Category: Mobile Working

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Handling Computer Accidents With Online Backup Tools

Drink on Laptop

Our client and good friend Kavit Haria had a very bemused look on his face earlier this week – the kind of look that you find when someone asks himself “How in the world did I manage to do that!?”

You see, it had only just gone noon on Monday afternoon, and he was sipping away on his honey and lemon hot drink while working away on the laptop. We’ll let Kavit tell you the rest of the story…

Today, at about 12.15, when working and drinking honey and lemon, I spilt it over my laptop by serious mistake. The laptop now doesn’t turn on. I called Dell quite a bit and they have arranged for someone to call me tomorrow to give me a quote for repair and then they’ll pick it up if I agree.

My literature review is the most important file on there – it has taken time to write and I’ve got a deadline to meet in 2 weeks time. However, I remembered that 3 weeks ago I signed up to www.mozy.com as an online backup service and now, luckily, all my files are backed up and the version from last week 6th Nov is saved online. I am now using another computer and have just downloaded my file here. I had only written 4 new paragraphs earlier today so I can rewrite that, rather than 8 pages of scientific stuff!

Anyway, I will wait for the repair quote tomorrow. If it is too high, I’ll just have to pay a bit extra and I’ll get a new laptop as I don’t need any other files as everything of mine is backed up online luckily.

I am now leaving the laptop to dry till later this evening and will try again to see if it works.

This email was just to inform you…

Kavit

P.S. Check out www.mozy.com for home or office!

I’ve just had news from Kavit – his laptop is still kaput, so looks like he’ll most likely be ditching this laptop and getting himself a mac this Christmas. What’s great is that all his files are backed up remotely and now retrievable.

So the message here folks is back up your files frequently. Simply mozy on over to www.mozy.com for all your online backup needs!

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Scheduling An Event Is A Doodle

When you have two or more people who want to attend a meeting and are working out each other’s availability, sending emails across to everyone and getting schedules to align can get pretty taxing.

Not anymore!  Doodle‘s here – this simple cool free online application helps you plan a meeting time or location that suits everyone best, without the mess of sifting through emails to work out who’s available when.

So the next time you’re planning a meeting – tap into the power of www.doodle.ch.

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How To Get More Life Out Of Your Laptop Battery

Laptops are brilliant for portability, yet can be great betrayers. I’m out in Kenya for a month, and relying on my laptop battery more than ever – you just don’t know when you’ll next get reliable access to a mains supply for recharging the laptop!

As part of the natural ageing process or due to active use, batteries eventually get worn down – sometimes even when not in use. Do you use a laptop? Here’s how you can get more life out of your laptop battery:

  1. Be Screen Smart: Lower the use of graphics by changing the screen resolution, shutting off fancy graphics drivers, and dimming your screen – this will all save battery juice.
  2. Turn Off All Unused Devices: If you’re not using connected USB devices, WiFi, or Bluetooth, disconnect them or turn them off. Also, minimise CD/DVD use, because optical drives are one of the worst at consuming power – they spin, taking power, even when not actively being used.
  3. Unplug When Charged: When the battery is fully charged, unplug it from the mains and let the laptop use it’s own battery, until all the juice runs out. The more you overcharge your battery, the smaller the amount of charge it will hold the next time.
  4. Add More RAM: Having more RAM allows you to process more, whereas relying on virtual memory which means hard drive use – hard drives tend to use much more power than your RAM sticks.
  5. Keep It Clean: Watch how your laptop operates more efficiently while it’s cooler! Your air vents can be cleaned out with a cloth or keyboard cleaner. Your battery’s metal contacts can be cleaned with a cloth moistened with alcohol – do this every few months and it’ll keep the transfer of power from your battery more efficient.
  6. Focus On One Thing At A Time: All the programs that run on your computer concurrently will add to the central processing unit load, which cuts down battery life. Aim to do one thing at a time while you’re on battery, rather than working on a spreadsheet, listening to an online radio show and letting your email client run in the background. Adopt this for your work in general – you’ll quickly recognise the power of focus!
  7. Defragment Regularly: Defragmenting takes all the various parts of a file on your computer and puts them next to each other, which means less work for your disk drive when locating files, and therefore less battery power used.
  8. Go Into Hibernation: Rather than putting your computer in standby mode, hibernating a PC will actually save it’s state as it is, and complete shut itself down. When you want to continue working, simply turn your computer on, and you can continue working where you left off.

So there you go – the power of portability, blended with battery smarts!