A series of mishaps is keeping me offline more than I’d like. Since 99.9% of my work is Internet based, I’d say this is a problem. You see, there’s an upscale housing development going up across the road from me. At least once a day I experience a cable or power outage. I can’t tell you how frustrating this is to me. These outages last anywhere from ten minutes to ten hours.
This is not a good time for me to fall behind in my work. Camp is over and my son is home so I’m not working as many hours as a couple of months ago. I have enough to catch up with as it is. Fortunately, I’m learning to write as much as I can in advance and also I have a small arsenal of back up blog posts to be used in case of emergency.
I think every freelancer needs to plan ahead, especially in a situation like this. What happens if you lose power or you can’t get online? What if there’s an illness or family emergency?
When I can I at least plan a week’s worth of posts. I might do this while my son is playing at the park or in the backyard with his friends. I’ll write up ideas and outlines. What I really like to do is post ahead of time and then set my blog to “drip” my posts on the appropriate day. The problem with this is that I’m so busy playing catch up lately, I don’t have time to write in advance.
One good thing is that the local library has wireless. I take my computer on days there are puppet shows or craft or story hours and drop off my son and work when I can, that’s what I’m doing now. It’ll be easier in a couple of weeks when school begins as I’ll be able to go to the library or coffee shop and work for several hours without interruption if need be. It’s still an inconvenience though.
My computer monitor has two thin lines going down the center. About a month ago the first line developed, now a second one made an appearance. A techie friend thinks it’s only a matter of time before the monitor or laptop goes completely. Swell…what do I do then? Yes, I’m backing up and preparing for the inevitable. Which brings me to my point.
Be prepared, People. Back up your work. Work ahead if you can and be prepared. I’ll see you when the power returns!
Deb
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August 24th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Oh Deb! How timely! We are having those darn wildfires here in Montana. The friendly neighborhood fire marshall comes up and says you gotta go. Again and again and again-ugh!
The library is my friend. I have given up on sleeping and yet, the thrill is still there when I get a response from something I write.
Back up is your savior! That and black coffee.
Amelia
August 24th, 2007 at 3:49 pm
We’re lucky enough up here in the great Northwest to have Tully’s Coffees which offers free wireless in most of their stores. (This offering is actually *almost* enough to make me switch de-brand myself as a Starbucks loyalist. Starbucks signed an agreement early in the wireless curve to have T-Mobile set up the hot spots in their stores and the service plans are very costly.) During last year’s snow and windstorm our power was out in the house for 9 straight days. Even though I had to travel 30 minutes to get to the nearest store, Tully’s was truly a life-saver. And, yes, there is always a library.
On side note, if you are using your laptop as your primary computer (as I do) go ahead and invest in a 17″ screen. I cut corners when I bought my last one and the money I saved in getting the 15″ model is going to be passed directly over to my optometrist.
August 24th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I can’t recommend living in the city enough.
I have at least 6 coffee places and 3 bars within 1 mile of me (a decent walk) that have free wireless, plus the library.
If you live in the city and make friends with everyone, you can do anything. People always have my back, and I have theirs. We share a reserve in every way possible.
Heck, I just was named an Honorary “Rasa” today, despite the fact that any skin paler than mine is probably considered a medical condition.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
One of the great things about writing, IMHO, is that I don’t always need a computer. Sometimes I just use my trusty Neo AlphaSmart. I can write on that–whether blog posts, articles or short stories–and then transfer it to my computer while I’m doing something else (like cooking dinner). It allows me to write when WiFi isn’t available, which is quite valuable to me.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Deb, if you’ve saved your pennies, you back up the hard drive (or better yet, pop it out and put it into a USB enclosure) and you replace the laptop (the one with the screen going bad). If you haven’t been putting money aside for this purpose, you go to the bank and borrow it and you pay on it. No fun, that, but a laptop is a must.
I’m about to be without mine for two weeks. NO FUN.
August 24th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
Power outages are really nasty things. I got my whole place wired with enough batteries to last five hours. yet accidents do happen at times. Data loss can be just as traumatic as losing your girlfriend.
I’ve had some bad experience with power outages causing my production server to crash. That was a nasty affair. Took me three days of trying every trick in the book, i was lucky to salvage some of my data. Some of it vanished .
However Deb, i don’t think you need to be really worried about the lines on your monitor. Those happen all the time with LCD monitors. Even if the display vanishes, your data is going to be safe in your hard drive. What you really need to worry about is a hard disk crash.
So backup your data, CDs and DVDs are good. but here is something better.
Just posted an entry in my blog about how to secure data without ever losing it. Hope that helps some of you.
Oh yes this is the same guy who keeps this site running smoooth
August 24th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Hilarious! Tornadoes in Michigan…cable goes in and out and I am goingon 4 hours sleep here. . .ahhh life!
August 24th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I have a similar problem with connectivity and it’s very frustrating, My ADSL provider doesn’t seem to know the meaning of ‘always on’, so there is regular downtime - at least once or twice a day. That’s not counting the times when the service disappears for several hours, as it did about a week ago. If I’ve done my research, then I can keep writing, but if I haven’t, it puts me behind. Oh well, school starts in a couple of weeks, so maybe I’ll get back up to full productivity then, ADSL permitting
August 24th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
My DSL went down for 10 minutes today. It was long enough to give me a headache.
In addition to the internet cafes and wireless coffeeshops, I also have a small group of friends who are my back-up internet service providers. If the power ever goes out in my area, I’m taking my laptop straight to their houses.
August 24th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I don’t have a back up plan. Yes, my work is backed up most nights, but if internet goes out then I’m done. I live in a small town, everyone has the same internet provider and we are 4 hours to the nearest city. NOT fun! So far we have never had problems, but you never know. If we do, I hope I don’t have any immediate deadlines to make or I’m done for!
August 24th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Murphy’s Law is inevitable. I know I don’t back up as often as I should, but I’ve had a generator since ‘98. Unfortunately, my power consumption needs have grown since then, so I could use it for my laptop (run through an ADC backup battery first then from the battery to laptop to ensure steady power).
Power spikes can kill your computer, while smaller power fluctuations can kill it slowly. Always run power to a backup battery, then to a computer.
Have backup offices like coffee shops. No, you can’t be as efficient, but at least you have a backup plan. I like Kris’ idea of a network of friends. Doesn’t work for me because friends aren’t close enough geographically.
Consider joining a Chamber of Commerce, which might have offices with Internet hookups that they’ll let members use at a low rate. I did this for three days before buying a generator in 98.
As for backups, there are also Web-based backups for a low price. If you back up to a hard drive or USB, that doesn’t do a lot of good in case of a fire or flood.
Cable or DSL going down is a big problem, too. But the coffee shops help there as well.
Another thing I attempt to do is to be well ahead of deadline. If not a power problem, then a car will give out and I’ll have to give my wife a jump or change a tire.
August 24th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
I back up on CDs once every few months, though I really need to do it more often. I have the CDs…
I live three miles from a college with wireless connection that I’ll also be attending, effective tomorrow. If I go ten miles from my house, there’s anther wireless college that I attended for the past two years. I live in a cozy little suburb—retirement home capital of my state—one street from the boundary of a decent-sized (read: rapidly-growing) city. I live smack between two libraries and a few more miles out from my city’s main one.
So if anything goes wrong, I have a lot of places to try if one of my many friends can’t help.
Sharon Hurley Hall
About your often-down service, do you keep track of the downtime to have that taken off your bill?
August 24th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
When my husband and I first moved in to our house a year or so ago, the phone company messed up the DSL transfer, and we were without Internet access for several days. Luckily, there is a coffee shop several blocks away with free wireless. We also have several libraries and an indie bookstore chain that offer free wireless.
Then last summer, my laptop fan died and I had to send my computer back to the manufacturer. It’s my main machine, but thankfully I still had my old laptop (500 MhZ!) to use as a backup.
I also have a large jump drive (4 GB) that I use to back up my work frequently.
August 25th, 2007 at 12:42 am
Deb, thanks for reminding me that I do need to plan ahead with my blogging. This past week I didn’t post as often as I like because I was very busy with work-related commitments. I knew about this commitment for a long while, but I under-estimated how tiring it would be and that exhaustion would sap my creativity well.
As for Internet access, I have both DSL and wireless access, so when one fails I use another. Many of the restaurants in the city also offer WiFi spots + there are a number of Internet cafes operating in my suburb. So access isn’t a problem.
August 25th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Ughhh….A couple of nights ago, I had a deadline. I was already sending my article when it started raining hard and electricity was cut off. I was dead dead dead.
It happened to me so many times already. It’s especially hard since I only have a desktop so when the lights are out, my business is also is.
There were also times when my DSL provider is down and I had to hussle in the dead of the night to find an open internet cafe.
August 25th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Such a timely post on many fronts. We recently recovered from a total hard drive crash due to…a broken mouse. It got stuck in the “on click” mode and clogged our RAM cache, thus overloading our poor computer. We salvaged almost everything, but it took weeks. Now we have a second hard drive (unplugged except for when we back up to it), I have stored key documents (clips, etc.) on my e-mail servers, and zip drives are everywhere.
There’s still a place for pencils and paper in my arsenal of writing tools; I started freelancing while at endless baseball practices in a WV county famous for its lack of Internet and cell phone coverage.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Another thought: External backup hard drives are VERY inexpensive and can be set up to automatically back up files. One company was even coming out (may be out already with a 1 TB backup drive which should be more than enough for anyone.
But if dealing with floods, like many in the Midwest are (I just got done taking care of some minor seepage in the crawlspace — other floodproofing has already cost me $10,000 in last several years), an online solution is best because it’s stored remotely. Security is better for these files than it used to be.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:37 am
I have a double backup for my work. Since I am a web developer and graphic designer (as well as a freelance writer), I cannot afford to lose any of my high resolution graphics, web designs, or articles. So, my desktop computer has a UPS (universal power supply), which is a big battery back. Should the power go out, my desktop computer will not feel the power surge and it will allow me to shut down my computer slowly.
On top of that, my laptop is networked to my desktop so that all the files are on my desktop computer. Since I have all my eggs in one basket (all my files in one place), I signed up for Mozy.com, which backs up my files for me on their servers once a week for an unlimited amount of space. They not only back up the files but encrypt them so that prying eyes cannot be nosy.
I second backing up your data and having battery packs on hand. I have been in Information Technology for over 12 years and I have seen even the newest of computers meet a horrible and quick death - taking with them the most priceless of documents.
August 25th, 2007 at 9:28 am
Look on the bright side Deb. At least the upscale neighborhood will make your property value go up
:) 
August 25th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Shannon,
What does Mozy.com cost?
August 25th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hey, Shannon, I’m a writer and a graphic designer/illustrater also. I find backing up my writing files to be a piece of cake next to backing up high-res photoshop files! I can just drag my whole entire writing folder onto a separate hard drive and the whole thing only takes a couple of minutes to copy. I wouldn’t try that with a folder full of photos or tiffs unless I was doing something else, like making dinner!
I back up my projects, but there are other files that it’s difficult to lose. I had to reformat my hard drive once and thought I’d backed up thoroughly, but it turned out I’d lost some old emails that I wished I could refer to later.
As to preplanning my blogs…boy, I really need to do that. Ideally, I want to update my author’s blog weekly, and it’s just not happening. I’ve got all kinds of resistance to updating it regularly.
August 26th, 2007 at 5:44 am
For me, I light candles and read books instead. I live in a rural town. WiFi is not available in much of Vermont, so if the power’s out, there is nothing I can do. And we’ve had this happen a number of times this summer. The weather’s been odd, so for a six week stretch in my area we were having thunderstorms routinely on Friday mornings. One day the power was out for 10 hours. A week ago, we had massive storms that caused what the weather service is saying was a straight line wind sheer that snapped four power poles 1/2 a mile up and down the road from me. We were without power and phone for a full day.
Our local library has internet, but they limit the amount of time you can spend on any of the computer stations, so there’s no point in wasting the gas. In these cases, I simply call the people I write for, tell them what’s happened, and usually I’m far enough ahead on deadlines that it doesn’t matter if I lose a day.
August 26th, 2007 at 8:00 am
Yes we must live in the same area. The short power flicks are my favourite. Just one second and your computer is rebooting. What fun. I have not backed up data in a while and your blog was a great reminder. First on my to do list tomorrow.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Another good “be prepared” tip — have a backup keyboard and mouse at hand. You never know one of them will crap out, and not having a backup means you have to go out into the world to get one.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
As John says, be ready with another keyboard, unless one is easily accessible. Luckily I live near an Office Depot. They do monthly business with me because keyboards don’t like coffee.
But at least when I go out to get another one, I know why my wife is rolling her eyes at me (usually I don’t know the reason).
August 27th, 2007 at 2:48 am
I have two blogs that I have to post to daily. The week before last, I encountered an outage on my internet service. I scrambled to call a friend, have them hop on the internet, and get their number for me so I can call the company to let them know that I would be late with my posts for that day. Come to find out, I can set the timestamp to the future, and it will post the blog on the designated day for me ( similar to your “drip”). This has become a godsend for me!! I hope that things get worked out for you, Deb! I always check your website first thing week day mornings for the latest in writing assignments. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!
August 27th, 2007 at 3:13 am
This is great information. I back stuff up on a floppy but not as often as I should. This week is about getting ready for the school year again so it would be a horrible time for a power outage. My pc is on all the time. Good luck Deb with your power problems.
August 28th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Also, having back up articles is a great idea too. I have some ideas that I havn’t finished that seem to pop up at a good time. Most is having to write fresh though. Besides the ongoing notebook that I’m about to start, it looks like I’ll be starting a little folder too. Out of sight, out of mind is so true for me.
August 28th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had a chance to read here lately, so I’m playing catch-up. But this post really struck home with me, because on the 24th we had a huge storm with tornado warnings, power outages, etc. My first thought when the storm hit was “I don’t have time for this,” rather than, “Gee, I’d better log off of here and get someplace safe.” Luckily, everything cleared up ok, but that was a good sign to me that I’m letting myself get too busy.
Your idea about writing blogs and such ahead of time is a really good one. I’m going to have to put that to use next time my workload slows down.
As far as computer crashes, thumb drives save my sanity often. I had one laptop’s motherboard (which to me sounded too close to being a mothership) melt down suddenly and another fade out slowly like yours. Both times I had to take my hard drive to a tech friend to get my files back, because I hadn’t backed anything up. Now I use the thumb drive before I shut down each day.