backup…Backup!….BACKUP!!

I confess, I’ve been very, very lucky. I haven’t been doing my backups as often as I should, but last night I backed up ALL my most important works-in-progress.

Lady Luck must have been looking out for me because when I booted up my pc this morning, the harddrive on which I usually save all my data was…’inaccessible’.

When I looked at the map of my harddrives [I have two], my data drive didn’t even have the NTFS operating system structure. I had to format the drive in order to be able to use it again. Needless to say, I won’t be using it for anything critical from here on in. Once I can afford to have another one installed, it’ll be gone.

I have lost some data, including the most recent pics used in my blog, and a heap of raw footage from videos I’ve worked on, but at least all of that stuff was completed. The pics were uploaded to WordPress and the finished videos were uploaded to Youtube so I haven’t lost anything critical. That’s why I say I’ve been so lucky; if this had happened a few days earlier, I would have lost a week’s worth of video-in-progess. And if I hadn’t backed up last night… -shudder-

In case you’re wondering, I backup periodically to an external harddrive that can take masses of data. In between times, I backup work-in-progress data to a thumbdrive that sits on my desk all the time and is quick and easy to use. Unfortunately, I don’t back up data often enough.

I hope that most of what I lost was of the ‘might come in useful one day’ variety, but I won’t know until I go to use something and find it isn’t there. I tell myself I’ll be more organized next time, but I know my good intentions won’t last. How I wish each pc came with a dedicated backup drive and backed itself up at the end of every day…

-sigh-

Please…if you haven’t backed up your important data recently…go and do it now. I was lucky. You may not be.

cheers,
Meeks

How to download… SAFELY

We’re all aware of the need to be careful when we download something from the internet, but how does ‘being careful’ actually work?

In this short post, I’ll show you how to enjoy the benefits of the internet as safely as possible. The screenshots in this how-to are all taken from Windows 7, so if you’re not running Windows 7 the details may be different, but the core principles will be the same. Onwards!

Step 1

Do not rely on your Windows firewall etc to keep your computer safe. Buy a good, reputable antivirus software and install it. I alternate between Kaspersky antivirus and BitDefender antivirus, which are both reputed to be the ‘best’ at the moment. From memory, both cost under $50 US for 12 months protection. That price includes both the software itself and the updates that keep it current with information about all the latest viruses. Antivirus without updates is like a car with all four tyres deflated.

Step 2

Install your antivirus and make sure it can access updates automatically. You may think you’ll do it every day, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions…right?

Step 3

Once your antivirus software is installed and updated, it will work quietly in the background, keeping your pc safe. BUT! You can also use it to ‘manually’ check every app you download from the internet.

This check should be carried out before you actually ‘run’ the app or install it. How? So glad you asked. 😀

Step 3a

Download the app and save it to a location on your computer. It should look something like this:

Step 3b

Once you download and save the app., use Windows Explorer to find it. My location will look different to yours. Don’t worry, just keep looking until you find the app on your computer.

Step 3c

Once you’ve found the app, right click on the thumbnail [picture] of it. This will open the right click menu as shown below:

Again, my computer will look different to yours, but every version of Windows I have ever used has a right click menu, and on it you will find the name of your antivirus software.

Step 3d

Click the name of your antivirus software and you should see a little sub-menu. On that little sub-menu you will find an option that allows you to scan the app. Click the scan option.

Most reputable apps will only take a short time to scan and the scan will come up as ‘clean’. When it does, you’re ready to use the app. If, however, the scan comes up with an error of some sort – DO NOT USE THE APP!!!! Delete it immediately because you’re better safe than sorry.

If the app is one you’ve paid good money for, contact the publisher and explain that your antivirus has found an error. A good publisher will thank you and send you a ‘clean’ version.

Okay, that’s it. Learn to love your right click menu. It really can save your bacon. 😉

cheers
Meeks

My first how-to video! Kinda sorta…

In a recent post, I wrote about my search for a screen capture app and showed you two short videos I made using Bandicam. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that I was not using a free app. I was using a demo version with severe limitations. I was tempted to buy the app, but the price was a little too high for my liking.

After some more searching, I discovered RecMaster which combines dead easy screen capture with a [very] basic video editor. I bought a year’s subscription for $19.99 USD and made a video…but when I inserted it into this post, I was horrified by how hard it was to read!

The problem is two fold. First, the default Windows fonts used in titles and menus are so small that when you reduce them even further to a standard video format, they become impossible to read. Then I discovered that WordPress makes them even smaller. Vimeo does have a fullscreen setting:

Click to toggle full screen on and off

But I worried that people would not know to turn it on. So I fiddled with the Windows screen settings. They are now much too big for normal use, but they’re just about right for a video…on Youtube. Here on WordPress, the size is still impossibly small.

I was going to update all my how-to posts, especially the self-publishing ones, by adding videos of important bits, but now I’m not sure I’ll bother. Or maybe I’ll bite the bullet and get a Youtube account.

Do you use the fullscreen mode in either Youtube or Vimeo? Is it more trouble than it’s worth? Should I keep experimenting and make the default Windows fonts even bigger?

Anyway, the video below was recorded using the larger fonts. To me it’s still horribly squint-worthy. What do you think. Please be honest as I don’t want to waste my time making videos that no one will watch.

How to change image compression and resolution in Word 16

Many thanks,
Meeks

Windows

Eyes may be the windows to the soul, but windows are the weakest link in our homes. Because they’re fragile. Because they break.

It seems like such an obvious thing now, but I remember how shocked I was when an expert pointed out that the inside of our homes is the driest place on earth. Once a window breaks, even one ember is enough to burn the house down from the inside out.

Makes sense, doesn’t it? Yet how many of us have adequate protection for our windows?

When I built my house in Warrandyte, I had to put metal mesh screens over all the windows that could be opened. But my house has double barrel windows where the top pane opens but the bottom pane is fixed. The top pane is protected by the required metal screen [basically an ordinary fly wire screen but made of metal]. The bottom pane is not.

Now, imagine a bushfire scenario. The wind is howling, and the gums are dropping branches large and small. One of those branches is blown towards the house and slams into one of my windows. The top pane may remain intact, but what of the bottom pane?

Yes. Exactly.

I solved my window problem by investing in fire resistant shutters. These shutters cover the entire window area, top pane, bottom pane and the wooden frame. They look like this:

The shutters roll up and down inside the frame [like vertical sliding doors] and are rated to protect the windows for about 20 minutes. That’s the length of time it usually takes the fire front to pass.

The regulations have been tightened up a lot since Black Saturday, and I believe that new houses in fire prone areas must have toughened glass instead of ordinary glass. But what of existing houses? As far as I know, there are no regulations about retrofitting toughened glass to houses built before 2009.

Does that mean there is no danger to those houses? Of course not.

If you live in a bushfire prone area, please think hard about your windows, and what you can do to protect them.

Stay safe.

Meeks

#Windows 10 updates – #Metered Connection

This how-to is for all non-US users of Windows 10 who have capped broadband plans – i.e. only get XX gigabytes of data per month.

Pre-Step A

Go to:

1. Start
2. Settings
3. Update & Security
4. Windows Update
5. Advanced Options

Now make sure ‘Choose How Updates are Installed’ is set to ‘Automatic (recommended)’ as shown below:

[Note: if this option is set to ‘Notify to reschedule restart’ at this point, Windows becomes…confused and could go into a perpetual loop. Mine did and I had to do a hard shutdown to get it to stop].

Step 1 – Finding the ‘Metered connection’ option

Click on the Start button and then select:

1. Settings
2. Network and Internet
3. Wifi
4. Advanced Options

Under ‘Metered connection’, click the slider button to show ‘on’:

Step 2 – changing how Windows 10 updates are scheduled

Now go back to:

1. Settings
2. Update & security
3. Windows update
4. Advanced options

and under ‘Choose how updates are installed’, change ‘Automatic’ to ‘Notify to schedule restart’.

Now, Windows 10 will notify you of:

• available updates, and
• how much broadband they will use

but it will not download and install them automatically. This is what my laptop now shows:

My heartfelt thanks to The Opening Sentence for showing me where the ‘Metered connection’ option was hiding! I feel a lot better now. 🙂

cheers
Meeks