Web Worker Daily

I spent the weekend updating my Mac to OS X 10.6.1 Snow Leopard. It went well, thanks to a little planning and a lot of patience. Windows users are facing the decision as to whether and when to upgrade to Windows 7. Here are some questions to consider when you’re faced with an operating system upgrade. Read the rest of this entry »

Even though web workers tend to do almost everything online, we still have files on our computer that matter. At one time or another, we’ve all probably learned the hard way what happens if our backup strategy isn’t automated or tested. With that in mind, there’s been a crop of web services over the years that try and make the backup process as simple as possible. Install, sync, forget about it…if you have decent broadband, of course.

Carbonite has been a popular choice for Windows users for quite some time because you pay one price ($54.95) for a yearly subscription and that’s it. There are no additional fees for storage or bandwidth. It’s easy to install, easy to configure, and doesn’t seem to drag a computer down while it works in the background.

It makes a simple mirror of your files. Change a file, and the new version replaces the old one on the server. Rather than backing up on a set schedule, it detects when files change and automatically backs them up, meaning that there is little chance of losing an important file because it was lost before the next scheduled sync.

Carbonite has been teasing Mac users for well over two years with the promise of a Mac version. The wait is over. Is it worth it?

Read the rest of this entry »

Backup! Backup! Backup! This should be the mantra of all web workers! Our ability to earn and work is of course dependent on the digital infrastructure around us, but more importantly, the sphere of our personal and professional data that’s our digital DNA.

Today sees the public launch of Paragon Software’s Drive Backup 9.0 Express, designed for novice users to replicate and backup their entire PC – from OS and apps to preferences, settings and data…a little like Apple’s Time Capsule + Time Machine combo, but for Windows PCs and not quite as pretty.

What’s really interesting about Paragon’s software is that users can create emergency bootable media (CD, DVD, Flash drive) to recover an imaged machine quickly…something I could really have done with when I dropped my MacBook in San Diego earlier this year… Oh, Drive Backup 9 Express is also free and users are provided with an upgrade path to more sophisticated Personal and Professional editions that provide backup schedules, the ability to image individual files as well as drives, along with the ability to directly mount a backup image prior to re-installation.

Backup seems to be a perennially failure-ridden activity for most users- wavering between fatalist, zero-backup strategies and replicating data on multiple drives at home as well as at online services.

I have the feeling that no, one service provider is getting this right for users – do we need something with the ease-of use of Time Capsule+Machine, coupled with the distributed resilience of Amazon’s S3 Simple Storage Service. Come to think of it, why can’t a Time Capsule replicate itself to S3?