Technology Failures – It Can Happen to You

My weekend was pretty normal. I did the normal things, spoke with the normal people and kept things pretty, well, normal. Things were low key without any real excitement until I turned on my Xbox 360 to watch a movie on Netflix and I read an error message saying there was “a problem with my Internet connection.”

Uh oh.

Looking at my modem, I saw a blinking red light – never a good sign. Quickly performing the usual diagnostics, I had no success, which then forced me to call my cable company to see what was going on.

After the usual troubleshooting, the call ended in a scheduled appointment for a rep to come check out my hardware, wiring, and etc. in two days.

Two days! 

In a technologically dependent household like mine, this is more like two years.  All this is of course happening on the night True Blood and The Newsroom air.  Not to mention gaming, or even regular Internet access. My life came to a halt.

I was angry, frustrated and almost paralyzed on what to do next. It was like living in the dark ages.

Having all this free time suddenly on my hands, it got me thinking about the dependency on technology we have and how it can be ripped from us at any time. Cars breakdown. Modems fail. Computers crash. All without warning (well, usually without warning.) Technology failures aren’t specific to any type of person regardless of their affiliations, demographic or planet of origin.

I don’t want to admit I’ve been on a bit of a “Back it up” soapbox lately, but my experience with the modem also had me thinking about the last time I backed up my data. Admittedly, it’s been a couple days.  We make solid products, but it’s foolish of me to think they’ll endure forever.

Since I won’t be watching TV tonight, I know how I will be spending the time.  Given how frustrated I was in not being able to do something as simple as television, I can only imagine my “Hulk-level rage” I’d experience in losing my data.

So back it up because a technology failure could happen to you!

 

2012-08-20T15:21:29+00:00

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6 Comments

  1. Kirito August 20, 2012 at 3:48 pm - Reply

    i know how you feel. my computer broke and ive been stuck using a computer with a pentium 3 single core processor for over a month cuz both my computers almost simultaneously had the hard drives fry… just reading this article pretty much maxed it out…….. 🙁
    so im at hulk-drunk-being-poked-with-a-stick-on-steroids- level rage :p

  2. Jonathan August 20, 2012 at 3:59 pm - Reply

    Ok, Kirito, you may win with your rage. We need to form some type of support group. =)

  3. Kirito August 20, 2012 at 4:00 pm - Reply

    also, that picture is hilarious xD

  4. Kirito August 20, 2012 at 6:28 pm - Reply

    i vote Seagate Gaming Computer Giveaway :D! so nobody else has to suffer like this ever again ^-^

  5. John Robinson August 20, 2012 at 6:46 pm - Reply

    I’ve been living w/o TV for about 12 years. Visit relatives to watch the odd TV program. I really don’t miss it. Data, on the other hand, my work relies on 7×24 Internet and archived data. If I lost either one for more than 12h, I would fall apart! Yes, I backup religiously to onsite devices as well as offsite with Mozy cloud solution. Not doing so is no less than Russian Roulette!

  6. Jonathan August 21, 2012 at 4:55 pm - Reply

    For me, both are are hard to live without and are almost irreplaceable.

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