TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPICS: BACKUPS / INTERNET HISTORY

Beep, beep, beep... That's the sound of the TOURBUS backing up. In today's issue, we'll get a little retrospective, but with an eye toward the future. I'll share my strategy for painless hard drive backups, then we'll take a peek at the Internet of yesteryear, and the people who made it all possible. Read on...

Oatmeal, Floss and Backups

What do they have in common? With apologies to Wilford Brimley, each of them is just the right thing to do. Nobody gets excited about backing up their hard drive, but sooner or later, something terrible will happen to your hard drive. That's not a very happy thought, but the good news is you can survive a hard drive failure with only minimal inconvenience -- if you back up your files. Learn how to stop worrying and put your backup on auto-pilot...

http://www.askbobrankin.com/backing_up_your_files.html

A Walk Down (Random Access) Memory Lane

The history of computing and the story of how the Internet came to be are fascinating subjects to me. After doing some reading and research on early computers and Internet history, I've put together some excellent links that you can explore to learn more at your leisure.

See what computers looked like in the 1620s. Peer back through the lens of cyberhistory and see what the Yahoo home page looked like in October 1996. Find out why we all owe a debt of gratitude to Vint Cerf and J.R. Licklider.

http://www.askbobrankin.com/internet_history.html

Internet Innovators

Back in 1995-96 I worked for BoardWatch Magazine, covering the world of bulletin board systems and the fledgling Internet. One of my favorite parts of the job was interviewing prominent netizens of the day.

Some may boast about being self-made men, but Dave Taylor is one guy who could honestly call himself "net-made." Still very much active in online ventures, you may find his comments and predictions from ten years ago quite interesting.

http://www.askbobrankin.com/internet_innovators_dave_taylor.html

The Next Best Thing

Linda from Marlinton, West Virginia recently wrote and said "The next best thing to Tourbus is the Smart Computing magazine that you guys recommend. I've been getting it since last summer and it has solved numerous problems for me and my friends." Thanks, Linda!

We hope other Tourbus riders will discover the Plain English answers to their computing questions that Smart Computing delivers every month. Do you want to speed up your PC? Eliminate the threat of computer viruses? Get rid of spyware and keep hackers out? Try Smart Computing today -- get your FREE TRIAL issue NOW!

http://www.internettourbus.com/smart.htm

That's all for now, see you next time! -- Bob Rankin