"Where" do you write?

[THBGato]

I write at a PC on a desk in my sitting room, often with my kids wandering about/reading on the sofa (my son is there now) and my wife writing at the dining table.

An added motivation to keep my stories very much on the vanilla side of things! ;-) Luckily, that's where my interests lie anyway.

I do have a fabulous view of the sea and mountains from the window to my right, and artwork by family members on the walls behind me. The radio is playing, the sun is shining and I'm going to go an hang up the laundry.

 

[XerXesXu]

I write in Word on a 43in screen. I bought Office 25, or so, years ago and don't intend to buy it again, even less, rent it. In the early years I lost a lot through disc failures, so I backed up to additional discs installed in my desktop 'configure-your-own' computer. I now use a mini-PC with an SSD and back up occasionally to, and between, external USB drives. Word and Excel files, I back up almost daily by sending copies from one email account to another.

For practical purpose, I can't use a smartphone, my eyes are too dim and my fingers too big. Since all SIMS have to be registered biometrically, here, and all transactions rely on double ID and additionally, occasional biometric confirmation, I have to use a smartphone, but I'm reliant on my kids to assist me. The grandkids, who are totally promiscuous with other peoples' devices, may not use either of mine on pain of death.

 

[mildlyaroused]

I write in my bedroom, on my PC, with a cup of tea between me and the keyboard. When I worked in a bookshop I wrote on the PC behind the counter, in a private window. Sometimes if there is no one around I can write in other spaces around the house, or in someone else's house. I've heard that it's best not to work in your bedroom, and I can understand that: since I'm in the same place, sometimes relaxation and writing time just sort of smoosh into one, and I become unproductive or unrested. But it's my habit. Old habits die hard.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I write in Word on a 43in screen. I bought Office 25, or so, years ago and don't intend to buy it again, even less, rent it. In the early years I lost a lot through disc failures, so I backed up to additional discs installed in my desktop 'configure-your-own' computer. I now use a mini-PC with an SSD and back up occasionally to, and between, external USB drives. Word and Excel files, I back up almost daily by sending copies from one email account to another.

Be careful with SSDs. For ten years I used an SSD hanging off the back of the computer as my main data drive, storing everything there. For a long time it was fine, until it wasn't. This last six - twelve months a chunk of it has corrupted - a phenomenon called bit rot, I've since learned. Apparently it doesn't happen on a spinning disc drive, because the data is constantly being lifted and rewritten, especially when you de-frag.

Then, when I finally do go do the research, I discover that SSDs aren't that good for long term data retention. Which is a shame, because they're sold as if they are. Computer boffins know this, but because they're boffins, they don't tell anyone.

 

[shelleycat1]

Every drive will fail. If you have one backup you are being more careful then a surprising number of people.

A backup does not actually exist until you have tested it. Thsts sounds obvious, but there are so many stories around (not on this site) where the fact the backup was never working is found too late.

Myself, NAS server with two out of 4 drive ZFS (any two out of the four can fail and data is fully recoverable), separate and disconnected hard drive, and it’s all on One Drive too.

Backups are done to the NAS automatically daily.

 

[TheLobster]

Which is a shame, because they're sold as if they are. Computer boffins know this, but because they're boffins, they don't tell anyone.

It was always a sort of "common knowledge" among people even slightly well-versed in how computers work that SSD have a limit how many times you can write them over, and that limit was particularly low for the early SSDs (100k or so). The newer SSDs are definitely more reliable, though, and maybe this is where the misconception comes from, that they are reliable in general.

Also, the common knowledge is apparently wrong: days-in-use is the primary factor in SSD failure rate, not the number of writes. That's according to the failure rate of SSDs at Google datacenters.

In any case, the conclusion is the same as always: Backups, backups, backups.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Yeah, the issue is simultaneously incredibly complex and incredibly simple.

It's incredibly complex because both SSDs and HDDs are not fail-proof, and for various reasons related to their design they will have different points of potential failure (but also different strengths). You can go many layers deep into SSD design to understand why they might fail, and same goes for HDDs.

But the issue is also incredibly simple, because the answer is simply "make backups!" Just store everything in more than one place with regular updates. No form of storage is fail safe. Be sensible.

 

[ericalauren]

I’m chronically ill, unfortunately. As such, I have to spend a lot of time in bed. I’m extremely grateful that smart phones have made it possible to compose poems, etc while lying down. That being said, I also write while seated at my desk.