Typists Life

All computer users have been there; just as they are about to complete their four hours work the computer hangs, freezes, reboots or just dies.

What do you do...

I know all the rants and raves, swearing and physical abuse of the device do not work and I have seen it all - even the cracked remains on the street below an open window!!

No the answer lies in the preparation and no you do not find this advice in any text book I have every seen.

You must assess the risk (I have seen this in text books many times) before you start.

No matter what it is you are about to do on your computer or PDA or other tool of your trade.  You must assess the risk of breakage and the impact on yourself...

As a kid I used to like woodwork and I remember as if it were yesterday our class being allowed to use chisels for the first time.  One class-mate, very good at woodwork, was just finishing off the base of his carving when the chisel broke through suddenly and all his inertia pushed it deep into his leg.

Out fishing one day a chap along the bank asked me to watch his line while he popped over the fence for light relief.  Hearing a chilling cry of pain a few minutes later I turned to see this poor fellow straddling the top spar of the fence, the bottom spar broken on the ground.  To add insult to injury he was so engrossed in the moment he did not steady himself upright and spun around the spar and dropped onto his head!

A friend of a client rang me and asked about disk problems and explained that the chap at the PC shop down the road had said his hard-disk was broken in his lap-top - that was why it would not start.  Years of work was on the computer and he wanted it back.  I explained that there are many levels of data recovery service available, from simple format corruptions and hardware faults to analysis of the surface of the disks in the most serious cases.  It was highly likely that it would be possible to get his data back.  Sadly on this occasion the disks were physically deformed by the hardware fault and the many attempts the owner had made to get it going...  All was gone forever.

So what should you do?

 - think ahead - what might happen, what might go wrong, how might it affect me, how will it affect others, what will I do if does happen, is this an acceptable risk?

 - if it does happen to you remember to seek professional advice and only take actions you are absolutely sure will not make the situation worse.  (Remember Bearings Bank? - an excellent lesson in what not to do when things go wrong and it shows how easily us humans will keep experimenting with things that we are not sure will make the situation better)

 - Pass it on - if you find a weakness (or special strength) in something we all may do or use let the world know about it so we all benefit from your experience and perhaps your misfortune can have a happy ending after all.

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