Mar
31
2011
A disturbing trend is on the rise – failing or failed hard drives. I’ve had several people come to me with their computers in the last few months – begging to get their data off their disabled hard drives. Their years of pictures, documents, music, you name it – gone unless I can perform miracles to get the data off of the drives. Many people have experienced loss of data from either these hard drives or flash/thumb drives. I’m sure many people have heard the tell-tale clicking from a hard drive as the computer seems to slow to a halt as the drive dies a painful, albeit slow death. It’s definitely not a fun experience to be had by anyone. There have been articles upon articles published on the web, as well as the preaching by IT professionals everywhere to the every day person – with a common theme: ”BACK UP YOUR DATA!” We either don’t have any idea what that means or believe our equipment will possess invincibility powers and last forever. Here’s the sad but inevitable truth — those hard drives that hold all your family pictures, important tax documents, globs of music are far from invincible. In fact, hard drive failures happen more frequently these days as the materials used to make the hard drives get cheaper, quality definitely declines over time. The lesson to learned? Take the advice of your friendly IT guy and DO it.. DO back up your data. I will evaluate several products over the course of several weeks and post them here so you can make an informed decision of what product works for you for backup purposes. However, until then here are some tips to live by in making sure your data is backed up:
- DO back up your computer on a regular basis – once a week at minimum unless lots of files change daily and you’d like to capture those changes.
- DO back up your computer to a separate device or hard drive. External hard drives are popular for this purpose.
- DO check your back up jobs to make sure they are working. Nothing is worse than thinking you backed up your data only to find out that it never happened.
- DO have multiple copies of your backups. I recommend one copy on-site and one copy off-site (a friend’s house, bank vault, online storage, etc).
- DON’T assume your back up software or your computer is pre-configured for backing up your data.
- DON’T only have one backup device or hard drive. Back up drives fail too…
- DON’T spend too little for your back up solutions. Think about this – how important is your data to you? Imagine what your life will be like if right now your hard drive crashed and the data could not be recovered. You don’t want to be the one to tell your loved one that all the family/wedding pictures are gone because either there was no backup solution or it wasn’t enough.
Sometimes the best laid plans don’t work out or Moore’s Law comes into full effect and you do suffer from a hard drive failure. In some cases that data still can be recovered. The best thing to do when you suspect your drive has died or your computer won’t boot up is to stop, turn it off (turn the computer off silly), and call in the experts. Most of the time it will involve taking the hard drive out of the computer and hooking it up to some special equipment for data extraction.
Seriously, back up your stuff!
Mar
10
2010
This month marks 7 months since Hope had her first brain bleed. From there we as individuals, family, and friends had our world, our lives altered forever. I have been told many stories of how Hope’s situation has impacted their lives in such a way they either start a new relationship with Christ or the situation regenerates their relationship by way of fervent prayer. The demographics are far reaching and wide, young and old alike. It simply overwhelms and amazes me just how powerful a single life can be – specifically a life dedicated to the cause of Christ – can have on so many people.
While Hope’s journey of late has been one of tragedy, sorrow, and pain – I can attest that my life has forever been changed. I pray to our heavenly father that His Will be done and that His glory be known. I pray for the miracle of healing in such a way that Hope won’t endure the kind of pain she has endured for the past 7 months. I also pray for healing for this family – specifically those who take care of Hope on a day-in, day-out basis. Amidst all this tragedy, I can see God at work in lives of all that know Hope in some way or another. I am thankful for all of the generosity, prayer, concern, compassion that the people of Carrollton, Bowdon, Georgia, Alabama, and others around the world who have come together to lift Hope up to our heavenly Father for healing.
I don’t know what God’s plan is for Hope’s life. If you ask me, Hope has already been a powerful instrument of God’s truth, His mercy, and His glory.
Please check out Hope’s blog for more information on her current situation at http://www.hopehickman.com
Feb
8
2010
John C. Maxwell said “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve gotten.”. I reflect on life, specifically my journey and some things came up–which convicted me. I am guilty of doing the same things over and over again lookng for a new result–but getting the same result. One thing that has convicted me the most is my daily walk with our heavenly Father. I look back and I see that I have had a hard time setting aside time in my day to focus on the real reason I am here; the real reason that life exists. I see that my walk with God for most of my Christian life (since I was saved) has been one of sprints. I would start out strong, spending each day in prayer, absorbing the word, and truly letting the light shine through me. However, after a short while something would come up, and I would go “off the road” without getting back on. When thinking hard about this, I realized there are multiple areas in my life where I’ve applied the same “sprint” principle. I find myself saying the words “I used to…” With those things in mind, I’m realizing that if I continue to go through life sprinting, rather than enduring and sticking with it for the long haul I will miss out on some important things in life. God has slowly been dealing with my heart and I am humbled, and ashamed that I haven’t put nearly enough time and energy to allow the light of the Almighty Father shine through me.
With every problem, there must be a solution. One verse come to mind when thinking about how to change my habits from sprinting to one of an endurance runner
Phillipians 2:16 which states “Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.” (NLT)
I look at this verse and with conviction know that I want my time here on earth to mean something to God. Whether it means anything to the world is not important – but if my actions bring glory to my Heavenly Father – Abba then I have accomplished something. I believe it is time for me to take action on learning more about what I believe in, and taking it one step futher–share it with the people around me. I pray for courage and the words to speak God’s truth to those who don’t know Christ. In searching for more encouragement and guidance on how to change my habits, I ran across a passage in Ecclesiastes 9:10-12:
10 Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave,[a] there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
11 I have observed something else under the sun. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise sometimes go hungry, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time.
12 People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a trap, people are caught by sudden tragedy.
So here are my goals for the next 6 months:
- Make time each day to spend with my Heavenly Father, both in prayer and in the Word.
- Physical Workout at least 3 times a week with a goal to lose at least 25 pounds in 6 months (my goal is 50 for the year).
- Pray for the people I know who don’t have a personal relationship with Christ.
- Share God’s Word with people that I know that don’t have a personal relationship with Christ.
- Continue to develop my relationship with my amazing wife and keep the attitude of “courtship” in the sense of spending quality time, and doing the little things that matter to her.
- Write a blog post at least 2-3 times a week on my daily walk with the Lord. (I would love to do each day, but feel that this is a more realistic goal)
I believe I’ve set the bar higher for myself personally, spiritually, and physically. I know it is a tall order to take on, but if I truly believe the following verse:
Philippians 4:13 “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” – NLT
It not only can it be done, but it will be done well.
Nov
11
2009
Today is Veteran’s Day. I’ve been an American citizen since birth, but I haven’t really stopped to think about why we have Veteran’s Day. To some, it’s a day off work for government employees. To others its a holiday or a day off school. For most of us it is a day like any other–but today bears some significance to me. Today I decided to think about what Veteran’s Day really means and why we remember those who have sacrificed for their country.
I can’t help but think back to when this country was formed by our founding fathers. They sacrificed everything they had in Europe to come to a land to call their own. Our founding fathers wanted to escape the treacherous control the absolutist government had on them. They based our new, equal, fair government under the principles found in the bible. They were the true patriots, introducing a concept of government so foreign, so dangerous that England did all they could to stop it with the American revolution, taxation, and so much more–yet because of our founding father’s resolve to be free, they failed to stop the juggernaut of freedom, which forged its existence by a single document, the Constitution of the United States. The Bill of Rights followed soon after.
From the moment our founding fathers and the first inhabitants of this great land made the decision to break away from England, sacrifices were made, including the ultimate sacrifice of life–so that we may experience something that much of the world to this day don’t have – freedom.
Since our country was founded, scores of men and women that we call our veterans have sacrificed their blood, sweat, tears, and in some cases their lives for our country. Not one of them are unchanged by their service to this country. I speak from a perspective as a family member of a veteran. There’s something about war that changes a man or a woman. This in turn changes families of these men and women because we are all somehow affected by it. Freedom is not to be taken for granted.
Veteran’s Day will always from this point on out have a humble, appreciative effect on me as I remember and pray for those brave men and women who are now serving our country in some capacity. I also remember those who have served, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice out there on the battlefields.
To all veterans – Thank you for your service to this country and the sacrifices you made to ensure our freedoms are protected.
Oct
20
2009
Well I’ve decided to make the jump back to using WordPress for blogging. My previous website worked well but I was limited to editing with just one computer. Hopefully I will get the urge to blog more.