ED> A UPS does not protect the entire computer...
True enough. There are many * other * areas from which problems can
crop-up.
Mind, there are some UPS' out there that will attempt to minimalise the
effects of "surge strikes". This, in and of itself, is a big technical
"thing"...and it should be realised that * NOTHING * - short of an
incomplete path - will serve to stop a direct (or even indirect)
lightning strike. Mother Nature's wrath... I'm writing here of UPS'es
now on the market that offer "line conditioning" as well as surge and
power-outage protections.
Still, there is NO "protection" available for operator incompetencies or
foolishness...
 ED> ... just the data you are currently adding (or using) in the event of a
 ED> power failure.
This is the PRIME reason to have a UPS installed, no question about it !
 ED> By making frequent backups, and saving my work frequently as I go, I can
 ED> restore (or even re-do) missing work in a matter of minutes after a
 ED> power failure, thus saving myself the cost of the UPS unit.
What's that old computing maxim ? "Backup, backup and backup !". If the
data on a machine is at all taken seriously and a _cost_ hung against
it, then any responsible computer operator will conduct regular backups
daily, bi-weekly or monthly...or some combination schema. With most
businesses, the time spent inputting data easily outscores the price of a
UPS.
 
 ED> Not cost effective for me, but it is for you.  Different strokes for
 ED> different folks... 
As you suggest, the requirement for data backup will differ between
types of businesses. It IS "cost effective" for ALL businesses to have
in-place a (mandatory) policy of data backup, whether we're talking
about stand-alone or networked machines. For Staffers, this "cost
effectiveness" may be measured simply in terms of "competent" and
"incompetent"...and the differences between "employment" and
"unemployment". Much the same may be applied against Managers. For
Owners, contingency plannings that include stringent policies for data
backups (and offline storage) can come to mean the difference of "being
in business" and "declaring bankruptcy" (or even having to declare a
Chapter Eleven).
I advise system ops to ensure three things are in place: a UPS, a
definitive policy for data backups and physical securities for the
protection of "active" (online) and "inactive" (offline, stored) data. A
case under each of these categories may be made for the SOHO in much
the same fashion as they are held against the big multinational
corporate megafirms. Of course, you'd scale down to an appropriately
affordably level, but the _same_ basic rules apply "across the board",
especially when you stop to consider that the _average_ cost for a
business PC is more than a mere 2-Grand: that _same_ "cheap" machine may
manipulate data worth far in excess of the net worth of the physical
machine ! SOHO'ers _not_ thinking their PC's are worth protecting, as
far as I'm concerned, have no business having a PC in the first place !
Semper Fi
RTP
~~~ PGPBLUE 3.0 
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