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....why on earth would you not have your current work in progress saved on some type of cloud storage?
This story is nuts. Her back-up is to email herself an attachment every now and again. Better than nothing but, seriously? OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud... Its not difficult.
That's insane.
a lot of people have to experience some kind of disaster before they truly appreciate the value of proper backups! You'd have thought that her editor or something would've pointed it out before now though 😂
OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud… Its not difficult.
Are these secure enough for storing something like this on? Genuine question - if I was a successful author I'd be a bit paranoid about people getting access tp my work-in-progress. I'd almost certainly use some kind of hard storage, and almost certainly keep it in the laptop case alongside the laptop which got lost in the blizzard. 😀
Are these secure enough for storing something like this on?
Yes, provided you keep your account access protected - 2-factor auth etc.
Its a loss to lose the work - work as in the time spent typing - but she only has to type it again really. She hasn't lost the idea. If she lost the work, as in it was discovered online and leaked, thats a bigger deal and that where her and her publishers actual income comes from.
The shetland archipelago is probably not massively well renowned for its extentive broadband and 5G so online backups aren't all that obvious a choice,
It would be different if it was James Joyce's laptop and he'd spent days just agonising over what order to put the words in one sentence in 🙂
OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud… Its not difficult.
For you.
Yes, provided you keep your account access protected – 2-factor auth etc.
Another raft of technology for someone to wrangle.
I agree it is amazing - but then it takes someone to help her, to explain that these things *just work*, to maybe sort out setting it up.
My father for years had no idea - until I sat him down one day and set up his laptop to actually back up to GoogleDrive and his phone to sync everything to Google as well.
Even when these things are set up, I find the absolute basics are not then set up for a 'numpty' to use - for example, new staff at work are provided with a laptop already set up on Sharepoint etc. It has taken me recently to create a simple 'set it up with: shortcuts to office programmes on the task bar, set up the following quick shortcuts on the desktop and browser bar to our HR, Sharepoint, Delve etc, make sure Teams is downloaded, set up and signed into (etc etc). The tech company are good - but are so at another level of techniness they don't think about our team who are often far from understanding the basics at times.
Yeah but everyone's the same. I read it on a thread here.
I think emailing it to yourself isn't actually a bad approach. She could increase the frequency to when she finishes at lunch or at the end of the day, but it's not bad.
She just never needed to before.
It's not surprising at all to me, as boggled as some of you techies appear to be.
The shetland archipelago is probably not massively well renowned for its extentive broadband
doesn't sound [I]that[/I] primitive to be honest!
http://www.shetlandbroadband.co.uk/index.html
Are these secure enough for storing something like this on? Genuine question
Likely no less secure than leaving your laptop in a snowdrift.
its not difficult.
For you.
Elsewhere on STW a few days ago, someone was complaining that it was too difficult not to sync data with the cloud.
I take your point of course, but surely at some point a "professional author" whose livelihood depends on the contents of their laptop might consider that if they don't really understand all this new-fangled technology it might be an idea to ask someone who does?
It’s not surprising at all to me, as boggled as some of you techies appear to be.
I'm not even remotely surprised. It's a question every tech has heard on a weekly basis for decades, there's a "my hard drive died and I have no backups" thread running concurrently on STW right now.
I'm increasingly of the mind that we should stop accepting "it's complicated" as an excuse. Even if that were true, home computers were new and scary in the 1980s. We've since had 40 years for people to accept "back up your work" as common knowledge.
Equally of course we've had 40 years to try and teach this message. There is a learning curve, it's not as intuitive as sneering poindexters in stores would have us believe. Teach, learn, ask, get some help. It would be unthinkable to drive a car without taking lessons. We wouldn't hang a shelf with Blu-Tac and then laugh about how we're not a carpenter when if collapses; we wouldn't jump to defend that with "well, not everyone has access to a power drill you know!"
It baffles me that most 'normal' people are walking around with computers in their pockets costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds, with more processing power than yesterday's supercomputers, and we're arguing "well, you can't expect people to know how to use it" when they bollocks it up. Perhaps not, but is it such a great leap to have an expectation that they try to find out? Why not, when someone is standing in a white-and-glass high-street store handing over several grand for the latest FruitBook Pro Ultra Vapour, bundle in a half-hour session with a Genius to show them how to use it safely?
Authors have been leaving their manuscripts on the bus/train/boat for centuries. This is just the 21st C version.
Its a loss to lose the work – work as in the time spent typing – but she only has to type it again really. She hasn’t lost the idea.
Yes, but no. I write stuff for a living, and this is my absolute worst nightmare.
If she lost the work, as in it was discovered online and leaked, thats a bigger deal and that where her and her publishers actual income comes from.
This happened with one of Jamie Oliver's cookery books, although there were theories that it was actually a marketing ploy.
Beryl Bainbridge wrote plenty of her books on a Logica VTS (well, more than one - I imagine it was Trigger's Broom) and saved the manuscripts on 5.25" floppies.
Bomber by Len Deighton can claim to be the first book researched and written using a word processor. If you can find a copy of the book, there's a description in it somewhere about how the author and a researcher used it.
Elsewhere on STW a few days ago, someone was complaining that it was too difficult not to sync data with the cloud.
I missed that thread. Was the Op trying to take 'artistic photos' in the bedroom? Stick to polaroid is my advice, no chance then of the photos popping up on the family iPad!
One of the problems with the cloud isn't the stuff you are working on, you are largely aware of that. It's the stuff that you want to keep that you accidentally delete without spotting that you've deleted it (not as difficult as you would imagine). The recycle bin in OneDrive is only good for 30 days or 90 days for Sharepoint. If you don't spot that you have deleted it within that time you are snookered. It means that you both need some sort of cloud sync to always have an up to date copy if you flush your lappie down the toilet but you should also do a snapshot to a harddrive/NAS/USB drive from time to time. If you care about security then that should be bitlockered.
It's never as easy as you imagine 🙁
I missed that thread. Was the Op trying to take ‘artistic photos’ in the bedroom? Stick to polaroid is my advice, no chance then of the photos popping up on the family iPad!
I think it was a misunderstanding rather than privacy concerns. Though to be honest I didn't really understand the logic.
My wife is an author. Her work is backed up to the cloud as well and written to a server several times a day.
I set it up for her as she’s not particularly IT savvy - and I’d imagine there are a few of her author friends who don’t backup very often. I’m gonna make sure she shares the article as a timely reminder.
Beryl Bainbridge wrote plenty of her books on a Logica VTS (well, more than one – I imagine it was Trigger’s Broom) and saved the manuscripts on 5.25″ floppies.
I think the old Amstrad PCW was popular with authors long after they were obsolete simply because of all the things they couldn't do, it basically produced text and nothing else so it was a workspace with no distractions.
I read today that Snoop Dogg writes his lyrics on a typewriter
Yes, but no. I write stuff for a living, and this is my absolute worst nightmare.
Oh yeah I'm sure its not a happy outcome - but something that you've wholly created- as in, out of your head and onto the page can be recreated, maybe not in every detail, but you're unlikely, for instance to forget whodunnit and be unable to write that down again. My gf is a observational documentary filmmaker - we've got drives and drives full of hundreds of hours of footage moments that could never be recreated - so its also creative content that she's the author of but it consists entirely of the capture of ephemeral moments.
I doubt she’s lost much given her email. Except the physical laptop on which she wants to work on the document.
It baffles me that most ‘normal’ people are walking around with computers in their pockets costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds, with more processing power than yesterday’s supercomputers, and we’re arguing “well, you can’t expect people to know how to use it” when they bollocks it up.
people have cars worth much more and put the wrong fuel in or don’t tip up the oil or etc. Houses, they are tricky too with the plumbing and the electrics and heating etc. I used to be pretty tech savvy but free time is now limited and I don’t wish to spend it learning anything other than the very basics. Just don’t have the interest any more or inclination. Same as how I call my FiL (retired mechanic) for anything other than the basics with the car.
Oh and (mild work based rant) share point and one drive are ****ing terrible. Take ages to sync, or syncs and then tells you there’s a sync issue fifteen minutes later. Tells you that you don’t have permission from the author to edit or save a file even though said author is you and you’re logged in, right there, in the top right corner. Even better when you share a doc and it works for a bit and then doesn’t.
Don’t get me started on tech, spent a very stressful hour on first day of my annual leave trying to get my (company mandatory) out of office message working on outlook on my IPad before giving up and hoping no one emails me for the next two and a bit weeks!
people have cars worth much more and put the wrong fuel in or don’t tip up the oil or etc. Houses, they are tricky too with the plumbing and the electrics and heating etc. I used to be pretty tech savvy but free time is now limited and I don’t wish to spend it learning anything other than the very basics. Just don’t have the interest any more or inclination. Same as how I call my FiL (retired mechanic) for anything other than the basics with the car.
Sure, but.
You know whether to put petrol or diesel in, even if you might cock it up sometime. You know that you're supposed to have your boiler serviced regularly even if you don't do it (mine's overdue), or to when get a man out if you need an electrical socket installing. If you were standing in your living room in an inch of water because you'd unbolted the radiator to replace it, you wouldn't expect a mate to go "well, it is rather complicated," but rather "you're a bloody muppet."
It's almost as though we expect computers to be simultaneously easy and difficult. They've been a component of modern living for most of people's adult lives, this should be second nature by now but folk still don't know the basics and it's become stigmatised to ask. Like, that co-worker who you've worked with for two years, but never known their name and now there's absolutely no way you could go "look, I'm sorry but..."
The only time people ask for help is when something is ducked and it's often too late. If you weren't sure, would you check your fuel type before you fill the tank or wait until you've got twenty yards off the forecourt and it's conked out?
In almost 2023, is "I didn't know I should make backups" a reasonable stance? It's certainly understandable, but it shouldn't be acceptable. People should not be placed into this position. How about "I knew I should make backups but I didn't know how"? That's arguably worse, they knew something was important but either didn't care or were frightened to ask... and then the question then becomes, is that on them, or on us?
We need to be better at this. In one corner we have "how can you not know this?" and in the other "well, how were you expected to know this?" and it is a dichotomy. Basic IT literacy is something anyone with a computer should have, but to get to that point en masse a) we have to teach it and b) they have to want to learn. Otherwise they're a risk to themselves and to those around them.
Are these secure enough for storing something like this on?
Yes, they are.
Also, if I were directing a hypothetical question to non-professional authors, I would have titled my thread, "If you were a professional author..."
If I was seeking help from a professional author, I would title it, "If you are a professional author..."
Seems on the face of it to have been a terrible error of judgement, then you stop to think about the free publicity and exposure for the author and it all starts to look a little different 😊
for example, new staff at work are provided with a laptop already set up on Sharepoint etc
I work with someone who wouldn't copy and paste between excel spreadsheets because she didn't trust it. So she retyped manually.
But wait there's more...
She then did the calcs on a calculator and types the answer in aswell.
She then did the calcs on a calculator and types the answer in aswell.
About 15 years ago, my wife tried to show her boss and another colleague how to do some basic record keeping in Excel, basically just summing up columns to get totals. They thought it was just a way of entering numbers into a pre-formatted table and assumed that you needed to use a calculator to get the totals. They were apparently mesmerized by Excel automatically updating the totals as data was added.
However, they never understood how to enter simple equations to get totals, averages, etc. and my wife gave up in frustration. I know the colleague, he's as dumb as **** despite (apparently) having an MBA. I'd bet money that they are still using a calculator to do their records on sheets of paper.
I work with someone who wouldn’t copy and paste between excel spreadsheets because she didn’t trust it. So she retyped manually.
I can beat that.
At a previous place of work I noticed someone was constantly back and forth to the printer. I went over and asked what she was doing. She'd been tasked with migrating data from an old system to a new one* so her workflow went:
Open old system.
Pull up a customer record.
Print out their name and address.
Retrieve printout.
Close old system.
Open new system.
Type in the address from the printout.
Close new system.
Redo from start.
I showed her how alt-tab worked. She was amazed.
(* - which is bloody stupid in itself, that's a job for an import script, not a manual task)
Also, if I were directing a hypothetical question to non-professional authors, I would have titled my thread, “If you were a professional author…”
If I was seeking help from a professional author, I would title it, “If you are a professional author…”
Mate, I correct things like this for a living and don't get thanked or paid enough for it.
Why would you do it for free on a forum?
Why would you do it for free on a forum?
I’m increasingly of the mind that we should stop accepting “it’s complicated” as an excuse.
Ohhh. Can we apply that to the STW forum/website problems?
🤔😉
Bastard.
🤣🤣
Anyone have strong feelings against Title Case?
It’s almost as though we expect computers to be simultaneously easy and difficult.
Excuse me for being Captain Obvious, but is that because they are? Excel (to take one example) is so complex now that one could legitimately create a university degree course based on it.
Excel (to take one example) is so complex now
It always was.
Anyone have strong feelings against Title Case?
Hell yeah. I have waged a one-man crusade against that and the casual use of exclamation marks.
Makes this site look amateurish that it still uses it.
I can understand the author as an arty creative type being a bit daft but as a published author with TV adaptions etc. I'd expect the publishers to be better managing their investment.
So the draft of "Shetland Blizzard" turned up in a snow drift on Shetland. And people keep talking about clouds, albeit in a non-meteorological sense. You couldn't write it, nobody would believe...