Sort of Close Call

[kevin_standlee]

The weather cleared up a bit today, so I was able to go out for a walk after lunch. On the way back, I heard sirens. This isn't unusual. There is a fire station a short distance from here, and I live on the corner of two main streets. Getting closer to home, I heard a car alarm wailing away. After a few minutes, I realized that it was not a car alarm, but a fire alarm.

It sounded like the fire alarm at my apartment complex. I know what that sounds like because we had a (apparently false) alarm a few months ago.

Now I started to get a little anxious. My computer is in the apartment, and so are all of the backups. So are my savings bonds, and the backup for the bonds is on the computer. Eeek!

Soon thereafter, the fire alarm stopped, and as I passed the complex just before mine, I saw the fire truck parked in their lot and no obvious signs of smoke or flame in the area. I guess our neighboring complex uses the same kind of alarms as we do.

I'm reminded of ConAdian in 1994, when the fire alarm went off one night. After the late evacuation, I stood in the rain chuckling. Someone asked why I was laughing.

I said, "It must be a false alarm. The Site Selection money and ballots are all locked up in the hotel's safe-deposit box, along with my passport and other critical papers. Otherwise, the hotel would burn to the ground." (We were let back in shortly thereafter. I heard later that the rain had caused an electrical short that set off a smoke alarm, but no real harm came of it. I suppose some of the people in the Place Louis Riel hadn't even gone to bed yet, that being one of the two "hospitality" [party; the hotels were allergic to that word so we had to use the euphemism] hotels.)

I think I really do need to buy a small fireproof box for the savings bonds and to hold backup disks.

Comments

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Be sure the box for the backup disks is *media* rated; paper and magnetic media have different requirements, paper takes higher temperatures *and* humidities without trouble compared to disks, tapes, and CDs. (A media-rated box is fine for paper).

Fire Safe Boxes

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Hm, that explains why the boxes that say they'll keep things below 50 C/125 F cost $100 more than the ones that do not.

Re: Fire Safe Boxes

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

And, if you look inside carefully, are probably *also* much smaller (in protected volume) than the paper-rated ones. Very often they sell the same outside box, with an extra liner added for the "media-rated" version.

(Most of the cheap paper-rated ones use gypsym board in the walls; it gives off water when heated, which helps dissipate heat. This turns out to be very bad for magnetic media. Plus the 125F temp limit for media of course. The liner seals against the moisture from the gysum, plus provides more insulation.)

[darrelx.livejournal.com]

I've got an extra fireproof safe I'm not using... but it's too heavy to ship. Gonna be in the San Diego area soon?

The inside, IIRC, is about 10x12x6, and the instructions say it's only for keeping documents safe. It's rated to keep the interior below 275-degrees for 2 hours in a typical wood fire, which means no storing plastics or thermal sensitives, since it wont help them.

I had bought two of them at once, thinking that the second one would be for my handgun, but the instructions said to specifically *not* store weapons in them, so the second one just sits there... unused.

They open with a cylinder-lock key.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I don't expect to be in San Diego until Westercon. OTOH, I've been considering driving to Westercon instead of flying. I have more time off this year than last (although I'm saving up for Japan next year) and can thus afford the extra time. I was even thinking of taking the train, but the connection at LA Union Station is not nice.

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I remember that fire alarm at the PLR... my room was on the top floor.

[dave-gallaher.livejournal.com]

I remember that fire alarm, too, looking down at the fire trucks and the folks waiting around outside from my room next door at the Sheraton....

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Nothing will ever match the false alarm at O'dark thirty at Baycon.. and the endless apologies they broadcast afterwards.

[dinogrl.livejournal.com]

I invested in a safe deposit box many years ago. It's always like Christmas when I go to visit it! I discover how many things I actually have had sense enough to put away for safekeeping. Phew, I am not as dumb as I think I am...

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

Are offsite backups possible (not that I have any, so I'm a fine one to talk)?

Offsite Backups

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

To some extent, yes, since my employer is pretty tolerant. I can put backups done on CD-ROM in my desk at my office, or on one of my computers at work. Actually, I try to do that with the Quicken records (which would be a disaster to me if I lost) once a week. I backup the Quicken files every time I use quicken, swapping between a pair of USB thumb drives, but that's only a defense against hard drive failure, not catastrophic destruction, as the thumb drives are usually in the same room (or same building) as the laptop.

I've also done the opposite: made CD-ROM backups of stuff on my work machines and taken them home.

I had a hard drive failure on one work machine a couple of years ago. I did backups and archives, but not often enough, and I lost months' worth of files. (That, for instance, is why some SFSFC board meeting minutes exist only on paper; the only copy of the source files was on the work machine at that time.) I didn't lose everything, though, thank goodness, and to this day I sometimes find myself pawing through that old archive trying to find files from the past.

Re: Offsite Backups

[marahsk.livejournal.com]

I found a 6 gig USB hard drive for about $90; it's big enough to back up everything that wasn't purchased on CD ROM. It's sitting in my desk drawer, though, so it would be wonderful in case of hd failure, but not so much use in a fire.

You could carry a thumb drive in your wallet, though.