Wednesday, May 1, 2013

When Technology Fails You



In a tech savvy world, things breaking is sort of expected. Computers crash, phones break, touch screens malfunction. When you think about all the technology we rely on and expect to work, it's kind of scary. I've had more than a few occasions when the computer freezes up on me before I've had time to save my document. Which is then followed by some chest clutching, hair pulling, breath holding moments. I've been lucky in that I haven't (Yet, fingers crossed) lost any of my work. Blogger has even lost some of my posts when I didn't remember to press the save button.

I had kind of a mini freak out this past weekend when my NEW Kindle Fire stopped working. Just bam, without any warning. I used it in the morning to play a game (I am addicted to Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader, and most of the time, no, I am not in fact smarter than a fifth grader), afterwards I put is aside by the charger because the battery was almost dead as a reminder to plug it in later. That night, before heading out to the Drive-Ins with the family, I finally remembered. And nothing happened. Nada. The charging light didn't come onor anything. I plugged my phone into the charger to see if that was the problem, but immediately my phone recognized that it was the wrong USB and wanted me to unplug it, so that wasn't the issue. I thought maybe it was too dead for the charger to recognize that it was charging and decided to leave it plugged in while we went the movies. When I came back, still nothing. Long story short, we got in touch with tech support on Amazon and they're sending me a new Kindle, so yay! But what if it hadn't been my Kindle that broke down, but my laptop? There are so many things on that thing I wouldn't be able to replace. My heart is speeding and the sweat on my forehead is breaking just thinking about it. This is why it's SO important to back up your work. I am guilty of shrugging my shoulders and saying I'll get to it later, but really, we can't afford to be so blase about it. Our hard work is just a frozen screen away from disappearing. Rachelle Gardner had some great tips HERE for saving your work as well if you're looking for more ways to back it up. I hope none of us ever have to go through those heart wrenching moments again. But, in a world that is constantly changing with technology, I think it may just be a pipe dream.

4 comments:

  1. I lost a whole novel once. It was years ago and it stunk anyway, but at the time it was heartbreaking. I was lucky enough to have a hard copy, but that was it. I've retyped some of it, revising like crazy as I go.

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    1. ah! I can't believe that! Glad you had a hard copy, otherwise, holy crap, I don't even want to think about it.

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  2. Glad they replaced your new Kindle Fire. How do you like it so far. I love mine!

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