<p>WashDadJr has a locking cable for his notebook computer, and a sturdy metal desk to attach it to. Any bets where the cable is? I’m guessing the blister pack hasn’t even been cut yet.</p>
<p>WashDad. That is so …so…so…predictable for a guy but that doesn’t help much , does it? LOL.</p>
<p>I’m chuckling about WashDad , Jr. and crying about WildChild. Man. These kids are going to kill us all. One way or the other.</p>
<p>Thanks, all. No back-ups. No emails to self or anything on server. All gone.
Police report filed. It was a break-in but the house back door doesn’t always totally close and the idiots in the house are negligent about it. Some of the low-life residents surrounding the place go down the alleys and check the doors, run in, grab what they can and bolt. Camera is missing, too. GF’s purse and all credit cards were left. Paper due Fri am is 30% of the grade with supposedly no exceptions for turning it in on time. He spent all last weekend writing it.
Yep- should back up, should live with people you know so that maybe you can trust them to actually shut and lock doors, should go to school somewhere else… The housing there simply sucks. Next year there is finally a decent alternative- it costs a fortune, but it is new and safe. The 1 and 2 bedroom units leased out in 5 hours and the place won’t be finished until August. Tells you something… WildChild thinks his next semester housing will be safer in that he is by himself and can control things better. He still isn’t sure he won’t be shot. Rape occurred a few weeks ago a block away from where he lives now when someone went into a similar house to where he lives- again, an unlocked door.</p>
<p>arg, MOWC. THAT sucks. I’m going to email your first post to D as a not-so-subtle-reminder… </p>
<p>Pic and TXT message from D today: IT"S SNOWING! We IM’ed each other for an hour and a half this morning…starting in her comp programming “lab”, and then filling up the extra hour she had between classes. Her hardest final is going to be her first one, but it’s not until Dec 13, so she’s not too worried yet. And besides, IT"S SNOWING!!!</p>
<p>I just got the email from my mom telling me to read this thread and back up all of my papers. I usually do it by emailing them to myself. Good times!</p>
<p>Finals over here at SC don’t start until next Thursday, officially, although many papers etc. are due this week. Yay.</p>
<p>Sorry Momofwildchild, he must be devastated.</p>
<p>D learned this lesson twice this year. Computer crashed and she lost all of her Debate files the morning of the tournament. Accidentally deleted her college essays the day before ED was due 
She now e-mails most important things to me as an attachment and I file them under her name for safekeeping and I gave her a 2GB flash drive for the first night of Hanukah!</p>
<p>DS loads his copies of important docs to his gmail account. For college apps and his research paper, I have a copy of everything on my computer, too.</p>
<p>MOWC, I’m so sorry. I hate having to worry about where they are living on top of everything else. I hope his professors are understanding of the circumstances.</p>
<p>Something wicked this way comes: why yes, S. is on his way home!</p>
<p>He is in a program with no exams, but had plenty of essays, lab reports, etc. to write. I only heard about a little stress once in the last month, it seems he managed his time pretty well.</p>
<p>When he gets home, we’ll once again, discuss the importance of backing up his laptop…</p>
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<p>Both of my kiddos have external hard drives that they save their stuff to…and they both use them. Now…here at home…we’ll just lose the stuff when the computer dies.</p>
<p>DD’s away message says “Four Days”. I’d love to know what that means. She only has three days until she comes home, and she only has had exams for three days. AND she has exams on all five days of exam week. I don’t think I’ll ask. I’ve learned that these away messages are usually “code” for something totally alien to what they say.</p>
<p>I am happy NOT to be in the loop about DS’s finals or DD’s finals!!! Both my kids love me enough to realize that it just makes me feel stressed, and sure as heck doesn’t help them to have me here at home worrying. 
MOWC, I am SO, SO sorry for your son’s situation. What a lousy way to learn how important it is to back up all your papers and important college info. I hope he is able to pull it together to turn something in - I can imagine how absolutely disheartening it would be to have to write the papers over again. :(</p>
<p>Son has laptop lock…reminded him often to use it…still hasn’t…he will have to learn the hard way and I won’t feel bad at all.</p>
<p>MOWC, my heart sank when I read your post about your son losing his semester’s work when his laptop was stolen. I really feel for him - what a horrible situation. I hope his professors will be understanding about it and give him extra time to complete everything.</p>
<p>I’ve always stressed to my kids the importance of backing up their computers - at least their documents and schoolwork. Of course, I bought them thumb drives but they never got used. I bought S1 an external HD, but he just uses it to back up his music. I suggested that they e-mail stuff to themselves as a backup, but they always forget. Finally, though, I think I hit on the best solution – offsite backup with Mozy . They will back up 2 GB of data for free (more than that costs $4.95 a month). It’s totally automated - just install a little program, tell it which files to back up and what time to do it, and it’s done! So far, so good…</p>
<p>MOWC, I’m so sorry! This same thing happened to my S at Berkeley, though it was summertime, so not as dire in terms of lost work. But even worse was the fact that S was the idiot who didn’t lock his apartment door and even worse-worse was that the thief stole the laptop off his desk while S was sleeping (literally 3 feet from his bed)! I nearly had a heart attack when he told me. Hugs to you and hang in there.</p>
<p>I was just going to post a link to Mozy as Patsmom did – or another service, which I use, called Carbonite –</p>
<p>MOWC…so distressed for your son…I am soooooo sorry! His academic work! This is simply awful for him, and I hope the faculty will negotiate with him fully.<br>
my son had a job in a major city this summer and they were “cleaned out” on day five. Inside Job. Deadbolt back in place when they got back. Bye Bye to two laptops. “workers” had been in the apartment that day and the day before “not fixing” things that were broken…or perhaps casing what was there…but the management refused to assume any responsibility whatsoever…make sure these things are on your homeowners. </p>
<p>good grief. I am so upset for you.</p>
<p>Parents check your homeowners policy- after D’s laptop was stolen from a friends car- friend forgot to lock the car in the driveway of the parents home- no offer was made by the friend or the parents to help replace it Anyway, I then learned of cheap computer rider which I have added to my plan</p>
<p>WashDad, I could picture my dad telling the same story about “the blister pack hasn’t even been cut yet”. (Thanks to your story, I just hooked my laptop up to my lock…which usually sits on my desk next to the computer.)</p>
<p>I have an external hard drive that I kept procrastinating setting up; I finally got around to backing up my files about 4 months after I got the hard drive. Literally 5 days later, my computer crashed and wouldn’t boot up. I took it to the Apple Store, where they had to reinstall everything and give me a new hard drive.
The first thing my dad said when I called home to update my parents on the computer situation: “I’m not even going to ask if you’ve unpacked your external hard drive yet.” If I hadn’t, I think he would’ve certainly had the right to say “I told you so!”</p>
<p>By the way, on the topic of the original post…</p>
<p>Whenever I tell my parents ahead of time that an exam will be “really hard” or that the professor is “tough”, it’s because I’m not certain how well-prepared I’ll be, and want them to know ahead of time that I might not get an A or B on the exam.
Sometimes this is because I haven’t studied as much as I probably could have. Of course, sometimes I know the professor always gives tough exams, or it’s a class I’ve been struggling in all semester. But even then, I like to give my parents some advance warning when I’m expecting a lower-than-usual exam grade.</p>