Backup Early & Often... Ira Serkes

Backup early and often... they way they vote in Chicago 

BASIC ISSUE Your computer it worthless. It is a commodity which can be easily replaced by a better, faster machine for less money than you paid for it in the first place.  

YOUR DATA IS THE ONLY THING OF VALUE....!!!!

What's the worth of a customer? What if you lose them. Back up your critical data - such as databases - at least once or twice a WEEK, and more often if you're doing lots of stuff. 

KEEP THE BACKUP in another location - NOT next to your computer.  We just bought a Zip Drive by Omega. For about $350, we got the drive, 11 disks, and a carrying case. Disks are about $12-15 each for 100 Meg. It's great!

INCREMENTAL BACKUP

Incremental backup is just a backup of items which have changed. For instance, most of the files in my computer don't change, so I can just select the files which have changed and add them to previous backup.  Many files, notably Quicken and Databases have to be backed up in full, since any change in any record changes the modification date & time  

Ira's Rules of Backup

1-Your computer will crash...you don't know when. My hard disk failed 6 days after I bought it while in the midst of my first backup!

2-Backup early and often

3-Make at least 3 different backup sets

4-Store the most recent backup OFF SITE...As soon as I backup, I put it

into my car, then take it to the office, and take the office backup back

home. I've even sent one set of backup disks to a friend 1,000 miles

away!

5-Consider a combination of full and incremental backups. I do a full

backup of my database, because if I make one change in a record, it's as

if the entire file was modified. I do incremental backups of my working

documents - letters, flyers, etc. Incremental backups only back up the

things which have changed since the last backup

6-Organize your desktop in a logical way (Macspeak spoken here, Window

people need to edit it)

System Folder

System Files Backup infrequently (every few weeks or even months)

Application Folder

Applications Backup infrequently (every few weeks or even months)

Working Documents

Letters... Backup incrementally every few hours

Database

Database Because of the nature of my database 15,082 contacts

30.8 Megabytes, I do full backup every 1-2 days

Hope that helps...The people who backed up their files and put them next to their computer lost it all during the Berkeley Hills Fire several years ago...including a draft of a book!

Your hardware & software is replaceable, your data is your business.

ALSO - if you use a personal computer at home, MAKE SURE THAT YOUR HAVE PROPER INSURANCE. Your homeowner's policy PROBABLY DOES NOT COVER IT!!!  We bought a special insurance rider.

Take photos of your equipment too!

Can you tell that our house was once robbed while we were sleeping in it???? 

No, they didn't get the computers, but they did steal our peace of mind! Regards...Ira

New Info

I got an ORB drive which saves 2.1 GIG... and it fits in my vest pocket.

Very cool. I use it for all my backups now!

Ira

Ira & Carol Serkes - Berkeley, California, USA

Co-Author of Nolo Press' "How To Buy A House In California"

CRS-Certified Residential Specialists, ABR-Accredited Buyer Representative

ValueStar Certified - Given Only To Businesses with Very High Levels of

Customer Satisfaction

We Help Nice Folks Buy And Sell Great Homes in Berkeley, Albany,

Kensington, El Cerrito, Emeryville, North Oakland/Trestle Glen, and

Piedmont in the San Francisco East Bay's most pleasant neighborhoods

Search the web for ALL homes on the market

http://www.BayMLS.com/berkeleyre/

Two Toll-Free Numbers Email/Web Site

--------------------- ------------------

800/887-6668 ira@berkeleyhomes.com

888/Buy-Berkeley [888-289-2375] http://www.berkeleyhomes.com

510/526-6668 Direct http://www.home-buy-sell.com

510/528-8938 FAX

RE/MAX Bay Area, 1758 Solano Ave, Berkeley, CA 94707

Visit the cybergallery of my favorite photos

http://www.berkeleyhomes.com/photos/photos.html

The new federal do-not-call rules are not just for "telemarketers." In fact, all of us in the real estate business are covered by the laws.  Everyday activities like calling "FSBO's" and "Expireds", farming for listings, following up on a referral passed along from a friend, even calling past customers, all can be violations of the law under certain circumstances. And violators face fines of $11,000 per unauthorized call! It's important to note that compliance has to be managed at the company (not agent or office) level, because a company do-not-call list must be maintained and honored. If one of the agents in the firm is calling FSBOs and asks that the company not call again, that restriction applies to every agent in the company - even if the consumer isn't on the national do-not-call registry. The good news is that the government created a "safe harbor" within which brokers can escape penalties for the occasional errant call. Here are the rules for "safe harbor" treatment:

Written Compliance Plan. You must have established and implemented written procedures to comply with the national do-not-call rules.

Training. You must train your agents and staff in your procedures, and document that training.

Company Do-Not-Call List. You must maintain your own list of numbers which may not be called, based on requests from consumers to anyone in your organization.

Process. The company must have a process for staff and agents to be able to check numbers against the national and company-specific DNC lists; that lists are updated in accordance with the law; and use of the process by your staff and agents must be documented. You must obtain the national DNC list in your own name (or use a service which does so) and not share your list with others.

Enforcement. The firm must enforce its compliance plan and takes steps to be sure it is being utilized.

If all of those "safe harbor" tests are met, then a broker can escape penalty for an occasional "errant" call, provided such call is truly the result of an error and not deliberate abuse of the rules.

Randy Hollister, CRB, ePRO

LeadRouter LLC Pittsburgh, PA

http://LeadRouter.com

http://LeadPhone.com

http://DoNotCallSentry.com

Partner, Strategy and Business Development

(814) 217-1716

NAR - "You Can't Use My Name!"

I had a client tell me that a local agent had bought her name as a domain name, such as BettyBoop.com. The agent then "pointed" it to his own site! So if someone was looking for Betty, at ABC Realty, they went instead to her competitors Web site. Not only was he not affiliated with her, but he was from a different company all together. She asked me if this was illegal, or at the least, could she stop him from doing it. I did some research and found that NAR had already addressed this once, and they will not allow it. What follows is the case in which they decided it.

What's the point? Go to the Web and key in yourname.com & yourname.net, to make sure no one is using your name to drive people to their Web site!

Case #12-17: Use of Deceptive Domain Name/URL ("Uniform Resource Locator") (Adopted May, 2001.)

REALTOR® X, a principal broker in the firm XYZ, was technologically savvy and constantly looking for ways to use the Internet to promote his firm and drive additional traffic to his website.

Being an early adapter to the Internet, he had registered, but not used, domain names that incorporated or played on the names of many of his competitors and their firms, including ABC, REALTORS®.

REALTOR® X and his information technology staff concluded that one way to drive traffic to the firm's website would be to take advantage of the search engines commonly used by potential buyers and sellers. They realized that when potential buyers or sellers searched on key words like "real estate" or "REALTORS®" or on similar words, lists of domain names would appear, and that when consumers searched the Internet for ABC, REALTORS®, one of the domain names that might appear would be REALTOR® X's domain name, abcREALTORS.com.

REALTOR® X decided to take advantage of the domain names that he had previously registered, and pointed several that used, in various ways, the names of his competitors, including "abcREALTORs.com," to his site.

In a matter of days, REALTOR® X learned that he had been charged with a violation of Article 12 of the Code of Ethics by REALTOR® A, the owner of ABC, REALTORS® , alleging that his (REALTOR® X's) use of the domain name "abcREALTORS.com" presented a false picture to potential buyers and sellers and others on the Internet.

At the hearing, REALTOR® X defended himself indicating that, in his opinion, use of a domain name was not advertising or a "representation" to the public but simply a convenient way for Internet users to find relevant websites. Moreover, "When websurfers reach my home page, there is no question that it is my site since I clearly show XYZ's name and our status as REALTORS®," he continued. "These complaints are just a lot of sour grapes from dinosaurs who aren't keeping up and who don't realize that on the Internet it's 'every man for himself.' "

The Hearing Panel disagreed with REALTOR® X's justification, indicating that while his use of a domain name that employed another firm's name might not be precluded by law or regulation, it did not comply with the Code's higher duty to present a "true picture."

REALTOR® X was found in violation of Article 12, presenting an untrue picture in his representation to the public.

Cookies: A "Q & A"

Most agents I've spoken with don't have a firm grasp on just what "Cookies" on your computer are, or what what they can and can't do. So I thought you might enjoy this article.

Cookie Q & A

Q: When is a cookie really useful to me?

A: One of the most popular applications of cookies is the "shopping cart".

Sites like L.L. Bean use cookies to keep track of your purchases while you shop in their virtual store.

Q: What can't cookies do?

A: Cookies cannot enable the web server to read from your hard drive, get your e-mail address against your will, destroy files on your computer, or create executable programs. Cookies can only contain as much information about you as you disclose on the site which sets the cookie.

Q: If a cookie is stored on my hard drive, won't that consume a lot of disk space eventually?

A: Not really. Cookies are limited to 4k in size, and most are much smaller.

Also, your browser limits your cookies to 300; if number 301 comes in, the oldest one gets deleted.

Q: Who can see my cookies?

A: A cookie is specific to a web server. Only the web server that set the cookie initially can retrieve it later. So, no one can retrieve all of your cookies to develop a profile of your web browsing habits.

Q: Since they're downloading something to my hard drive, should I be concerned about viruses?

A: No, cookies are limited to text-only, and can't be executed. Therefore, it's impossible for a cookie to contain a virus. (For more about viruses and the Internet, see the January issue of @Internet Magazine.)

Q: Can web sites use cookies to see where I've been previously?

A: No, but surprisingly, any web site can get information regarding what operating system and browser software you are using (for example, Win95/Netscape), and the address of the last site you visited without using cookies! (For a demonstration, visit http://www.anonymizer.com/cgi-bin/snoop.pl )

Q: Do they ever go away?

A: All cookies have expiration dates (like the store-bought kind), but usually those expiration dates are either years in the future, or immediately after the web session ends, depending on what the cookie is being used for.

Q: Are cookies a security risk?

A: They could be, in a small way. If your computer is networked to others, there is a possibility that someone could access your cookie file and read it. If some of your cookies contained passwords that you use for particular web sites, that information would be readily available. To combat this, most web sites don't set cookies with anything more than an encrypted ID number.

You should also make a habit of using different passwords for web sites than you do for more critical things, like locking your computer or your ATM card.

The above information appeared in part, as an article in @Internet magazine