McGarvey’s Words
by Robert McGarvey
Memory Loss
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McGarvey’s Words by Robert McGarvey Memory Loss |
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Taos Land Sale: Click For Details Here's What You Are Saying: Letters to McGarvey's Words . Back Pages: o Email-Country. Of Ricky Skaggs, cruising, Yahoo, and the ubiquity of email. O Google Spying: Much ado about something good. o Ebay and the triumph of ecommerce. |
Aarrgghhh. I clicked the link to the New York Times website and what came up was a screen prompting me to log in or register as a new user. Of course I am a longtime user of the NY Times online but what went wrong is that I was using a stand-in computer, a no-name white box that sits neglected on my floor until an emergency thrusts it into use. Here the emergency was the sudden death of my four-month old HP laptop's hard drive (and, boy, is HP maddeningly slow and nonchalant about handling warranty claims, but that is another story).** Before the HP imploded I had managed to back up all the key data files to Connected.com, a must-have for road warriors because it allows on the fly back-up and retrieval of key files. The genius of Connected is that it handles the job over phone lines, meaning it's nearly always within reach, either for a quick back-up or retrieval of that one critical file you absolutely need now. Connected handled my Quicken files, my spreadsheets with accounts receivable records, archives of articles going back to 1986, and the rest of the digital info I deem critical. If you don't use Connected, sign up now and you will thank me when your box dies (or is stolen). Connected goes far towards soothing the agony of a hard drive's demise – but, good as it is, what's shocking is how much memory we still lose whenever a hard drive crumbles. Little, seemingly ignorable things turn out to matter a lot. The stuff we don't think to back up turns out, often, to be what we most miss. Cookies, for instance. A few years ago cookie-bashing was the rage as privacy buffs spoke up against the little files, but with my hard drive dead, now the New York Times sees me as a stranger. So does Amazon. Even Classmates.com is skeptical about me. Do you remember your registration data? I sure don't. Of course I can re-register with any/all, but who has time in a busy work day? Then there's the email mess I am standing in the middle of. Many megs of email have been safely tucked away at Connected.com, but now I'm accumulating more emails at Yahoo.com and sometimes using Poco Mail, my email tool of choice most days. When – if – HP ever decides to get my laptop functioning again, somehow I'll have to piece together this email puzzle and already I know the results won't be pretty. When I stare this issue in the face it staggers me how much work I do in my email program – doubtless the single most critical piece of software in my tool kit – but I also have to admit my email files will feel this mess for months to come. Yikes. Probably the biggest issue, however, is that the plain vanilla computer isn't tweaked with my personal, time-saving settings. In Poco, for instance, I've identified dozens (hundreds?) of triggers that label an email junk – meaning it goes immediately to the trash – but none of the brainpower resides in this stand-in computer. So I'm sorting through many dozens of email every day and discarding the bulk of it. What a waste of time! Don't get me started on my Favorites file, either. I jam whatever interests me in the moment – lately that's been unlocked tri-band GSM phones and well-priced New Mexico high country homes – into the Favorites file and now that info is nowhere near me. Yesterday a reader wrote with an honest question – what's a fair price for a tri-band GSM phone? -- and rather than simply sending him a few links to online merchants I, well, stuttered, fumbled, and cursed because I realized that information no longer is at my fingertips. Of course there also are real puzzles that arise in bouncing between computers. I cannot seem to get this white box to recognize my cable modem which, ho hum, means I've been relying exclusively on dial up for two weeks now and that is humbling. If I'd known from the get-go that it would be two weeks, yes, of course I would have figured out the source of this non-communication but I came into this mess assuming quick repair and as each day drags by, I still – stupidly? -- expect a near-term resolution from HP. *** Meantime, I seem dumber and dumber to clients because, honestly, my memory now is scattered across cyber-space. But an upshot is that I am humbled – stunned, really – to realize how much of what I “know” in fact is known by my computer, not me. Do you recall in 9th grade when a substitute teacher showed up for the English teacher, whoa, did the substitute seem unprepared, incapable, in the wrong room? That's me, today, and I'm in the right rooms but I've brought the wrong tools. Exactly how dependent have I become on my main computer? The question is scary, and the answer is scarier still as I sit here not knowing when I will again have a “main” computer. But, jaze, I cannot wait until I can access Connected.com and download my Favorites file – which I did back up! Ask me then about unlocked GSM phones – I must have a half-dozen essential links stored. Or do I have none? Beats me because, frankly, if my computer doesn't know the answer, I don't either, not anymore. Does this amnesia sound right to you? Or are you a stout independent? What is your strategy for protecting yourself against inevitable computer failures? Tell us about your computer crashes and work-arounds and we’ll post the best emails here. ** “Gotta take it with a smile,” said the HP parts rep today when I called to inquire about the status of a warranty part order (the hard drive!) that had been placed April 14th. “Looks like it might ship May 16th,” said the rep with no hint of guilt, with no apparent awareness that HP seemingly is slipping off the list of recommended hardware vendors. With luck, I might have the hard drive in hand by May 21, a month and a week after first contacting HP, and in every conversation HP reps exude a brainless, peppy confidence that they are doing their best. Wow, do these folks need an attitude change. I remember, going back 10 years, I had an HP desktop with a drive that failed and HP had a techie out there the next day fixing my box. Times indeed have changed at HP where now customers wait a month – longer ! -- and, get this, when the hard drive finally arrives I'm supposed to install it myself. You gotta love that definition of “service.” Whatever happened to the HP WAY? Do you have HP horror stories? Send your tales of woe to us and we'll post the best here. ***Saturday afternoon update: I re-loaded the Ethernet card drivers and, whoosh, the white box now interfaces with my cable-modem. Hooray. An advantage of being home (or in the office) is having easy access to all those tiny programs that make everything work. Now, as one, let's remind hoteliers that we do not like dial-up anymore, not at all! But that, too, is another column. Keep on reading (and if you DO like dial-up, by all means, email me asap with the explanation. I'll put it in that upcoming column). Click here to visit Joe Brancatelli's Travel Site, JoeSentMe.com Keep coming back, for more of McGarvey’s Words. Copyright 2003 by Robert McGarvey Taos Land Sale: Click For Details
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Have a cruise complaint? File it with Porthole Magazine's Ombudsman. About Robert McGarvey Author of How to Dotcom (Entrepreneur Press), McGarvey is a onetime columnist for BizTravel.com, he is a frequent contributor to dozens of magazines, ranging from American Legion to Electronic Business, Technology Review, and Rutgers. For the past five years, he has served as "The Ombudsman" for PORTHOLE Cruise Magazine. Still curious about McGarvey? Read up on him here. Taos Land Sale: Click For Details
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