0h S*^! I wish I hadn't done that!

I WISH I HADN'T DONE THAT (or the importance of backups, really!)

The observant amongst you will have noticed that there was no newsletter last week. Let me apologise and explain why.

For a little while now our backups have been taking over 9 hours to run on our main server. Now, you know the long hours we work here and 9 hours was always interfering with work at the end or start of the day.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, our backups stopped working altogether. Some combination of software, dll, hardware conflict or day of the week had stopped the backup routine working full stop - we couldn't get automatic or manual backups.

So, we thought this would be a good time to put plan B into action. Drop a nice new huge disk into the server, run overnight backups from disk to disk, then backup the second disk at our leisure.

Great plan. Nice 7GB drive was duly ordered. Quick job to pop off the cover, install the hard drive in a removeable caddy, put the machine back together again. Fire it up and format the new hard disk. Uh, why did that format report just 1GB instead of 7GB?

Oh S*^%, just formatted the main data drive by mistake!!!

Then, to add to our problems, just as we were recovering the various lost materials from assorted sources we were hit by a plague of power and phone outages. All in all its taken us 3 days to recover the server to a fairly close approximation to our starting point. We've probably got another 2 days to go re-keying some lost documents.

Moral of the story? Always, always, always have a backup before you start screwing around inside your machine. Even if we couldn't get the tape drive working, we could have installed our new hard disk elsewhere on the network, backed up onto first, then installed it in the server....

FREE BANNER ADVERTS TO WEB CUSTOMERS

A special announcement for all our web design clients. Over the next two weeks we will be implementing rolling web banners for your sites at www.valenet.com.

You need do nothing, we will design these from your existing sites and designs for you.

The aim is to improve click through rates to your sites from our main sites.

If you have any special requirements for your rolling banner then please let us know.

Just a further service from our web design team.

INTERNET CHILD MINDING or why internet cameras can help your business...

The is a growth of "netcams" on the web lately. What is a "netcam" - a TV camera wired directly into the your LAN or the Internet. This means that you can connect up to the internet anywhere and see what's happening at the netcam live.

Some examples you can view include the now (in)famous JenniCam at http://www.jennicam.org/ Jenni has achieved her 15 minutes of fame by putting a live netcam in her bedroom(!)

Or there is one of the oldest netcams at http://fishcam.netscape.com/fishcam which watches a tropical aquarium in the Netscape offices (why?)

In the UK there are a couple of interesting netcams watching city streets. http://www.fujiint.co.uk/street/ is a live feed from Oxford Circus. Meanwhile Colcchester Street cam at http://www.actual.co.uk/streetcam.html became famous when the Nuehoff family decided to move from New Mexico to Colchester on the basis of what they saw on the street cam.

So the latest thing if for playgroups and schools to have netcams live in the classroom so parents can drop in and check on their children at any time. And in a further extension, working parents are now putting them in their homes to make sure their nannies are looking after their little ones properly.

All very interesting, but how does this relate to business? Well, don't forget these netcams can operate over the internet or over your existing LAN. For just a couple of hundred pounds you can drop in the equivalent of CCTV camera anywhere.

- You could place one in an unmanned reception area

- You could use them as security cameras in CCTV style

- You could use them between remote offices to keep everyone in touch

- Netcams in factories or workshops would show customers how you work and really establish credibility

- Two netcams give you a sort of poor mans video conferencing over the Internet, but over a LAN you get quite good video.

- Remote workers can check in the office via netcam, or you can check in on them

On some models you can even plug in a VCR and play videos over the netcam connection. Could you use that for internal company messages or simple corporate videos to your customers?

I think netcams will become incredibly prevalent very soon, because they are so cheap and easy and the potential applications are wide.

HOT LINKS updated

We have added over a 1,000 new links to our hot links site at http://www.c2000.com/links.

These are all links which have been recommended by staff here, or elsewhere as being the best in their field. Links include general topics such as home pages as well as focussed lists on business, marketing, local government and a whole host of other sections.

If you haven't seen our special lists, why not check it out this week?

Message on the Internet

This is a message from the Trees, there is no such thing as a ski-ing accident. One celebrity will get it each week until you stop logging.

The Trees.