Time Capsule saves your digital life

What would happen if your computer was stolen, or you lost everything on your hard drive? Scary thought, right? That’s why it is important to back up your data. Do you? If not, thanks to a new gizmo from Apple, it’s never been easier to be prepared.
Our digital files are valuable beyond words. Some of us have thousands of photos on our hard drives, even more songs or TV and movie clips. Then there are our documents, letters and financial info.

I don’t need to tell you how important it is to back up.

But until Apple’s Time Capsule came on the scene a few weeks ago, backing up our computer files was tedious. Time Capsule automatically backs up everything, every hour, every day so you no longer have to worry about losing your digital life. A 500 GB version costs $299. A 1 terabyte version is $499.

Working with a program called Time Machine that comes standard on Mac’s latest Leopard operating system, Time Capsule does all the backing up seamlessly. But it does more than that.

Time Capsule is also a superfast WiFi base station, operating in the new 802.11n format which just about doubles the range of older WiFi stations. You can also plug a printer into the back of Time Capsule and wirelessly print from anywhere in the house.

This is the most advanced backup device and WiFi station I have ever seen. I have my main PC and two laptops backed up on it and feel so secure about it, I’m almost smug.

The system works best with Macs.

For PCs, meanwhile, there are some new tools that can help WIndows machines be more efficient, too.

Did you know that there is now a 50% chance of being infected by an internet worm within just 12 minutes of being online using an unprotected, unpatched Windows PC? This is according to Sophos, one of the big anti-virus companies. That’s how bad it has become. Even the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness team says “the average time-to-exploitation … for an unprotected computer is measured in minutes.”

An outfit known as MacroVirus is offering free scans of your computer to see whether you’ve been hit. clean and repair your entire system and get it back to it’s original performance. MacroVirus not only detects and removes Viruses, but also Spyware, Adware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms and a host of other dangerous parasites that detererate computer performance and invade your privacy.

A recent study found that over 90% of computers are infected by some type of malware picked up from internet usage. MacroVirus claims to protect against ALL of them.