Neglected, but not forgotten
Posted in Life on 13 Jan 2010 at 17:47
Consider it a new year’s resolution that this site will get an upgrade at some point soon. It’s just a case of finding the time, and the energy, to do something about it.
Ralph
A Lesson Learned
Posted in Life & Tech Stuff on 20 Jul 2009 at 22:47
In the last 2 weeks I’ve learned a valuable lesson about backing up data. We all know we should do it, we all occasionally think about it. Sometimes, if we’re lucky (and smart) we even make the odd backup, but all too often the hassle and time involved mean it gets put off until another day.
It’s funny how it takes the realisation of our mistakes to really make a lesson hit home. I made a mistake, in fact I made quite a few. Every time I thought to myself “I should probably back these up sometime soon” and didn’t, that was a mistake.
About 2 weeks ago, my computer ground to a halt, shut down, then failed to boot again. It turned out that this was because my hard drive had failed. Music.. photos.. files.. all gone (or at least held inaccessibly where only some expensive recovery work can get them).
My last full backup? Never. Music - about 18 months ago. Photos - about a year.
Luckily many of the most important photos to me will also be on Caroline’s machine, so I should get some of them back. But some are lost forever, along with other pretty irreplaceable stuff like my climbing route log.
So.. as I said before, I’ve learned a lesson. My external drive was out today, and I’m set up and ready to clone my drive weekly. There’s plenty of software out there to help, it just takes a bit of effort up front to get on and do it. Don’t make the same mistake I did…
For Mac (if you haven’t got Time Machine like me) I’d recommend SuperDuper. It’s free, or you can pay for extra features like scheduling backups. For Windows there are a few options, none of which I’ve tried: Norton Ghost or DriveClone are the first 2 that come to mind. Neither are free, but worth every penny I’m sure. There are no doubt some free options out there too, even a scheduled batch file would do!
It’s been a while
Posted in Life on 24 Mar 2009 at 10:49
No time
Too busy
Moving house
Wrong phase of the moon
The internet’s too smelly
…
All the usual excuses for being away, but hoping to be back soon…
Another Summer…
Posted in Life on 09 Sep 2008 at 22:02
Just like turning off the light, September’s arrival has turned on the rain and marked the end of another summer. Not that the last few months haven’t been without their fair share of rainfall, the last week has just been that bit more significant 
Anyway, squeezed between the rainy days there has been some climbing! 60 routes in total, mostly in the Peak, plus a few in Croatia. 11 VS and an HVS 
not bad for a fairly wet summer… but lets hope that the winter gives us a few dry weekends to get out too!
