Those Darn Kids – Aren’t They Sharp? Or Are They?

As one who is critical of our high cost government schools, I get tired of hearing how those sharp kids are learning so much technology in their school.

Oh yes, they can rip (or rip off) music to their mp3 player, upload and download at youtube and waste most of their day (and their parents money) text messaging each other.

You’re hoping I have a point; well, I do. Yesterday I got another one of those emails.

“Kid lost important school project, can you help?” To make matters worse, this was a group of kids. How did they lose it? Hard drive crash with no backup.

And some people wonder why I’m always harping on computer backup. I would really truly feel sorry for these kids if backing up on a USB flash drive were not so cheap and easy.

I was just telling another client yesterday about all of the USB flash drives I have in my drawer that I got for free (after rebate) from Buy.com. All you have to do is plug it into your PC then drag and drop some important files over to it. Want to make really sure? Then change USB flash drives and do it again. Two backups in under two minutes; probably under one minute.

Never mind a complete image backup with Acronis True Image to a USB hard drive.

Will I help these people? Sure, I always do if I can. But I won’t do what I used to do. Years ago I would have some teary eyed student standing in front of me whose world was on the brink of collapse and tell them I would help. I would then take the project home, spend most of the evening (or weekend) saving their bacon and charge not more than $50, if anything at all.

Some of you are smart enough to see how stupid that is, but I have always been a sucker for a young person in need who I know I can help. And I don’t want to charge them in such a way as to be taking advantage of them. But enough of my family suffering in their place.

The internet has too much free information (like here on my blog and over at my website www.FreeComputerConsultant.com), too many cheap USB flash drives and my life is just too short to continue doing that kind of stuff.

And since the Federal, State and Local governments are doing such a great job of siphoning money from my wallet to build an education system that they are so proud of; maybe these kids should take the failed hard drive to school and turn it in. Perhaps salvaging the data should be a learning experience for the whole class? Perhaps losing the data could be a learning experience for the whole class. (Actually, this sounds like a good idea.)

Might as well add that despite all of the hoopla about these students being great with computers, my clients are not impressed either. The graduates they hire might be able to type well enough, but many can’t figure out how to turn the PC on. Or how to backup their work.

Enough rant, I’ve got to go earn some money to pay my upcoming property taxes, of which 56% go to my local government school system; while the road in front of my house deteriorates to a horse trail.

Suffice it to say that I will continue to post new and exciting ways to backup your data.

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