This portion of the P89 home page is dedicated to having a little fun and imparting users with a little bit of knowledge they might find useful. I'll update this section periodically. On occasion I might include news from the world of computers here and my opinion of such news. If you have a question you'd like answered, please email it to stuff@p89.com. If it's a good question, maybe I'll include it here. Remember, please limit your questions to computer related topics. For personal problems, try Dr. Phil or Oprah. I don't endorse them, but you're more likely to get an answer from them than me.
Fun Stuff:
A hidden photo in a web page, often stuck in there for no real reason and usually totally undocumented is called an "Easter-egg". Many web pages contain Easter-eggs of various types, sometimes pictures or cool links, usually hidden fairly well. Video games and DVDs often have Easter-eggs of their own. Hidden weapons or levels, unlisted features, things like that. Some Easter-eggs are totally unintentional, like stuff included in programs for testing or weird bugs in software that somehow make it into production. Those are rare. Most Easter-eggs are created on purpose, either to encourage end-users to really play with the application (be it a game, DVD, web page or word-processor) or as a secret expression of creativity. The World's most famous Easter-eggs may be Walt Disney's "Hidden Mickeys".
Somewhere, tucked away on these page are several easter-eggs. They have little or no point, they are simply there.
Useful Stuff:
While I highly recommend a fire extinguisher in the kitchen and in your car and smoke detectors in your home, this section is really designed for useful, computer related information. But since I started off on the topic of fires and disasters, I think I'll run with it.
We all know a good back-up of important data is vital, but how many of us really do it? Unfortunately, not many. To make your backup grind easier, Microsoft includes a backup utility with Windows called MS-Backup. There are certainly better, more feature rich packages for running a backup, and I do not recommend using MS-Backup for mission critical business systems, but for your home PC MS-Backup is great.
For instructions for Windows XP Users, click here. For Windows 98 Users, click here.While it is possible to use MS-Backup to backup to a tape drive, most of us don't have one on our home PC. An Iomega Zip drive is a great alternative at a reasonable price. If you buy an external Zip drive with a USB interface, setup is quick and easy. Buy a couple of blank Zip disks and you're ready to go!
Backups should be done religiously (and no, that doesn't mean every Christmas and Easter or every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur). How often you need to run a backup is up to you, but very important files should be backed up every time you use them. What's very important? You're Quicken data file is one, term papers might be another. A backup takes minutes to create and can save days, even weeks worth of work.
Once you've created your backup, keep it in a safe place away from the computer. Although most people need a backup because a hard drive crashed or a file became corrupt somehow, a significant number of people need their backup because of an environmental disaster. A fire, a flood or, for folks in Florida, a hurricane. I once had a client whose PC was stolen. Where was the current backup? In the computer's Zip drive when it was stolen. Fortunately he had a separate disk from the week before with a backup on it, but he still lost time recreating work.
I suggest an inexpensive fireproof box from a local office supply store. They can be purchased for under $50 and may save you a lot of grief. Keep the box in a room separate from the computer. Also like, my client who was robbed, rotate your backup disks or tapes. This can save you in the event of a lost of damaged backup disk.