Tag Archives: computer

Carbonite – Online File Backup for your Family’s Most Precious Memories 24/7/365

October 27, 2015TechnologyBackup, Carbonite, computer, Cyber SecurityAlicia

The days of photo albums are long passed. In the modern age, you store your precious photos and memories on the computers. However, hard drive failure is much more common than house fires; 78% of hard drives will fail within six years. Do you have a reliable online file backup plan in place to keep those memories safe?

My laptop is home to 284GB of data. This includes work and personal photos, documents, website files, etc. I went through a huge loss of data soon after I started my first website in 2001, before external hard drives and online data backup services such as Carbonite were available. It was a devastating loss that cost me money and many many hours of time and energy to resolve. With Carbonite online file backup, I can rest assure that I won’t suffer a loss like that again, no matter if my computer crashes or if I accidentally delete files.

Carbonite offers easy and affordable computer backups that make it easy to keep your photographs, important documents, and other data safe — and they do it for as little as $5 per year. While there are other cloud backup programs available, none have the reliability and durability that Carbonite has.

OCTOBER IS CYBER SECURITY AWARENESS MONTH!

Carbonite makes your precious memories last a lifetime – easily and at a low cost, by protecting your irreplaceable files with automatic and secure cloud backup.

Carbonite was developed after both co-founders had family members had lose data on their computers. David Friend’s daughter called him frantic after her hard drive had crashed containing her term paper she had worked on for six weeks. His partner Jeff’s wife lost years of baby photos and financial records when her laptop was stolen. It was after these incidents that David and Jeff founded Carbonite as a safe and secure backup system.

Carbonite makes being aware and protecting your family with cyber security efforts, easy. You can try Carbonite’s online file backup service free for 15 days. Full functionality is included with the trial. After you’ve registered, download and install Carbonite. From that point, the program takes up and backs up your files to the cloud. It will make a sweep of your system and retroactively store files.

Once they’re on the cloud, the files are easy to access — and you can do it anywhere, anytime, from any internet-connected device. And you don’t have to worry about running out of storage. Carbonite offers truly unlimited cloud-based storage. Store as many photos and music files as you want.

After the program has been installed, it performs automatic, continuous backups. You don’t have to worry about scheduling these. Carbonite stores your life so you can focus on living it. Carbonite also offers 24/7 award-winning customer support if you ever have problems. The support team can be reached through a quick phone call, email, or live chat.

HOW TO BACK UP WITH CARBONITE

Protecting your family’s memories and your computers is easy with Carbonite! This was our first experience with the service and it was so easy to get going. Here’s the steps we went through to get the laptop protected.

Install

I started by going to the Carbonite Trials page to sign up for an account. Then I installed Carbonite on my computer.

Back up

As soon as I installed Carbonite onto my computer, Carbonite began the backup. Carbonite offers a suggested plan of action but the software makes it easy to change which files/folders are backed up. My initial backup took about 4 days so make sure you’re on a good Wifi connection.

Since installing Carbonite and running the initial backup, I have access to the following Carbonite features:

Restore

With my files safely stored in the cloud, I can get them back anytime, whether I accidently delete a single file or have a complete hard drive failure.
Access

This is the feature that I love, perhaps most, about Carbonite. I can access my files from any Internet-connected computer or mobile device.

On Carbonite, your files are safe. Before Carbonite backs up the data, it’s encrypted with a 128-bit Blowfish encryption then transferred over a secure sever to the data center. The Carbonite data centers are fully staffed and guarded 24 hours per day.

At just $59.99 per year, the basic program is insanely affordable. That comes out to just $5.00 per month for peace of mind that your files and photos are safe. All plans provide unlimited cloud backup space, automatic and continuous backup, free premium support, easy restore capabilities, mobile app access to sync and share files between devices, and file safety and security.

Personal Carbonite Plans:

Basic

$59.99 per year for each computer. All the essentials – Automatic online backup for your photos, music, documents and more.
Plus

$99.99 per year. A complete backup solution – Automatic online backup of your computer and external hard drive – plus a local backup of your operating system and software programs.
Prime

$149.99 per computer per year. The top of the line – With automatic video backup and the option to have a copy of your backup shipped to you anywhere in the United States, this is our most comprehensive solution for protecting home office and family computers.

Stop worrying that something will happen to your computer. Try Carbonite today with a free trial. Once you see how easy it is to set up and get started and how smoothly it works, you’ll never turn back.

Carbonite Promo Code for 2 Additional Free Months of Service!

Check out the Carbonite website and get started protecting your family’s technology! And use the code INFLUENCECENTRAL to get two (2) additional FREE months of service, after a subscription plan has been purchased (offer expires 12/31/15).

Book review: My New Mac, Snow Leopard Edition

December 30, 2009Books, Computers & Software, New postsbook, computer, laptop, macbook, softwareAlicia

I upgraded my MacBook White operating system to Snow Leopard a few months ago and despite the changes being aesthetically minimal, there are some significant system changes. I recently got a new MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard and couldn’t be more thrilled with it!

One of my favorite features on the new Snow Leopard OS is that my MacBook Pro wakes up, shuts down, and restarts quicker. I close my laptop when I know I’m going to be away from it for a while so nothing happens to it while I’m away from it. I often work at the kitchen table because I can see into the downstairs den where the kids play. When I open my MacBook Pro whether it just has to wake up or start up, it starts instantly.

My New Mac, Snow Leopard Edition walks readers through 52 useful projects that will have them doing useful things with their Mac right away. The book is an easy read and I’ve found it very useful when I need to learn more about a feature or how to do something I’m not already familiar with.

A few topics covered in My New Mac, Snow Leopard Edition include:

My New Mac‘s projects cover topics like organizing music with iTunes, tracking birthdays with iCal, and clipping and saving information from the Internet. Readers learn how to:

Organize files and folders by color and keyword
Connect to the Internet, chat with friends, and listen to online radio stations
Install and update software—and remove unwanted programs
Set up and manage parental controls to limit kids’ computer and Internet access
Share songs, images, and documents with other computers wirelessly
Use the built-in firewall and keep their computer and information safe from intruders

Buy from Amazon.com

ItzaBitza Educational Reading Game for kids + giveaway – this game is so much fun!

March 4, 2009Computers & Software, Educational Toys, Gadgets, New postscomputer, development, educational, game, School, softwareAlicia

This is one of the most entertaining games I’ve played in a long time. Yes, I admit I played ItzaBitza. My kids weren’t even around. The concept of ItzaBitza is awesome..I’ve never seen anything like it.

ItzaBitza promotes reading comprehension, artisitic and imaginative creativity and provides an exciting gaming experience for kids ages four and older. I was amazed time and time again by how the game responded to my drawings and made them come to life.

Here are just a few things you can do in the first ItzaBitza scene:

Draw a tree, apples grow on it.
Draw a moon and stars light up the sky and your Sketchie goes inside the house you drew, goes upstairs and goes to sleep.
Draw an envelope and your Sketchie takes it to the mailbox.
Draw a cup and watch your Sketchie drink out of it.

The Sketchie your child chooses at the beginning of the game (a boy or a girl) asks your child to draw things, including a house and a tree, then the drawings become part of the animation and story. An example would be when I drew a tree with leaves, the game added apples to the tree. You can see my award winning drawing (ha!) below. Click on the image to view the larger version. I didn’t draw the flowers. When I drew the sun, the flowers grew! How cool is that?

Through out the game, the Sketchie gives you ideas and little games to play via a little word bubble that pops up when you click on him or her. If your child has trouble reading a word in the bubble, all she has to do is move the mouse over the word and it is sounded out for her. Great reading practice!

There are several scenes that can be unlocked as your child progresses in the game including a camping scene and a naunted house. You’ll have to buy the game to find out what happens in each of the scenes!

Buy a copy of ItzaBitza at Amazon.com for $17.99 (current price) OR buy and download the game here.

Giveaway details are coming soon but until then you can subscribe to our updates and you will be notified with giveaway details as soon as we get them up!

Clean out your computer and improve performance with Iolo System Mechanic®

March 4, 2009Computers & Softwarecomputer, workAlicia

Don’t you hate it when you get the kids out of the bathtub, you pull the drain stopper out, and the bath water takes forever to drain? I am a visualizer and can’t stand it when that happens because I visualize everything that might be stuck in the drain clogging it. Gross!!
So, what do you do? You grab the drain cleaner.

I never thought about it until recently but computers also slow down because they get clogged. Surfing the internet, working, playing games, storing files, writing reports.. all of these things take a toll on our hard working computers which ultimately leads to a clogged system. System Mechanic and it’s set-and-forget ActiveCare 2.0 features make it easy for me as a work from home mom to get on with my work day and not have to take time out of my busy work and family schedule to perform much needed regular maintenance on my computer.

Top reasons your computer slows down and issues that System Mechanic fixes:

Start up overload
Registry errors
Remnants of Uninstalled Programs

Installing Iolo System Mechanic is simple and watching it do it’s work is so satisfying. It’s the same feeling as when my 2 year old blows her nose and can breath again when she has a bad cold. (like now!)

System Mechanic fixes, speeds up and maintains PC’s so they run like new forever. The software combines more than 40 robust tools enabling novices and experts alike to clean out their computers and keep them in peak condition.

Priced at around $49.95, Iolo System Mechanic 8.0 is a great investment that will improve your PC’s performance and keep your computer running smoothly.

When my computer slows down or starts acting erratically, I get stressed. Most likely, I am trying to get as much work done as possible in a very short period of time, and don’t have time to wait on a program to open when it should open instantaneously or to find a file that shouldn’t take more than 2 seconds to find. Since using System Mechanic, I’ve noticed a big difference in my computer’s speed and performance.
How does your computer’s performance affect you?
(tell me below and you’re automatically entered to win a copy!)

I have 5 copies of Iolo System Mechanic 8 to GIVEAWAY!
In celebration of Clean Out Your Computer Day, February 9th, I am giving away 5 copies of Iolo System Mechanic 8! Subscribe to our email or RSS updates (top of right column) and I’ll enter you to win one of 5 copies of System Mechanic!