I went on a bit of an office-organization binge last month, and ended up discovering two new tech-related services in the process. Well, new to me, at least.
As I know I’m not the only one to suffer with these two problems, allow me to share…
Problem #1: What on earth am I supposed to do with all these old electronics?!
For years I’ve been making a stockpile in my office closet of all those things that I don’t know what to do with, like old CDs and floppy disks. Finally the pile got to be too much, so I did a little research and discovered that yes, these things can be recycled, but not through my local recycling company.
I ended up sending it all to the CD Recycling Center of America: http://www.cdrecyclingcenter.org/.
Per their web site, they accept CDs, DVDs, Blu-Ray discs, related disc packaging and cases, floppy discs, cell phones, inkjet cartridges, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, small electronics, mp3 players, chargers, computer cables, printer cables, extension cords, and even Christmas lights!
Yes, I had to pay for the shipping, but the service is otherwise free (donations accepted), and the cost was well worth my clean conscious of not sending it to a landfill, not to mention having that shelf back in my closet!
Problem #2: If my computer crashes and I lose all my files, I am so dead.
For years and years, I’ve been the email-important-files-to-myself type. For some reason I had it in my head that to subscribe to a back-up service would either A) require some fancy equipment that needed to be plugged into my laptop at all times, B) be really expensive, or C) both.
But then I heard about Mozy.com. It’s an online back-up service that costs $5.99/month for one computer and up to 50GB of data.
Pretty much, I purchased a subscription and did one massive back-up of my laptop (which took about 12 hours, but it worked in the background so I didn’t even notice it). And now it automatically backs up any files I add or edit twice a day. Ohmygosh the stress relief is enormous. No more trying to remember if I’ve emailed the latest manuscript to myself, and I was finally able to get rid of all those CDs with images from our vacations on them! (See Problem #1.) I love it!
So that’s what I learned recently. How do you keep your tech-life organized?