Does Your Website Need a Wiki?

Does Your Website Need a Wiki?

What is a "wiki" (pronounced wee-kee)?

A wiki is content management system that can allow for community input. This is in the spirit of the "wiki way" where the community members can add to or even edit existing web pages. In this sense, a wiki houses documents that may be the result of collaboration between different authors.

One source claims that the term "Wiki" is also an acronym for "What I Know Is..."[1] whilst others support the derivation of the name from the Hawaiian term "wiki wiki" which means "informal" or "quick" [2].

The original Wiki Wiki Web has been online since March, 1995. Here is the link:

http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?WikiWikiWeb

Uses for a Wiki:

A wiki can be used in a variety of ways including:

- collaborative authorship of documents
- comment on existing documents
- community development
- online manuals

A wiki with existing content, for example a user's manual, could be distributed with software application. A wiki could be part of a private members' area either as a community building tool or as a user manual. in which case some or all of the community members can have author privileges or as a user manual, in which case the community members could be excluded from making further comment (unless the focus on the community was on community based documentation for the manual itself.)

If using access control, access to different levels of content based on the membership level could be employed. There could be parts of the wiki (such as a static user's guide) that is not open to further contribution and other parts representing various topics where community contribution is both invited and welcome.

Access Control:

The true spirit of the Wiki Way is to allow for the online collaboration of documents for visitors to be able to create their own pages or to edit existing pages. However there are also needs as noted above where the website owner may not want documents changed by just anyone visiting the site. The owner may wish to retain full control over page content or may want to grant authoring privileges to only select people. This can only be done if the wiki software has a built in capability to grant authoring access and even viewing access to selected groups as defined by the website owner.

"Groups" are created with different access rights. For example the "public" group may have "read only" access; the "authors" group may have both "read and write" access; and the administrator may have read, write and upload access (required for images and other files) as well as the ability to create groups. The ability to read certain content may also be restricted to specific groups.

Software:

There are numerous software applications[3][4] that can run a wiki in a variety of programming languages including Perl (CGI), ASP [check] and PHP. Applications may or may not be integrated with a database. The database used can also vary. Commonly a PHP wiki is integrated with a MySQL database.

Some wikis don't use a database instead using a "flat file" system based on text files, either straight ".txt" files or perhaps a proprietary system where the file extension is based on the file name category.

Some examples of popular wiki software are:

Media Wiki
- http://www.mediawiki.org/

ErfurtWiki (a.k.a. Ewiki)
- http://erfurtwiki.sourceforge.net/
- http://ewiki.berlios.de/installer/

Dokuwiki
- http://wiki.splitbrain.org/wiki:dokuwiki/ (flat file .txt system and access control)

PmWiki
- http://www.pmwiki.org/ (flat file system that uses category names as file name extensions instead of the more conventional .txt extension)

PHPwiki
- phpwiki.sourceforge.net/ (WikiWikiWeb clone written in the server-side scripting language PHP)

Wiki Wiki Web
- http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki

Notable Wiki on the Web (Wiki in the Wild):

- The Original Wiki Wiki Web
http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki

- Wikipedia is the online free encyclopedia
http://www.wikipedia.org

- The Word Press Codex is a documentation manual for the very popular Word Press blog software
http://codex.wordpress.org

- Nucleus CMS documentation
http://wiki.nucleuscms.org/

- BlogCMS manual
http://blogcms.com/wiki/start

- The Resume Wiki, a community edited resume centre
http://www.resumewiki.com/

- Another resource is OpenSourceCMS [5]
http://www.opensourcecms.com

This site has installations of not only several popular wiki but also many Content Management Systems and blog software. Open Source CMS uses full installations and provides access as both an administrator and a user.

GNU General Public License [4]:

It is the open nature of document contribution editing that differentiates a wiki from a blog; that and the usual inclusion of a wiki "markup language" or wiki syntax which is a simplified way to add formatting to text that is converted to valid HTML by the wiki software. Many wiki software systems are 'open source" licensed under the General Public License of the Free Software Foundation.

Try before you "buy":

Perhaps the best way to get a feel for the wiki software is to try it out. In many wiki you will find a link to the "wiki sandbox" or "wiki playground". Content entered here is considered to be temporary and you can try out the different formatting syntax to see how it all works.

So consider the nature of your site, the need for online documentation and the level of desired access for visitors and contributors and you will be able to decide if your website needs a wiki.


References:

[1] wiki.java.net/bin/view/Javapedia/Glossary

[2] Wiki, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

[3] A long list of wiki software in different programming languages
http://c2.com/w4/wikibase/wiki.cgi?LongListOfWikiClones

[4] GNU General Public License
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

[5] Open Source CMS is a site with installations of many types of Content Management Systems, Wiki and blogs that you can use to try out the software from both an administrator's and user's perspective.
http://www.opensourcecms.com

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Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter?

Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter?

CPU manufacturing is one of the most competitive areas of computer world. In the end, the overall performance of your laptop or your desktop depends on your central processing unit. Parallel to the demands of the users, we can say that CPUs traveled a long way from 386s to P4s and AMDs.

The cache is generally the most decisive factor in the tradeoff equation between the price and performance. Considering the L2 cache on some of the chips, you can easily understand that Athlon, P4 and PIII, having 256K or more L2 cache are the once with higher performance, in other words power chips.

Looking at the budget chips, you immediately notice that Celeron has 128K and the Duron only has 64K. Celeron is actually almost like a PIII with half the cache disabled. These numbers shows that the main budget issue for CPU manufacturers is to put enough cash on the chip.

You should consider the difference between the bus speeds: in the case of Athlon and P4, the bus speed between the Cache and the CPU can be 200 or 400 MHz respectively. This can give your system a major boost when you are using cache intensive utilities. The new CPUs are coming out with quad speed pushes and base 200MHz which results with 800MHz FSB like the new P4.

The numbers you would see under the name “Micron” in a CPU comparison table is basically the size of the transistors. As the number get smaller, the manufacturers can put more and more on the CPU die. The smaller transistors you have on your CPU, the smaller the CPU die becomes. The smaller the CPU die, less power is required and less heat is produced.

The CPU instruction set is the total code which tells your CPU how to process its data. The more sets you have on your CPU, the more efficient it is most likely to be. However, on this point Intel (Pentium) and AMD does not follow the same path. Intel made the first attempt to improve the basic instruction set by adding the MMX support for multimedia.

The difference's between the CPU's are getting smaller as each company sees the advantages of their rivals technology and tries to either use or emulate it. It is really hard to choose which one is better. So a good advice would be let your wallet decide which CPU your system will use.

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Could Your Email Compromise Your Safety?

Could Your Email Compromise Your Safety?

Hackers, phishers, viruses, worms…simply having your computer online can expose your data and personal information to all kinds of malicious and worrisome problems. If you’re somewhat new to the 'net' or to computers in general, these four tips could help protect you from identity theft, credit card fraud, or a complete computer takeover – all of which can happen without you even knowing about it!

1. What’s in Your Inbox? – If your e-mail program allows you to preview the entire message before or while it is being downloaded, turn this setting off. Some e-mails can contain dangerous code that could unknowingly compromise your computer and leave you vulnerable to viruses, worms or worse! Check the options in your e-mail program for a way to disable the message preview pane.

2. Scrutinize Your Messages – Don’t ever respond to messages claiming to be from your bank, credit card company, or other financial institution, which ask for personally identifiable information such as card or account numbers, passwords, or other private information – even if the e-mail looks to have come from the actual company. It may be a hoax designed to get you to unknowingly part with crucial financial or private contact information, leaving you vulnerable to credit card fraud, identity theft or credit card theft. Contact the institution or company that claims to be sending the e-mail and verify the contents of the message with them. Chances are – they never sent it. Only use the number on your statement though, and not the number that appears in the e-mail message. It may direct you right to the scammer, who will do everything they can to assure you that nothing is wrong!

3. If it’s From a Friend, it must be Safe, Right? – It’s logical to assume that a message from your friend or colleague is safe, but that isn’t always the case! If you receive an email from a friend or colleague which contains an attachment (could be a media clip, a screensaver, a picture or anything else), call them up to check and see if they really did send it. Many viruses and worms can hijack your computer and blast out a virus-ridden email to everyone in your address book, making it appear that it came from you and therefore, making it appear trustworthy.

4. Read Your Messages in Plain Text – Some e-mails written in HTML (the coding language that makes up many web pages) can be harmless. Others can contain malicious code that can hijack your e-mail program, browser, or your entire computer – and send your personal and financial information out to a hacker or scammer without you even knowing about it! Stay safe by setting your e-mail program to only show messages in plain text format (often in the options or settings section of the software). This will prevent threatening code from installing itself and compromising your system and private information.

Possibly one of the best ways to protect your e-mail is simply by exercising common sense. The Internet is a lot like a crowded plaza. Would your banker or credit card lender walk out into the middle of the throng of people and shout out to you to ask for your account information? Would you tell him where everyone could hear? Definitely not! The same caution should be exercised when checking your e-mail. These tips can help you stop scammers dead in their tracks while keeping you from becoming another victim of fraud or theft.

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Computer Crash! How to Prevent Loss of Valuable Data

Computer Crash! How to Prevent Loss of Valuable Data

Have you ever had a computer crash whereby all your data was lost? What very likely happened is that your computer's hard drive became defective. Yes, it happens more frequently than one might expect. There are all sorts of reasons why computer hard drives can fail and there's not a whole lot that can be done to prevent these failures. Another consideration for the protection of data is the possibility of fire and theft. The main objective of this article is to provide you with some practical strategies that will allow you to easily protect and recover your data.

First let's talk briefly about what is meant by valuable data. On any given computer system there are generally two types of data stored on the computer's hard drive. The first type is "software" data and the second type is "user" data. Many people don't actually realize that software is data in its own right. But software data is not the kind of data that you really need to concern yourself with when it comes to recovery of data. The reason for this is that software data is easily recoverable from the installation disks received when software is purchased.

The data that we will focus on in this article is "user" data. Let's define user data specifically. User data is the data that users create from the software that is run on a computer. For example, if a word processor is used to create a document or a letter, the word processor provides functions to save this data. The data that is created and saved through the word processor is "user" data. Most programs will create and save data somewhere on the hard drive.

There are many kinds of user data that can and will be created on the hard drive. For example, picture files, documents, accounting data from a money management program, music files, video files, and email and email address data are all different types of user data. This is not an exhaustive list. But it does highlight the types of data that accumulates on most computer hard drives through the use of various programs or software.

Here's the bottom line when it comes to recovery of data of both types. If a hard drive crashes and the operating system needs to be completely reinstalled or, in the worst case, the hard drive needs to be completely replaced, software can easily be recovered by simply reinstalling these from their installation disks. However, if the "user" data has not been backed up, then it is lost for good. Most people do not pay enough attention to this basic fact about computer systems until it's too late.

Remember, the key concept here is "prevention" and in order to prevent loss of valuable data you must always anticipate the possibility of hard disk failures, fire damage, or theft. So let's talk about some basic options that are easily available to implement a good data management plan.

Option 1: Consider having two internal hard drives.
Most home computers generally all come with only one internal hard drive. This one hard drive stores both software and user data. Which means that this one single hard drive is experiencing a lot of wear and tear. Every time a program is launched it's being accessed. Every single function that the operating system invokes will likely hit the hard drive etc. This heavy wear and tear can eventually lead to physical failures. Also, many viruses are designed to hit the operating system. If the user data is on the same physical drive as the operating system, then it can be severely impacted by viruses as well.

So why not install a second internal hard drive. Very few people ever think of this option and, with the price of hard drives going down drastically, it's a very cost effective approach to securing user data. What does this accomplish? Well first of all, using this approach, the user data can be physically separated from the software data. The main drive, also known as the boot or master drive, would be strictly dedicated to holding only the operating system and all other software. The second hard drive (known as the slave drive) would be strictly dedicated to storing only your user data.

Here are the benefits of this approach. First and foremost the user data is completely isolated to a more secure and less used drive. This drive would experience a lot less wear and tear. Also, it would be much easier to back up your data onto other storage mediums such as writable compact disks (cds) or digital versatile disks (dvds). That's because this data would be in one centralized place. In other words, user data is much easier to find when it is isolated on a separate drive.

Another key point regarding storing user data on the primary drive is that it is also much more at risk for viruses. Again, by isolating user data onto a physically separate drive, the risk of data loss or corruption from viruses would be greatly minimized.

Another strong point for this option is that total system recoveries (i.e. re-installing the operating system) is much easier if you don't have to include re-installing the user data as well. The main hard drive can quickly be reformatted without worrying about backing up the user data and then re-imaged with a fresh copy of the operating system.

Option 2: Save your data to cd or dvd disks.
This is by far the cheapest option and a very good approach to securing user data. All that is needed is a cd or dvd burner and some blank disks, which cost pennies to buy. This option can be the only option used for securing data but it is highly recommended that option 1 be used in conjunction with this option for two reasons. First, the back ups to cd or dvd will only be as current as the last time the backups were done. Secondly, if the operating system needs to be completely re-installed, the user data will also need to be copied from cds or dvds onto the single hard drive. Thus making the recovery a bit more cumbersome but still doable.

The main benefit of saving user data onto cds or dvds is that it is being further isolated and one step removed from the hard drives. When using this option, two copies should be maintained. The reason for maintaining two copies is so that one of the copies can be stored off site. This means keeping one set of disks at some other location other than at home or the office. The reason this is an important consideration is because of the possibility of fire and theft. Another reason is that a cd or dvd backup can also become corrupted. It's better to have two or more copies.

Option 3: Attach an external USB Hard Drive to the system.
With the price of hard drives getting much cheaper, this is another really good option. By attaching an external USB hard drive to the system, special backup programs can be installed and scheduled to run over night. There are many cost effective backup programs available. Do an Internet search on these. Backup programs can be configured to save user data to the external hard drive. This option can also be used in place of options 1 and 2. But some of the benefits achieved by these other options are lost or minimized if this is the only option you choose. However, it is another good option because the back up process is fully automated and the user data is still physically separated from the main hard drive.

Hopefully this article has raised the importance of user data. The options presented here are the very same options used by many highly experience data processing centers and can be easily adopted by the average computer user. The most important point to remember is that good planning for potential disasters is the best protection against loss of valuable user data. You may not think of it this way at first but the user data that you accumulate on your computer takes time to build up and acquire. If you value your time then you'll value your data. Your data has a lot of value. So why not take a few simple steps to protect it.

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Buying the Perfect Computer

Buying the Perfect Computer

It's easy to make a mistake when buying a new computer. Many people end up spending a ton of money on something expensive that they'll never use to its full potential, while others buy something so small that they have to do expensive upgrading in a matter of months.

There's few things more disappointing than finding out your 6 month old computer can't do what you want it to do, or that you don't really need that $400 graphics card to run Microsoft Word.

Don't just buy blindly. Hopefully this article will help you ask the right questions and get the right hardware for your needs in return.

Power Supply:

Often overlooked as a component, your power supply is an important part of your computer as it powers all the internal components. The power supply you need will largely be determined by the components in your PC - in particular CPU type, graphics card and number of internal devices.

For Pentium 4 and all AMD CPUs, a minimum 300W power supply is recommended. If you want to run one of the new ATI X8xx or GeForce 6xxx series 3D graphics cards, don't even try anything weaker than a 400W power supply.

Never overlook the significance of a power supply - an underpowered system will be prone not only to unreliable operation, but also to component damage.

CPU:

On the entry level side of things you have a choice between AMD's Sempron CPUs and Intel's Celeron D. These CPUs are not for the hardcore gamer - they're for the average user who only want to run office applications and use the Internet.

For the hardcore user/gamer there's the Pentium 4 and the AMD Athlon 64 CPUs. There's little to choose between the two big guns in the CPU business. The slowest Pentium 4 CPU readily available at present is the 3Ghz version, while AMD's equivalent, the Athlon 64 3000+ will likewise satisfy most users' demand for processing power.

Go faster than that and the increase in cost becomes quite significant, and you'll have to weigh that up against your budget and your demands.

Motherboard:

The most important thing to keep in mind when picking a motherboard is to get one that's fairly future proof.

For Pentium 4 that means a motherboard that supports socket 775 CPUs, and for AMD a motherboard that supports socket 939 CPUs. Also, make sure your motherboard has enough expansion slots (most commonly PCI slots) to support all additional cards you may want to use in future - including sound cards, TV cards, wireless network cards, etc.

If you're a gamer, also make sure that your motherboard supports either an AGP 8x (obsolete soon), but preferably a PCI-Express 16x slot for a 3D graphics card.

3D Graphics Card:

While most motherboards these days feature an onboard graphics card that is suitable for the casual user, these aren't adequate for gamers.

With the old AGP 8x architecture almost obsolete, the way to go is a PCI-Express graphics card if you have a motherboard that supports it.

For casual gamers who want to play a bit of Sims and Harry Potter, nVidia's GeForce 6600 and ATI's X700 series of cards will do the trick.

For the hardcore gamer who wants to play cutting edge games like Doom 3 and Battlefield 2 at rocking frame rates, don't get anything smaller than a GeForce 6600GT or ATI X800 with 256MB of GDDR3 memory on the card. 128MB is also acceptable if you don't want to play at resolutions higher than 1152x864.

Before buying a graphics card, make sure that a) your motherboard has the appropriate slot for it and b) that your power supply is strong enough to support it.

RAM:

RAM is fast memory used by your computer to execute tasks. When your computer runs out of RAM, it starts swapping data to the much slower hard drive, which slows down your entire system.

With RAM being so cheap these days I'd recommend you get at least 512MB. If you're going to run Windows XP, don't get less than 256MB or you'll slow even the fastest CPU powered computer to a crawl.

For hardcore gamers, less than 1GB simply isn't an option anymore.

Hard drive:

The smallest hard drive you can buy at the time of writing is 80GB. That's more than the average home/office user will ever fill, while it's not nearly enough for music/video collectors or avid gamers.

At the moment the first big price jump in hard drives comes between 200GB and 250GB, so 200GB would be a great option if you need some serious space. Be sure to make comparisons if you need more space - for example, two 200GB drives are much cheaper than one 400GB, even though you get the same amount of space.

On the other hand again, two 80GB drives are more expensive than one 160GB drive.

It's also worth getting a SATA hard drive if your motherboard supports it. It's much faster than IDE drives, which are still abundantly available.

Optical Drives:

Fortunately CD-ROM drives have quietly vanished off the market, so you can now get more versatile DVD-ROM and CD-ReWriter drives very cheaply.

If you want to be able to write DVDs, naturally go for a DVD-RW drive, and make sure the drive you get supports double-layer writing so you can use the new 8.5GB double layer DVD discs in it, which is a whole lot of backup storage.

So, that's just a quick rundown of the things to keep in mind when buying a new computer. Fortunately it's almost impossible to buy a slow computer these days - only gamers and other users of high-demand software need to pay special attention to what they get.

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Blog Software: Blogs vs Content Management Systems

Blog Software: Blogs vs Content Management Systems

In the blogging world, choosing the right type of software and/or web application is very important. There are hundreds of products to choose from. This article will summarize the main considerations for any blogger who is torn between a normal blog and a content management system.

There are two many types of applications that are used for blogging: blog software and Content Management Systems (CMS). The main difference is that a CMS is much more robust than blog applications.

If the goal is to simply publish day-to-day content on the 'Net, look no further than a blog. For the beginner, a basic blog is highly recommended over any CMS. With incredible web applications like "Blogware" and "Typepad", someone who knows very little about computers or the Internet can be up and running in no time. The better blogging system (such as the two mentioned above) is not free. Google's Blogger is one of the best free blogging services. WordPress is arguably the best of the best (free or not) blogs on the 'Net. WordPress features the most support (without geek speak), the most design templates (this is important), and it is free.

For those who want a Swiss Army knife of web applications, the content management system can’t be beat. The typical CMS allows everything the average blog can do and much more. A CMS has traditional Date/Time blog entries & creation of static web page that blogs like WordPress offer. User logins can be found in blogs but not accessories like photo galleries and user profile managers. Joomla and Drupal (two of the most popular CMSs) offer scores of add-ons that go WAY beyond a blog. As in some open-source blogs, a good PHP/SQL programmer can even create their own devices, modules and hacks to a content management system with relative easy. The Robust nature of the CMS allows large companies and organizations to use them as their entire web site. Many content management systems allow users to create blogs and web pages even add pictures, music and video. MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and other social networks are run on extremely robust content management systems backed with industrial sized databases.

List of popular CMSs:

With most CMSs, along with some PHP and SQL skill, the systems are easy to manage. However, here are some notes for everyone else.

Drupal: Although Drupal is ready to a layperson "out of the box" it is best handled by someone with patience willing to learn what is under the hood. The Drupal forums are written for geeks, by geeks.

Joomla: Joomla is very pretty and more user friendly than Drupal. It will only get the non-techie in trouble when they start adding modules and having to upgrade.

Expression Engine: Although it is not as versatile as Drupal, it is a web designers dream come true. After reading the Expression Engine manual, it is much more user friendly than Drupal and Joomla. The only drawback is that the more robust versions come with a price tag, where Drupal & Joomla are free.

The bottom-line is that day-to-day online journals with no frills need nothing more than a normal blog. For those with robust needs that will likely expand, a CMS is much better (but be prepared to learn the technology at least a little).

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Basics of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Systems

Basics of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Systems

Nomenclature

Most physicians today are probably familiar with the term EMR, for electronic medical records. Some insurance companies and government agencies are now using the term EHR, for electronic health record. What is the difference? EMR is commonly used to describe an electronic version of a paper medical chart whereas an EHR can also include any relevant data associated with that individual person: previous insurance coding information, hospital visits or procedures, etc. Many people use these terms interchangeably.

EMR vs. EMR System

As mentioned above, an electronic medical record is a digitized version of a patient's paper record. This can merely be a scanned copy of the office chart, which can then be accessed via an office network with third party software (scanning solution).

An EMR system is specialized software which is usually specific to a particular medical specialty and requires data input by the user. The patient data is typically entered through templates, which can be customized depending on the software system, and stored in a database, either on an on-site server or off-site via an application service provider (ASP) model.

The advantage of the scanning solution is a lower cost, faster learning curve, and ease of implementation. The disadvantage is that the data is read-only and cannot be directly accessed or manipulated for any other use such as trends or studies.

The primary advantage of the EMR system is a more robust solution which allows direct data access and analysis for such things as pay-for performance, a government reimbursement program facing physicians in the near future, and clinical trends for better patient care and for research purposes. The disadvantages include a higher cost in most cases, steeper learning curve for end-users, and more formidable implementation requirements, such as infrastructure and hardware.

Methods of Data Entry

Most EMR systems allow for different forms of data entry by the end-user. The simplest is data entry via a keyboard - this is used in more basic, text-only systems. Some systems are now available with touch-screen graphic interfaces and templates, with pick-lists and drop-down menus requiring little or no typing of text. Other systems offer voice data-entry and/or control, usually via third-party voice dictation software.

Touch-screen data entry will require more complex hardware such as pen tablet or slate PCs. A more economical option would be tablet thin client devices, which are lighter and more comfortable to carry from room to room. Bear in mind, however, that all of these devices are portable and require an adequate wireless environment. The true range of most wireless access points within the typical medical office building often does not achieve the advertised range.

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Are You Prepared For A Hard Drive Crash?

Are You Prepared For A Hard Drive Crash?

Its just a matter of time before you experience a hard drive problem. Are you prepared to loose your data? If your hard drive crashed right now do you have an action plan to follow?

Most people only think of backing up their data after they experience a problem. Don't set yourself up for a data loss disaster.

Your data integrity action plan should consist of the following:

1) How often you will back up your data

2) What data you will back up

3) What back up procedure you will use

How often you back up your data can only be determined by how important you feel it is. Answer this question "If my hard drive crashed right now, I would be alright if I had the data from at least (time) ago".

Of course you would want everything but if you could have the data from 1 month, or 6 months ago would that be sufficient? Whatever time is sufficient mark it on your calendar both a hard copy and set up a meeting on your PC to remind you.

You change your smoke detector batteries when you turn your clock back and when you turn it ahead right? Well back up your data then too.

If you don't change your clocks then pick some holidays or special dates that happen close to the timeframe you want to back up your data so you won't forget.

What data you back up depends on how you use your PC. Some of the key directories, if you are using Windows, are the My Documents, Favorites and Desktop directories.

Remember if you are using multiple profiles on your PC then the three directories above can be different for each profile and each one would need to be backed up.

You will also want to include your email data. Don't forget to write down the email accounts you have. You should also write down any username and passwords so they are not lost. You should look at every directory to see if it has information that you would need.

Make a list of all the software programs you are using. If you have the physical CDs put them all together in a safe location.

Don't forget the CDs for your peripherals like your scanner, digital camera, PDA etc… Collecting these CDs may remind you of additional data that you need to back up.

If you are running software that you installed from downloaded files, burn them to a CD-R and add it to your collection. If you use a CD-R or DVD-R you can update it as you download and install new applications.

What procedure you use to back up your data can be determined by the amount of data you want to back up. Your data might fit onto a CD or DVD in which case you just need to burn it and you're done.

If it spans multiple DVDs then you might want to consider getting a second hard drive to copy your data onto. If you are not comfortable with adding a second internal hard drive or you are using a laptop then you can purchase an external hard drive to back up your data.

The information you have on your hard drive could disappear in a flash. If you don't want to spend up to $3,000 to have a data recovery company retrieve what information they can from your hard drive, then take a few minutes right now and create your back up action plan.

If you ever have a data emergency your action plan will be your insurance policy. If you adhere to it, your valuable data will adhere to you!

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