Comments (4)

By Leslie, August 25, 2010 8:20 am

No, seriously, do you have one?

I had an out of body moment this morning. I lost the latest version of my manuscript. Sync services ate it.

I use a system for writing that involves two computers, SugarSync, and Scrivener among other programs. Now, I adore Scrivener. It allows me to manage my complex manuscript like the project it is. A Scrivener project is built around a package of individual text files indexed by the Scrivener application and presented in the UI as an integrated whole. There is a variety of metadata around each file that includes attributes like last changed, scene, status, or anything else you could possible imagine or create. It also allows you to take snapshots (i.e. versions) of any part of the project and save them so you can roll back if you decide that the outrageously brilliant plot twist involving slugs and penguins was just a wee bit too far out.

It also means that there are about a bazillion tiny files inside a Scrivener package. Not a big problem, unless you are syncing the files individually. Ahem.

Syncing between computers is hard. I’m certain of this because I’ve used a broad assortment of sync services over many years with little to no success. Man, it must be a freaking hard problem. But in the past couple of years, sites like SugarSync, Apple’s .Me, and DropBox all seem to have it working pretty well. Until it doesn’t, of course. And let me say here that I use all three services for different things.

That’s what happened to me today. I lost my latest version of my manuscript A Fault in Time in a sync collision that corrupted the Scrivener package. This is the manuscript that finaled in the contest, the one that an agent has requested. I said I had an out of body moment, because that’s what it was. An out of body moment.

I looked stupidly at the terrifying error message that told me my file was horribly corrupted.

I said, “*&%#”.

I launched Time Machine, restored the file, and kept working.

Total elapsed time lost….about 20 seconds. (Ignoring the time to blog about it.)

Total data lost….nothing.

What’s your backup strategy? Have you tested it lately?

Comments (1)

By Leslie, July 24, 2010 4:57 am

An iPad is an odd beast. It’s like a toothbrush.

My husband and I both have iPads. He visited our oldest son a few weeks ago. Old Son does not have an iPad but is a technodweeb and lusts after all things shiny. I asked how he liked the husband’s iPad and there was a long hesitation in the chat window.

Mom: did u play w/ iPad?

.

.

OS:  no. iPad too personal. u know?

HUH? I had never thought of the iPad as more personal than any of the other devices he wrenched out of my hands to fondle nearly as soon as I unboxed them. Then I thought about it, inspected my iPad, and he’s kind of right.  But that goes along with my growing realization that the iPad is not bastardized/turbocharged webpad or a replacement for the MacBook Air. It’s a whole different class of device.

I use it to do some of the things I used to do on my phone like quickly look up contacts and news, and some of the things I used to cart my MacBook Air around the house for like control the sprinklers and the Apple TVs and look up arcane bits of info in IMDB. It stays by my bed so I can check my mail in the morning and it goes in my purse now, not my MacBook Air. And lets not forget all the recipes that I now have at the swipe of a greasy finger.  Oh…and the books!! But even then, I will choose to read on my light weight Kindle before dragging out the iPad.

The theme here is easy  and personalized data access from multiple sources delivered in a single device. That is true power.

If I’m going to do serious writing, the Air comes along. I’ve got a Bluetooth keyboard for the iPad, but that’s silly, my Air is my writing device of choice anyway.

So, do I need the iPad? No, I guess not, but try to pry it out of my fingers now….  iPad….Personal Access Device

Comments (1)

By Leslie, May 16, 2010 6:51 am

Last week an editor expressed interest in my manuscript! Yay! But it still needs wee bit of polish so while I’m beavering away on this AT&T and I go a few rounds.

I lost most of Wednesday, 1/2 of thursday and several hours on Friday because on Tuesday morning, I called AT&T and asked this question:

Is it possible to move our main phone number to our secondary line, where our DSL runs and then cut off the main line?

You can suggest that only a crazy person would call AT&T when an editor had expressed an interest….but we digress. I had my reasons! I had promised my husband!   Note to self: Never do this again. Home optimization can wait.

Anyway…

AT&T interpreted this as…“Turn off my phone”

WTF?

We hardly ever use our landline anymore and it’s a $120/month bill.  I calculated  a $50 per month savings by doing this. I never calculated the increase in blood pressure.

So this is what I learned:

• If AT&T turns off your phone, they can do this in seconds. Literally, I know. CLICK! However, to turn it back on, even if it was their error…weeeel that takes first a scheduled slot, and that can be days (for me it was 4 days) and then there are the multiple follow up calls, because evidently they forget. Or something messes it up…

Now I ask you, do you imagine bent and creaking AT&T engineers descending into a steam filled dungeon moving long Matrix-like, ooze dripping wires around? Hmmmmm….

• You MAY lose your phone number. You may not, who knows? Not AT&T apparently!

This was one of those questions where the answer varied with the time of day and the degree of terror the AT&T employee wanted to inflict. Some were positively gleeful when they chortled that I’d likely already lost the number I’d had for twenty years.

• If you become irritated with them and want to speak to a supervisor, they REFUSE. I’m not kidding. The customer support person on Wednesday, after talking with me for 2 hours, getting nowhere, then refused to turn me over to his supervisor. And did not fix the problem – if I had accepted his configuration, my DSL would have clicked off on 4:30 friday.

• After literally a dozen calls and being disconnected I finally signed up for an 18Megabit UVerse package, this moved me to a slightly more competent part of AT&T and gave me the savings that I want. I don’t actually have this yet, they install this wednesday. Oh Yippee.

OMG, I’ve figured it out. That’s the strategy. They terrorize you and then send the clean cut and pinkly scrubbed Uverse guy to the door. He’s like the freaking Angel of Mercy. You’ll buy anything.