I am also the guy that no one listens to when everything is working fine.

I am writing this to you today to try and convince you to get yourself some sort of back-up plan for all your data in your house. Most everything is going to be stored on a hard drive some day if it isn’t already in your house. There is one thing that you must realize about computers and their storage systems like hard drives and USB sticks.

THEY WILL EVENTUALLY FAIL.

They will. They will wait until you need to print out your resume for an interview the night before. They will wait until you really really need to see an old e-mail. They are nasty buggers and you need to protect yourself from their wrath!

Seriously though, people, you need to have more than one copy of your important data. Very simple, yet no one follows this advice, including myself. That’s right, do what I say, not what I do.

So the data destroyer struck my house yesterday. My girl went edit her resume for an interview and it was gone. EVERYTHING on her USB stick was gone. She did put it on there like I told her to back it up, but then I guess removed it from the computer. No idea why the stick is dead, but it is. I re-typed it all from a printout she had while she was at work. I should have been playing Halo reach instead.

So my new mission is to come up with an affordable back-up solution for all us frugal minded people. I am going to be doing some research over the next week, buy the stuff I need and then post my review here for everyone. So if you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments and I will take them into account when doing my research and purchasing.

Until then, at least burn your important stuff to a DVD while you wait please.

Backing up your computer or data – Doing it as frugally as possible is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips

Now you can be the proud owner of an electronic version of… Paper, Rock, Scissors… I do not think I need to say much more than that, but here is a quote from the site so you can get the entire picture.

“Sold as a pair so you can play with a friend. (Or just use both simultaneously and play against yourself! Challenge your left hand against your right!)”

And no, I am not putting a link to this thing, it should not exist :p

Could this possibly take the title for stupidest gadget ever? is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips

“Prevent another parking mishap! Know when your parking meter time is up with this convenient keychain.

As seen in the New York Times Gift Guide

• 24 hour countdown for parking timer
• Early warning alarms at 10, 5 and 1-minute intervals
• 10 second memo feature to record your parking location and time, or use for other reminders
• Messages retained even when batteries are dead or removed

No more parking tickets, no more forgetting where you parked and no more stress!”

Useless Gadget: Parking Meter Timer is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips

This alarm clock actually runs away and hides if you don’t get up in time. You get to hit the snooze button once, and after that it goes off again and rolls away. you have to get up and find it in order to turn it off.

This would be the perfect thing for me if it is really durable. It needs to either be quick enough to get away from me when I am trying to stomp it out of existance, or it needs to be able to survive being kicked into a wall. Either way, I needs to get me one of these. I’ll let you know how long it survives.

Alarm Clock that runs away from you is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips

The ultimate office tool is finally here! Everyone likes to shred things, and now with one of these baby’s on everyone’s desk they can do it with out all the noise of a traditional shredder. Sure you may have to wait until your hamster actually feels like running on the wheel to make it work, but it will be worth it for the hours of shredding fun!

Note: Please don’t take the name literally, shredding an actual hamster voids the warranty.

-| From Engadget |-

The Ultimate Office Tool is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips

Being a tech/IT guy, it is always amusing the way computers are portrayed in movies. Although a few try and be true to the way computers actually are, they rarely get it anywhere close to right.

Most are super powerful, with interfaces that just seem to morph into whatever the user currently needs. I also love how you can beat any security just by simply typing “OVERRIDE”. Check out the article here to see 27 things computers can only do in the movies, it’s a good list especially if you are a tech geek like me.

Computers in the movies is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips

In order to find out how to win this marvelous piece of technology, just head over to his blog. But be warned now, he is the master of evil and will corrupt you. Plus, he likes to post pictures of the weird stuff he eats, so make sure you have a strong stomach

Evil Blog Contest – Win A Microsoft Zune is a post from: Saving money tips - frugal living tips