If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed, or subscribe by e-mail. Don't forget to leave a comment or send an e-mail from the about page. Thanks for visiting!
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been noticing where things have gone well and where they haven’t. Discounting matters beyond my control, I find that the best of the situation is where I had a fail-safe set up.
A fail-safe is just what it sounds like: It is a setup in which any kind of failure results in a safe scenario. Simple enough of an idea, but the execution is a lot more interesting.
The Return of the Dreaded BSOD.
Having seen more than my share of them recently, the infamous Blue Screen Of Death in the Windows environment is a fail-safe. This may seem really strange, because most people associate the BSOD with the error. However, the BSOD is where the computer is halted after a system error before more extensive damage can be done. Inconvenient, yes. A herald of greater problems? Oh yeah. However, this is an excellent fail-safe as it minimizes the damage.
In another vein, I have a small confession to make: I am a big fan of the Mythbusters (really, can you say you’re surprised?). In a few scenarios, they have rigged up a full-size car with remote control devices, in effect turning a real car into a giant R/C toy. This is usually for cases where it would be too dangerous to put a human inside, but that’s beside the point: In every case, the car is rigged so that if anything goes wrong, it shuts off and stops itself (well, mostly….again, beside the point).
A few of my fail-safes:
As mentioned previously, I had started to future-post articles. This is exceptionally good since my computer up and died on me unexpectedly. I’d also been able to drastically reduce the amount of sugar in my diet and had (briefly) eliminated caffeine. The last few weeks have had all sorts of adventures, from damage to the house all the way up to the passing of a family member. The progress I’ve made itself is a veritable fail-safe, as I have a greater amount of resources upon which to draw; I was dog-tired and couldn’t keep going at one point. Chagrined that I’d come to the point, I cracked open a caffinated soda. I didn’t even finish the can, but my (relatively) clean system was able to use the infusion of sugar and caffeine to great advantage.
Back in the realm of computers, backups are the epitome of a fail-safe: Even if disaster strikes and you’re left with no way to operate, at least your data is intact. This was part of my plan and I had a few backups ready-to-go if needed. Thankfully, I was able to grab the data directly, but I knew that it was there if I needed it.
What fail-safes do you have?
I’m always interested in reading how people do things. What kind of fail-safe setup do you have in your life?
If you would like to read more about setting yourself up for success, please subscribe to the RSS feed.
(P.S. Sorry, no podcast today. I’m having a devil of a time trying to get my microphone to work with my new operating system. If push comes to shove, I’ll do this a different way. Either way, I plan to have a podcast up this upcoming Monday. Thanks for your patience.
