["Al Smith"; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 00:23:55 GMT]
Like the original poster, I'm also a writer, and I also don't trust
computers. Unfortunately, I'm stuck with using one, since it doesn't
make any sense to write in longhand, or with a typewriter, anymore.
I'd say the trust issue could be made with \any\ medium. Personally, I
don't trust paper. Computers are, in general, quite reliable and almost
totally safe if you save often, back-up well, and exercise suitable
maintenance.
What I do is backup my work in six different ways, and hope it's
enough to insure that I don't lose something completely. That's
about all you can do in the computer age.
The odds of that happening are practically microscopic. I keep my
original writings and documents on a portable 128-MB USB drive, and back
up periodically to HD, and less often, to CD-R. The odds of both my hard
drive \and\ my USB drive failing simultaneously are acceptably small.
Could it happen? Sure. But the odds are small enough to where it's not
worth worrying about, much like driving a car: there's a chance you'll
be injured in an accident, yeah. But you still use them. All you can do
is be careful and hope nothing happens -- hope for the best, prepare for
the worst. As we see, how \much\ one prepares varies.
Personally, I'd say 6 back-ups is a tad paranoid, but within the realm
of reasonableness, especially if we're talking about one's work, y'
know?
