I have been reviewing various ways to store the information that is on my computer.  I’ve considered buying a external device, but haven’t wanted to spend the money.  I’ve looked at a few online services, and am still considering this option.

Online Backup is worth it if the amount I would have to pay (if anything) is reasonable and most important to me, the site storing the information must be secure.  See the little “iDrive Basic - 2 GB Free” image in this post? That is what drew me to take a look at iDrive.com.  2 GB isn’t enough to store everything that I have on my laptop by any means, but it’s enough to test the system.  Then, after testing and learning how things work, if I’m happy with it, I’ll pay the monthly fee, it’s really quite reasonable.  It would take me a couple years to spend the amount it would cost me to buy the external unit I was considering.  I use a laptop, and don’t have an iPhone, Blackberry or MAC, but understand that you can store information from them as well.

SO, I’m definitely giving this a try when I finish typing this.  Everything is explained so clearly at the site I’m most interested in with images showing you step by step how the service works online, quite impressive.

So don’t loose all that typing and the graphics you’ve done for that book or manuscript, or any other information on your computer, back it up.

Many are concerned about hackers breaking into their computer systems, causing damage in any number of ways, stealing valuable information, and doing all sorts of unusual things. I have a story of something that happened to my daughter when she was using our computer quite a few years ago.  She was always chatting online, and had a guy come on and tell her that he could hack into our computer, which it seems he proceeded to do…somehow he was able to make the “drawer” that opens when you play a CD open and close, and other bizarre things as we all sat and watched (we kept the computer in the main part of the house when our children were growing up and using it).  It was quite an eye-opening and frightening occurrence.  Things are more secure now than they were then, but not completely secure.

I’ve been introduced to a site that presents the concept of Ethical Hacking. At first this seemed a little far-fetched to me. It’s introduces a training program that teaches how hackers do their work, so in a sense you are learning how to hack so that you can prevent hackers from harming your computer, you are getting into the mind of the hacker.  Then you will be able to help others to prevent the problem in their businesses or homes.

IT Security is extremely important to all of us, if you are curious, visit the sponsor of this post through any of the links. Learn about the study program, and how they do their best to make sure that those they instruct aren’t going to take the information and use it in a harmful way, but for your benefit.

I am not sure that this is something that would be useful to a book author or writer, but it may be. It will definitely be of interest to those who are in a business that wants to preserve documents, especially in the day and age in which we live when all those in business are under such close scrutiny.

When I was working in an accounting office a while back, we had a huge stack of items that were waiting for someone to find the time to scan (pdf in this case) them for archiving…I’m not there any more, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the pile still is.

If you are in a business like this, or any business, large or small, where how well you have kept your records may determine the future of your business, or verify your integrity, you may be interested in a service that provides document scanning.

The ins and outs of document scanning are not complicated, but a lot to present in this post, so visit the links provided to learn more. As you consider the importance of preserving your documents, think about things like this:

• What would you do if there was a natural disaster, or a fire and all your in-house documents were destroyed?
• What will you do when you run out of room for storage?
• What if you want to be able to use your time to focus on your business and leave document scanning to someone else?
• What kind of help is available when you no longer need to save documents?

Those are just a few things to consider as you look into ways to improve your business in 2009.

Best wishes for a prosperous New Year this last day of 2008.