It is a sad, sad day for me. Earlier this week, I lost a dear friend of mine. For that past six years, Mielziner has been one of my closest and most trusted friends. No matter how I felt or what is going on in my life, I could share my stories, photos and so much more with him and he would not think any less of me. He was always there, ready to help me out.
I could have cried when Mielziner took a turn for the worse and left me for a better world. Instead, I cursed like a sailor and almost threw him out the window. Good thing I refrained from doing that. He’s no featherweight — had I succumbed to that temptation, I probably would have thrown out my back out.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, Mielziner is not a person. It’s the name I’ve given to my Apple Mac Pro tower, a tribute, of course, to the late, great and legendary lighting and scenic designer Jo Mielziner (1901-1976).
It might be somewhat wrong to pull your leg and talk about a computer like it was a person and to begin my Editor’s Note like an obituary — even though April 1 is just around the corner. But when you have had a long term relationship with a machine that supposedly safeguards a vast treasure trove of all your important information — not to mention all your music — and it decides not to work any more — you can begin to understand my frustration.
Mielziner had everything on it. Photos going back to the beginning of my life until now. All, I mean all of my music, movies and TV shows, both bought and “found” and, most importantly, my word documents. Mielziner held all of my digital life in its terabytes of storage. And now, he doesn’t want to turn on for me.
I should note that I haven’t given up on Mielziner completely just yet. I’m still hoping that the computer can be revived. And if that big chunk of my own digital life persists in its frustrating, black-screen stare, I have one more option: head on down to nearest Mac Genius to see if they can do something worthy of that name. (Too bad they’re not called Mac Miracle Workers.)
Data Safe
Rewinding three years ago, when I took over as editor of PLSN, I began to re-think how I saved my data. I was traveling more, and having all of my files back on Mielziner wouldn’t work. I always need to have the latest versions of files available across my two Macs. For years I carried a 2GB thumb drive attached to my keychain. My keys are almost always on me, but not really. There have been times when the keys got misplaced, or the thumb drive came off the keychain and was left back at home, in Mielziner. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Using an FTP account could have worked. But what if I was on one of those five-hour flights across the country? Even with airlines starting to offer Internet access, it still meant that I would have to make sure to upload the most recent documents to the FTP and hope and pray that the flight’s Internet connection would be available and unbroken.
So I began using Dropbox, a cloud storage that automatically synchs whatever is in my Dropbox folder across all my devices. No more having to worry about which is the most recent file or forgetting a drive or uploading something. If I save something to my Dropbox folder, it is saved to the cloud and, instantly, added to my Mac Book once it has Internet access. I always make it a habit to open up the Mac Book for an hour or so before I head out, just to make sure it has sync’d and has all my latest emails.
If all else fails and I don’t have the most recent files, I can always open up the Dropbox app on my iPhone and view something there. Doesn’t really work for editing, but it’s good to know that I can quickly check something. For more info on the Dropbox app, turn to page 12.
The Safety Net
Saving my most important and frequently used documents to Dropbox saved more than a headache for me, it saved my digital life. Now I’ve replaced Mielziner with my new BDFF (best digital friend forever), McCandless. But I have to credit Dropbox as being the wingman for this new bromance. All I had to do was re-install the app on McCandless, log in and wait for the sync to complete.
Like magic, all my files were back. As for all of my software, contacts, emails and media, well, the software had to be re-installed, the contacts and emails transferred over (thanks iCloud!) And all of my media, including that vast music collection? Let’s just say it is safe in Mielziner until I can bring him back from the dead.
