School Library Journal published a piece by Andy Carvin on the Digital Divide and why it’s dangerous that it’s no longer in the forefront of people’s minds.

After two weeks of testing, the computer repair shop finally confirmed my laptop’s problem is a failing hard drive, as many of my geeky friends hypothesized. I’m going to get a larger drive because it just makes sense to do that now. I just need to figure out how much bigger is really better.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how storage media has changed. I remember the days when everything would be on diskette–actually, I can remember computers running reel-to-reel tape, believe it or not–because hard drives were so much smaller. Now, it seems like there’s an attitude that using that kind of storage media regularly is just silly unless we’re doing some kind of backup. Computers don’t come with much in the way of media drives anymore. We have to purchase many of them separately. Was it safer or better to store things elsewhere than it is to store data on a hard drive now? Both have their risks. It’s just that now when a hard drive fails, it seems that the consequences are so much higher because, at least in my case, hard drives hold so much more. I’m glad I did that backup a few weeks ago. (Thanks, J & P & JD, et. al., for all the nagging about that.)

My next task is to buy a protective case for my machine.

Addenda 2/28: When I originally wrote this post, I meant to link to the cool cartoon Tony sent via a comment, but forgot to work it in.

3/6: JH, one of my favorite geeks, recommends Tom Bihn’s cases, particularly the Brain Cell.

Upon learning about my computer’s latest problems, a friend suggested putting a donation button on my blog for a new machine. The idea cracked me up.

In all honesty, I have two basic problems with it:

1. I don’t think it’s right to ask you, my dearest readers, for money, especially to support my computer habit.

2. Someone would send me a Windows machine.

Besides, I might be able to make more money by not blogging.

My laptop had a bad evening at blog group. It took the entire meeting to boot. Now, it won’t recognize the hard drive. I think it’s going into the shop sooner than I was thinking it would.

Diagnostics I ran this afternoon indicate the problem is indeed a failing hard drive. When I tried to run disk utility software from a CD, the software didn’t even list the hard drive as an option. Ouch. And now the CD is stuck in my drive. = )

*j sighs

Gosh. What if I’ve lost the 857 items in my desktop aggregator?!? ha ha ha

About the only thing I wasn’t able to back up that I’m even the slightest bit concerned about is the OPML file for my main desktop aggregator. I simply couldn’t find it to save it elsewhere. I think I’m up to about 120 sources now. If I have to rebuild from scratch, remembering what all of them are might be tricky. I can at least grab the file from this aggregator, which I use as a base. Sadly, it looks like Share Your OPML, a site where people could share subscription lists, is gone. I can’t grab mine from there anymore.

Yeah, so this means I’ve lost access to at least one, possibly two, e-mail accounts, instant messaging, Skype, etc., etc. Wanna talk? How ’bout just callin’ or dropping by?

Wow. I really did just stay up all night fixing my laptop. It was kinda doing that thing it did in May when it wouldn’t boot coupled with a weird snorting sound. (If carcophony is the noise people make to explain their car sounds, what’s the word for someone making computer noises?)

Too scared to try to reinstall the OS, I left it trying to boot for about twenty minutes while I read some more of a Chinese murder mystery. To my surprise, it slowly came to life. I quickly hopped online to make sure the urgent e-mail I was sending when it initially crashed actually sent. It hadn’t, of course, so I tried sending it again–this time with success (*j wipes nervous perspiration off brow) just before the machine crashed again. While it was rebooting, I made a list of programs I use regularly and files and folders I needed to copy, if possible.

I was preparing emotionally to have to do to it what some friends did in June to get it working again, knowing I would probably have to wait until I could procure the proper equipment to do so. I got lucky. The machine booted a second time. I was able to copy key files to a Zip disk and am working on burning some backup CDs now. At some point while playing with the first CD, I realized the funny snorting noise stopped.

What’s on my machine? (Most of this software did not come bundled with the operating system.)

• At least 7 different Web browsers; 5 of which are in my dock and are used regularly

• 5 chat/instant messaging/IRC clients
• 5 programs to deal with audio/video files
• 4 graphics programs
• 3 aggregators, not including iTunes’ podcast-gathering abilities
• 2 FTP clients
• Oddly enough: only 1 e-mail client and only 1 Web page editor
• Various browser plug-ins
• A typical suite of software including a word processor, presentation stuff, and a spreadsheet
• Speech recognition software++

What files/folders get priority for backups?

• e-mail

• chat/IM logs
• images
• blogging stuff
• Web work
• correspondence
• writing
• presentations
• professional development/committee/blog group stuff
• lots o’ other stuff

Several really good things came out of this exercise:

• I now have a list of all the software on my machine. I only had a partial list before. And the list is on paper, not on my computer.

• I also have a list of what gets moved first, so when I’m in a panic, I don’t have to worry about forgetting something vital–unless it isn’t on the list.
• I’ve now done my six-month backup. (Backups are so much easier when they’re done regularly. It took me about half as long and required 2 CDs instead of 5.)
• I know I really need to make one list of all the software registration keys. If I ever have to rebuild my machine from scratch again, that will save lots of time. And I should print a copy of the list.
• I cleaned out and reorganized some crap, so my machine is a bit neater now.
• I’m glad I still don’t own a digital camera. I can’t imagine moving all the photos around if something like this happened. All the more reason to be very cautious if/when I get such a gadget.

Addendum 2/4: I happened to be on the phone with a friend quite knowledgeable about computers when my laptop started acting up again. After describing the problems, he suggested that the hard drive might be failing. If I myseriously stop blogging for a while, you’ll know that’s probably the case.

This brief Information Today article includes some scenarios about how people lose their laptops, some suggestions for safeguarding the machine while traveling, and links to useful sites.

My computer usually does something funky before a major presentation. This time, the right shift key stopped depressing, then eventually popped off. It turns out that part of the scissor mechanism, the two pieces of plastic that help give the key its spring, beneath the key had come apart slightly. I didn’t think putting keys on the keyboard would be as tricky as it is. Luckily, I found some instructions for replacing them on the Mac Web site.

I think it’s funny how many of the instructions for these minor repairs start off by saying to turn the computer off. “What?!? Turn if off! I’m trying to follow the instructions on the screen!”

I was able to get the key back on fine. Yay! It pops right back on if you disassemble it first, as their instructions indicate. I couldn’t get it to go back on last night because I hadn’t taken it completely apart.

Now that the key’s back on ok, I guess I need to back up all of my files just in case my machine isn’t finished being nervous about the presentation.

I guess y’all who call me a nerd are right. I figured I wasn’t one, but I guess it’s time I accept my true identity.

I lost points because I didn’t actually build the computer I’m using. I gained points because there is a live rodent somewhere in my bedroom. (At least I hope it’s still alive …) (Don’t worry: I’m trying to trap it to set it free …)

I am not, however, a computer geek–which is what I’ve been telling people for a long time. I only scored a 77. That’s pretty close to failing. I probably lost points because I didn’t identify some of the computers and computer geeks correctly. Maybe I lost points for using Macs. I most definitely lost points for not knowing enough about programming.

I did, however, find a funny list about programming and bug testing I think Shimon would appreciate.

Thanks for the inspiration, Bill.

Too bad neither asked about accordion ownership …

I created a new department for items about computers because I find that I write about them enough, especially my laptop, that having a clear place to stick the entries is a good idea.

My computer had a small mishap Thursday night involving a cat and a 3 foot fall to the floor from a bed. Now, it can’t find the airport card, so I’ve been digging around on the Internet and in the machine’s help documentation looking for information about taking out the Airport card. It gets knocked loose pretty frequently. Sometimes I can push it back in and it works fine. This time, something more serious happened and I had to tinker with it quite a while before the machine admitted it actually has an airport card.

But anyway, I found this cool article that talks about dismantling an older PowerBook laptop complete with photos. The disclaimer at the top of the page is classic.