C-K?' Tech Support: 'That's A-M-E-R-I-C-A.' Customer: 'I-C-K???' Tech Support: 'A as in apple' Customer: 'There's no 'K' in apple!'

And lastly, here's one for the kids - submitted to a jokes website by a 12-year-old:

What does a computer do at the beach? Put on screensaver and surf the net!

Wishing you akamai and humorous computing!

Websurfing on the Big Island

Aloha!

We've all heard the suggestion that we should shop local in order to boost the Island's economy. Well how about the idea of surfing local? Web surfing, that is. Here are some local websites to check out.

Big Island Video News. Sure you can get news from the online print versions of West Hawaii today and the Tribune-Herald, but pictures, especially moving ones, are worth a thousand words. Surf over to http://www.bigislandvideonews.com to catch up on a wide variety of island news from this easy-to-navigate site.

Craigslist. We all know we can buy and sell and give things away at this ultra-utilitarian and free online flea market. I can't begin to count the number of items I have bought and sold on craigslist. But the site goes beyond that. There is also a Community section at upper left on the page after you go to http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big. There you will find info on lost+found, rideshare, childcare, classes, etc. As always caveat emptor - buyer beware. There are plenty of scams on craigslist and unscrupulous people.

County of Hawaii. For local government info and resources, point your browser to http://www.hawaii-county.com. You'll land on the site for the County of Hawaii. At the County's site you can look for jobs, get the HeleOn bus schedule, find out about camping sites, access maps, etc. You can also email various County departments with your questions and concerns.

Big Island Weekly. Like this print magazine? I sure do. The tone of this publication is more hip than the daily newspapers. The shakas and stink eyes always seem right on the money with regard to current events. Right on the home page you can access the weekly surf report, the tide calendar, after work fun (pau hana), a calendar of events that includes a lot of alternative lifestyle activities (not just the usual parades, etc.), and more. The magazine's URL is http://www.bigislandweekly.com.

Google Earth. OK, so this is not local per se, but you can have some real fun checking out various parts of the Island from satellite imagery. You have to download the software for your computer from http://www.google.com/earth/index.html. (I know, I'm cheating a little by asking you to do more than just plug a URL into your browser.) Once you install the software, you can punch in an address or location and zoom in. Then you can stroll around the island, checking out your favorite spots. Pretty sweet!

Hope you find some useful and interesting info from these websites. With all the web resources out there, we've got the whole Island at our fingertips.

Wishing you akamai computing!

Kids and Safe Computing

Aloha!

Well, I've finally broken down and bought my oldest child, who is six, an electronic game. It's called a Leapster. It's a little hand-held device that comes preloaded with some simple games, and includes a slot for plugging in cartridges for additional games. All games are geared towards a certain age range and are learning oriented, which means the games help kids develop skills and knowledge in reading, math, science, etc. using popular themes. The first cartridge we purchased is titled 'Digging for Dinosaurs'. (My daughter is gaga for dinosaurs and dragons.) She has figured out this game pretty quickly and is really digging it. (Sorry for the pun.)

I've been reluctant to open the door to this world of gaming because I have read several articles about the importance of unstructured play, such as being outdoors, exploring nature, or playing with neighborhood kids, etc. for young minds and bodies. My mom is a first grade teacher and she has reinforced this notion, as well as emphasized the importance of reading age-appropriate books. There are numerous studies out now, reported in books and articles, decrying what is happening to the human mind as it is focused for hours on computer-related work and play, especially web based activities, when our attention hops around like a flea.

But I have to be practical. I'm well aware that the modern world dictates that my children be adept with electronic devices and computers, and I vow that my fundamental philosophy of life - all things in moderation - shall not suffer in the face of this reality. So my compromise is to insist that when my children play electronic games and go online (I have been letting my daughter use an old laptop for several months now), anything they get involved in is educational in nature. And I know the day will come when they will be exposed to violent video games and indecent stuff online. I'll just do the best I can now to control the parameters of their electronic forays.

If you have young kids and are wondering what I do permit online, so far it's just pbskids.org and starfall.com. I'm sure there are plenty of other "safe" sites out there. But for now, the fewer to investigate and supervise, the better.

It will soon be time for me to tweak the web browser or install some parental control software, if I find the pre-loaded stuff is not adequate. We as parents in this online age cannot be too careful about supervising our children's gaming and online usage. There is so much gratuitous violence in games these days; one has to wonder what the future holds for the children who grow up playing these games, believing hurting and killing is socially acceptable. And with the proliferation of child pornography and predators online, we must be ever vigilant on behalf of our impressionable and vulnerable children.

Wishing you and your children safe and akamai computing!

Spring Clean Your Computer

Aloha!


Here we are in July, way past Spring, but it's never too late to do some Spring cleaning on your Windows-based computer. Isn't it amazing how much clutter we can accumulate in our computers? In this article the clutter I will address is unwanted programs-not malware, just the buggahs we don't want any more. It's like tossing out old clothing, some of which we never wore.


From the get-go, when you fire up a shiny new machine just out of the box from Dell or Costco, there are programs pre-installed by the manufacturer that you may never use. These include games, offers for additional software and services, and various other "helper" programs. It can seem like your computer is littered with these. And some can get pretty uppity about using or updating them.


Then you when you install your printer or even digital camera, the installation CD likely contains various superfluous programs and more "helper" programs, like browser add-ins, special offers, etc. After installing a printer and a digital camera you may have three photo editing programs. Do you really need all three? Not likely. After you discover which one you like best (I prefer the free Picasa, by Google) you can ditch the others.


In Windows XP for example, go into Add/Remove programs in the Control Panel. There you may find a bewildering array of programs that you have never used and never will. Or programs that you wanted to try, and decided you didn't need, but forgot to remove. You know the story.


Many of my clients are nervous to begin the process of removing programs, concerned they will foul up something in the process. Unfortunately, this concern is somewhat grounded, as sometimes removing programs can cause side effects, like disabling the functionality of certain hardware devices, or leaving remnants behind that show up as annoying "errors" during computer start up.


So what do I recommend? My basic philosophy is to remove all programs that you're 100% sure you don't want, such as old printer software, old games, old security software, trial programs, etc. It's best to remove these one by one, then reboot the computer to see what happens. If you're the ultra-cautious type, you will set a system restore point before each removal, in case nixing the program causes problems in Windows on the reboot. (If things go awry, you can restore the computer back to the point you set, before you removed the program and all will be well.)


If you're pretty computer savvy and ambitious you can use a program such as Revo uninstaller, which can be obtained for free at www.download.com. The benefit of using a program like Revo is that it does a more thorough job of removing a program than the default Windows uninstaller. It's like pulling a weed and getting all the roots.


Wishing you akamai computing and good luck with your computer clean-up project!

A More Meaningful Life on the Computer

Aloha!

In my last article I suggested that we not seek a meaningful life through our computers. In this article, I'll give the counterpoint.

When it comes to connecting with friends and relatives across the miles without making the trip, computers can't be beat. With video calling, which Skype.com provides for free, grandparents in New York can have a real-time video call with their grandkids in Hawaii. This is ideal for remote family show and tell: "Grandma, look at the new puppy we got! Wait! Stop him! He just licked the computer screen!" How it warms the hearts on both ends to see and hear each other.

Facebook, as many of you know, is all the rage. It's a great way to play adult show and tell. Now, now, settle down. Not that kind of show and tell. It's about sharing photos, thoughts and feelings with new and old friends. Many people have re-connected with long-lost friends, made new friends with folks sharing similar interests, and even found romance. Be aware when using Facebook that there are some very significant privacy concerns. Be sure to read recent news articles about this, such as the one at wired.com.

For people with certain disabilities, the computer opens up a whole new world of possibilities, both personal and professional. There are voice-activated typing programs, screen enhancement tools, enhancements for the hearing impaired, and specialized interfaces for other physical challenges. Of course there are also 'bionic' type devices and implants, also computerized, that are providing new hope for people with disabilities. Sometimes these need to be programmed via an external computer.

Since the advent of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, soldiers have been heavily relying on computers as a means to keep in touch with friends and loved ones. With extended deployments, computers may just be saving the sanity of many of our brave and dedicated warriors. Many soldiers are also big-time gamers, which surely helps with stress relief, even if some of those virtual games are parallel the stresses and horrors of their real life. Catharsis comes in mysterious ways.

Even us lucky ones far away from the war zone need to check out, chill out, and recharge our batteries. For many people, the computer is a primary means of doing this, such as watching videos on DVD or via online streaming; listening to music; playing games against the machine, or with a partner in the room, or even one across the world; staying abreast with sports and hobbies; and importantly for many locals, checking the surf report. After all, here in Hamakua we can't just look out to the ocean and decide to put down the hammer or whatever, load up the board and head to the beach. Unless we live on the cliffs near Waipio. Lucky dogs!

Wishing you akamai computing!

What's Your Relationship with Your Computer?

Aloha!

What's your relationship with your computer? When I say computer, I mean desktop, laptop, ipad, iphone, etc., whatever gizmo you use to do your computing.

Over the years I've worked with a wide variety of clients with various attitudes towards their computers. Sometimes the attitudes and abilities mirror the generation of the user. At other times, personality is clearly in play. Sometimes a person is just having fun playing with a new toy. In other situations, a person's machine is highly leveraged to maximize productivity in the workplace. It's merely a tool. Like all relationships, ours with the computer evolves intellectually, emotionally, and physically.

However we think, feel, and interact with computers, I can say one thing we all have to face: they are here to stay, in some form or another. And more than that, they are becoming ingrained into our lives in ways only science fiction writers have imagined. The trends - towards ubiquitous Internet access, moving data processing to the Cloud (the Internet), going wireless (including electrically charging devices wirelessly), packing more features and functions onto smaller and smaller platforms, open source software, smart homes, smart cars, etc. - mean we are and shall be e-meshed (sorry for the pun) in the unfolding of this computing evolution.

What does all this intimate contact with electronics bode for our health, physical and psychological? Time will tell. But like most tools and toys, what we do with things reflects our innate humanity; if for example we have addictive tendencies, then yes, we may become addicted to email and Facebook and online gaming. Looked at from another angel, we can also recall what Einstein wisely said: Our technology has surpassed our humanity. That's something to contemplate and give us pause as we witness how technology affects our own lives and the lives of those around us.

Another question to pose: Who's in charge around here, the humans or the machines? By in charge, I mean dictating how we think and feel about our lives. I suspect if we begin to feel enslaved by computers, we will rebel in some fashion-hopefully in a way that's more about doing some inner work with our thoughts and feelings than by taking sledge hammers to our gizmos.

So perhaps the challenge for us is to find ways to get some space around our involvement with computers. Perhaps this could be as simple as taking more breaks from them at work; by taking three breaths before replying to an email; by turning off the iphone for one day (scary thought?); by sending our kids outside to play instead of letting them spend hours instant messaging friends...

Anyways, just some stuff to consider if you feel, like I do at times, that we're taking computers a little more seriously than we should, and at the expense of plenty of other valuable things in life. I'm grateful that they provide me a means to a living, but I don't expect them to provide a means to a meaningful life.

Wishing you akamai and enlightened computing!