A SCARY STORY
by Editor, SLKUG, July 1987

(A lesson in the benefits of frequent 'saves')

On Friday, June 19th, there was a storm in the afternoon, a
pretty heavy rainfall with lots of thunder and lightning, or so
they say.  What I mean by that is I work in a large well-
insulated office with no windows.  Suddenly, the lights all went
out for a few seconds and came back on.  Now, when I say lights,
this is an office which houses hundreds of people and the lights
are fluorescent lights in the ceiling.  They all went out, along
with the desk lamps, and of course, the computers went down, too. 
Almost all of the fourteen computers affected are engineering
graphic computers.  Some specialize in electronics, some
specialize in mechanical design.  Nevertheless, all were in use
and they all went down.  The last time that the operators saved
what they were working on was at least 30 minutes before and
probably much longer on some who declined knowledge of when they
had saved last.  For the purpose of discussion, let's give them
the benefit of the doubt.  Say, they all had saved 60 minutes
before, what we lost in those seconds of power-out was at least
$50 per hour x 14 computers x 1 hour = $700 besides the damage to
the engineering schedule for when the drawings were due to be
completed.  What would be the damage to your operation if the
power went out and you lost everything since you last saved?  How
much work would you NOT be able to duplicate?  Remember, we still
have not talked about damage to equipment because of the sudden
loss of power.  That is a big unknown even yet three days after
the failure as to whether the sudden shutdown shortened the life
of computer parts.  So, save soon and save often, it pays off in
the long run to get into the habit.
