Monthly Archives: December 2007

Worst Day of the Year Ride Scheduled

This year the ride is set for February 10th, 2008, starting at the Lucky Lab at 915 SE Hawthorne. This is one of the first organized rides of the year, and has grown steadily in popularity. And, while there has been some nasty weather on or around this date in the past, the weather for this ride has not been so bad. The ride is a little crowded, capping it 2,000, and the 18 mile inner city route is short when you are trying to fit in 4 stops. But its a fun time and on those times it was rainy or chilly, the food at the finish is a treat. We will extend the bike miles by riding there and back from home.

You can register or find information at: Worst Day of the Year Ride

2008 Ride Calendar will be updated on our GoLiNiel cycling pages.

Winter storm damage strikes my office computer.

Portland has had two days of heavy rain and winds. In our office, we are shielded from the winter elements.
We are not however, completely shielded from the damages that can be caused by sudden surges in the electrical power. Here is a picture of my computer screen after such a surge in power. It is black. And this computer is likely to stay black. After the big blow, I yanked all the cords and rushed it over to our Information System gurus and pleaded for help. “I’m sure it just needs a new power supply or something. You gotta help me!” They emerged from their cubicle several hours later, sadly shaking their heads. They had done all they could. Nothing could be salvaged. They assured me they had tried all the diagnostic and repair methods available, it was just too far gone. Something about smoked and scorched leads into the hard drive. They probably said more, but I was no longer hearing them. My mind was searching for a plan to recover what data I could from a system that has been accumulating stuff for a decade. I will likely get a good portion of the stuff back from previous, but not entirely recent backup sources. I will never recover all the data, and now a new system has to be entirely reconfigured. The next time I saw the gurus, I received the obligatory speech about backups. Yes, yes, I know about backups. And I also know that everyone who uses a computer has, or will have, a tragic loss of data. I guess I don’t think about it often enough.
There are tons of ways to backup your data.
Two ways I backup data at home is to copy it off onto CDs, label them and store them in a book.
I also have some external USB hard drives to which I can copy whole directories.
At work there could be other systems on your network, or tapes or USB sticks, it doesn’t matter how you do it.
But remember…. Do it, or lose it.

My computer after a power surge