LEDs Can Be a Bright Idea

All of us want to save energy.  Not only is it good for the environment, it is good for our wallet.  One of the ways many have chosen to reduce electrical consumption is to use high efficiency lighting in their homes and businesses.  Making the right choice on which light bulb to buy is complicated and, if you make the wrong choice, expensive.

Walking into Home Depot or Lowes in search of a replacement light bulb can be intimidating.  There are standard incandescent and fluorescent tubes, CFLs, halogen and most recently LEDs.  Each package is emblazoned with claims of tremendous efficiency, brightness, long life and warm colors.  Which bulb is really the most efficient and which one will really save money? As most often is the case, there is no easy answer.  The best choice must be based on how the light bulb will be used.

When Compact Fluorescent Lamps or CFLs first came out many people rushed out and bought them since they are very efficient.  A CFL rated at 7 watts could provide the light output of a standard 60 watt incandescent bulb.  Soon, however, some of the less than desirable qualities of this technology became apparent.  Early CFLs provided very harsh white light and were not able to be dimmed.   While these issues have been addressed, some CFL applications result in very short bulb life.

Using a CFL in a bathroom or other location where the light is turned on and off often will result in very short bulb life and any money saved will pale in comparison to replacing the lamp.  Since the light in a bathroom is used intermittently, a regular incandescent light may well be the best choice. 

For sure the new line of LED lighting provides the most promising of the new technologies.  LEDs can provide various color, be dimmed, operate giving off little heat and use minimal energy.  The lamps last for years.

Right now the prices are still very high but are coming down.  You can expect to pay about $20 for a 12 watt LED bulb that will replace the standard 60 watt incandescent in your living room lamp.  While this may sound like a lot to pay for a single light bulb, over the 20+ years of service you can expect from a single LED bulb it will use a fraction of the energy of traditional lighting.

Don't Put Your Digital Eggs In One Basket

Last week we discussed how there were several cloud-based options for backing up your computer files.  While using cloud-based back up options are an inexpensive and easy way to protect your important data, they should not be your only method.  Or, as your grandma may have said, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”   A recent news story on NPR and in Wired Magazine has received a lot of attention since it relates how one person lost all of his digital files in a single hacking attack.  All of his banking records, tax filings, family photographs were gone. 

The reason this story is getting so much play is because it happened to one of the technology writers at Wired Magazine.   Mat Honan is a smart and articulate technology expert and if it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone.

Rather than reiterate what happened to Mat and how the hackers were able to compromise his security ( http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/tag/mat-honan/  ) I would like to spend some time on how a bit of preparation could have alleviated the fall out from the attack.

Before you make a multi-level back up plan you have to do a bit of sorting.  All files are not equal and the loss of some files may only be an irritant while the loss of others a disaster.  For example, if you lose a copy of that letter that you wrote to your aunt Millie thanking her for the birthday gift, it is no big deal.  On the other hand, if you lose a file with your retirement account information complete with passwords and financial data, that is a big deal.  So too with family photographs, you can’t take a new picture of your daughter’s first birthday party when she turns twenty.

Once you have identified the files that are the most important, you can set up a two-level back up plan.  For many of the files you can rely on the cloud back up.  After all, if you lose an address for your Uncle Pete, someone else in your family will have it.  For those very important files like financial and tax records and family photos and videos, you can continue to use the cloud but you should also back up the files on some other media.  A data DVD, CD or stand alone USB hard drive works well.  If using the hard drive, make sure that once you make the back up you disconnect the drive from your system and store it in some safe, secure place. 

As we rely on digital storage, a good multi-level back up plan is a must.  I hope you never have to use it.

Cloud Based Back Up Easy and Inexpensive

If you are a regular reader of this column you know that over the years I have written several times about the importance of backing up the information stored on your computer.  I have suggested various ways of protecting your files, documents, pictures and videos from loss when your hard drive or other storage medium fails.  Notice that I said “when” and not “if” your hard drive fails.  If your use your computer for any significant length of time the storage drive will fail and if your files are not backed up you will loose them. 

Since many of us now store on our computer very important information such as tax returns, banking statements and legal documents, loss of these files can be a very serious matter.  With photography now almost completely digital, family photographs are no longer relegated to the shoe box in the hall closet but share space on that at-risk hard drive.

Up until now my recommendations for protecting your stuff have been hardware based. Backing up regularly on CDs or an external hard drive were the least expensive choices. In many cases, though, you had to remember to do the back up and, perhaps more important, make sure that the back up copy was stored in some safe place.  If the back up copy of your data is stored on a CD and that CD is kept in a box on your desk next to the computer, a fire or flood might well destroy both the computer and the back up.  In short, backing up your data has been a pain.

Now there are inexpensive options that not only make backing up easy, they solve the back up storage issue and the need to remember to do the back up.  There are several services that use the Internet and the cloud to provide reliable and affordable options.

Companies like Carbonite.com, myPCbackup.com and ZipCloud.com are only three of more than a dozen options.  Priced at about $4 per month, these services load a simple program on your PC that automatically backs up your files to their secure and redundant data centers located around the world.  The back up process is continuous; every time a new file is created or changed on your computer a copy is sent to the cloud.  This is done in the background and the user doesn’t even know it is happening.  It takes only seconds for a file to be backed up.

When you first sign on to one of these services it might take several hours for all your files to be transmitted to the back up site, but after that it is quick and painless.   When you need to restore the files you just download them from the cloud to your new computer or hard drive.  Many of these services also allow you to access your files from another computer.  So if you are on vacation away from your computer you can download any backed up file from the cloud to the other computer.

A list of the major cloud based back up providers is available on line at  www.top-10-online-backups.com/best-cloud-storage