You’re probably sitting there in the comfort of your home or office, reading this on something resembling a reliable computer with a nice, fast internet connection. Or fast enough, at least. For the most part that is me. If I go out, I bring my laptop. It’s a machine I know the quirks of and have no one to blame but me if something goes wrong. For the most part, I don’t think of autosave (not to be confused with autotone).
That was until this trip to Nepal. Starting an email to a friend and POW, the power goes out. (ok, it didn’t really go POW, but it’s ratings season and I’m looking for more sponsors so I’m adding drama to the mundane). It’ll be out for a while in this part of Kathmandu so I walk and walk to another. Ahhhh, salvation. I log on and there, in my gmail account, is the saved message. I finish it off and hit send. No pain, no agony.
Then I start a blog post and this time the kid next to me switches off my machine and back on, thinking it is his. (I also had another half finished email going.) I just smile and tell him it’s ok, because I’ve found the magic cure for computer work in spotty areas; Autosave.
Gmail already has it and I suspect the other big names do too. WordPress is the same, and saves every three or five minutes, I’m not sure which. But it’s enough for me. The most I eve lose is a paragraph, not an entire post or email. Twitter doesn’t have autosave but cummon, it’s only 140 characters long, making it nearly sketchy-internet/power-connection proof.
Before you head out to use internet (cyber) cafes in a foreign country, check to make sure the communication tools you may use have some form of autosave. Even if you don’t use it at home, it can be a frustration saver on the road. (no joke, the power went out right before I hit publish on this post)
