President's Message

November 2007 (v1.8)
Rob Limbaugh - President

A few weeks after this newsletter is printed, it will be Thanksgiving. You can tell because the Christmas decorations are already on display. You'll know when Christmas is here because the New Year items will be out. Someday, I hope someone comes out with some pre-decorated shrink-wrap to pull around your house. That would at least make the decorating easy and just as fast as the store display changes!

So, in the interest of having many things to catch up on (and still get to), I'm going to keep things very short and sweet this month.

It bears repeating…
Backup, backup, backup! This week, I took the time to backup a machine that usually goes off the radar of routine maintenance, even for me. It's a company provided machine, and most of what I do for work ends up on storage locations elsewhere. Because it is company issued, I do not have the latitude to install personal backup software (such as Carbonite or Mozy). As a result, the non-work related data isn't as frequently backed up. It has a DVD burner, so I spent about an hour and half to burn four DVDs. Much of that data probably didn't need to be backed up (CD ISO files, pictures I have copies of elsewhere, etc.), but it was easier and cheaper to just burn the discs than to sift and sort, so that is what I did.

Good thing, too! Just yesterday, that system's hard drive went south (and is never coming back)! It was non-responsive and undetectable by the motherboard. The great thing about company machines is that one can make a phone call and magically, a hard drive is available, so I was back up and running with a replacement drive in a short amount of time. It's taken longer to reinstall the additional administration applications and tools than it did to create the backup DVDs.

Upcoming General Meetings
Along with featuring some of the SIGs in November, and John Patrick's glimpse into the digital horizons in December, we will have some really desirable door prizes! Just a teaser, but we'll be giving away at least one package of Microsoft Office 2007.

Remember that General Meetings in January through June of 2008 will be on the FIRST MONDAY of each month. The meetings in July through December 2008 will resume on the first Tuesday of each month. The DACS online calendar (http://www.dacs.org/calendar) has the correct dates for the 2008 General Meetings.

Giving Thanks…
Much work goes on in DACS. There's no effort too small, and each person's contribution(s) are greatly appreciated. So, being that time of year, I'd like to give a big THANKS to:

… The authors of all of our newsletter content throughout the year
… The newsletter editors who give that content shape
… The webmasters who keep our site information current
… The speakers and presenters who share their knowledge
… The SIG leaders who help create environments to learn and share
… The Board of Directors and Officers that help to steer DACS forward
… Most important, of course, the Members. Without the Members, none of this would be possible!

See you at our next meeting!

ROB LIMBAUGH
relimbaugh@dacs.org