Blessed are the Paranoid, for They Shall Have Backups

I learned that phrase back in the day when hard drives were considered huge at 20MG, and most of us who weren't very rich were still using floppies. (Remember floppies?! Except the ones Macintosh used that were 3.5 inches weren't floppy since they had a rigid shell around them.)

Anyway, I haven't mentioned DropBox or other backup systems on this blog recently -- so I'm due for a shout-out. Below is an excellent link to an "unofficial guide" to DropBox. You can read online, or download in pdf or epub formats. It's a good walk-through for someone who has no idea what DropBox and similar online resources are:

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/download-using-the-magic-pocket-a-dropbox-guide

Why consider something like this? Because if your hard drive crashes with your only copy of everything on it, you are going to be one unhappy camper. 

However, if you have copies of everything "in the cloud," at a remote location online, you will simply shrug and smile. Your crash will be about as painful as a papercut. You'll still have to get a new hard drive, or make do until you can get a new one. But all your data will be safe.

The best part: DropBox (and other services) run seamlessly, with no need to remember to do much of anything after you install the parts. I save everything that is an active file to DropBox. (The archived stuff is elsewhere, but still safe.)

Twitter goes NSA on us

http://lifehacker.com/twitter-wants-to-start-tracking-you-on-the-web-heres-661569459

Twitter wants the right to push ads to you based on websites you have visited. It wants to follow you. In a word, it wants to go all NSA on you, and have more information than you probably want to give. 

To change the "new default" that Twitter has decided to install in your account, visit the above linked page for (easy to follow) instructions.

Free Guides and Cheat Sheets

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/

Ever wonder how to use Pinterest, buy a laptop, improve your use of Word and other MS Office products, develop a "living resume" on LinkedIn?

There's a guide for that. The above link is a portal to two categories of completely free guides offered by the blog Make Use Of, a blog for those of us who sometimes feel like we're never quite going to catch up with the tech stuff we really ought to know and love.

Networking 101: how and why

You already know you need to network. But you feel like a shrinking violet, a shy wallflower. Well--be aware that networking is the primary way to getting a job these days. Circling the want ads is about as effective as playing endless games of Tetris (or Minecraft, or whatever your poison). If everyone but you is networking, then everyone but you will eventually get a job.

How to build your network, 7 tips:
http://www.blogging4jobs.com/guest-blogger/7-tips-to-build-your-network/

How to ask for and get an interview, using your network:
http://www.timsstrategy.com/blog/4-steps-to-getting-your-network-to-say-yes-to-an-interview/

How to earn recognition within a company before you apply for a job:
http://blog.sparkhire.com/2013/07/03/top-five-ways-to-get-in-to-a-company/

Questions for your Resume

http://www.timsstrategy.com/blog/what-is-your-professional-resume-really-saying/

Here's an excellent list of 10 questions to ask yourself as you review your resume. You can have all the experience, skills, motivation and can-do attitude you want, but if you aren't answering these questions, your resume will hit the circular file in short order.