When Digital World Crashes

My Laptop died on me after I accidentally soaked it in water this Christmas (here is how the bizarre incident happened). Despite the difficulties to locate new machines for me during the holiday season, my company still managed to send me one loaner machine and then a replacement 2 days after.

Guess what, DHL lost one package and couldn’t locate the other! Both I and my employer are stunned and trying to figure out what to do next.

Let’s forget about the crappy DHL service for a second. The reality is that my digital world has crashed on me. I have been living without my computer for nearly a week and if I don’t get one today, I am quite doomed.

Here is the damage assessment:

• I save all of my account access userids and passwords in a few text files including my investment, credit cards, playstation underground, DVD club, etc… The laptop has the only current copy. I usually perform my year end financial assessement to move my funds around. Now I am doomed.
• The intellectual capitals I created for work in the last year and half is not backed up.
• If I don’t get a laptop today, I am going to show up at work on Tuesday to pour coffee for everyone, because there isn’t’ much I can do without my laptop.
• I am leaving my mother’s place in 3 days. I don’t have a second computer in Denver. So I will be completely offline. This is a very scary thought in 21st Century. I don’t know how I can live without emails, info on websites and etc…
• I can’t get into my company’s intranet. That’s a huge deal. I can’t finish year end assessment to receive my bonus; I can’t bill my travel expenses (which is $7000 overdue…); I can’t bill hours to the client…
• Bottom line, both my personal and work lives will stop…

Here are a few lessons I’ve learned:

1. A digital person like myself shouldn’t be too cheap and rely on company computer to store all personal files with no effective backup plan. I should have a personal computer and separate my work from my personal life.
2. I was too cheap to buy a hard disk and too lazy to backup my files. Back up baby! Back up!
3. Important account access information should be kept in hard copies too and file them in old fashioned way – paper and cabinet

My #1 New Year Resolution List:

1. I am going to buy a desktop to store all of my personal files. I looked around and it seems that the Apple Mini is a good choice. Apple has more reliable software and it is more suitable for home and entertainment usage.
2. I am also buying a large backup hard disk. Gladly, Apple mini has lots of companion hard disks for a reasonable price.
3. I will back up all of my documents once a week. I haven’t found a good software, but it will be nice to sync up my laptop/desktop with the hard disk once a week automatically.
4. I am going to save hard copies of my financial account information and store them in a secure location. Digital world is great, but we can’t always rely on the machine world to live our lives.

If I’ve lost that many machines in a week, anything could happen. Being said, if you are a heavy duty digital person, learn from my mistakes and start to take precautions. You would be pulling a lot less hair than I did if you take a few extra steps now.

Happy New Year!