Pages in topic:   < [1 2 3] >
Do you have an emergency plan?
Thread poster: Christina B.
Bartosz Bachurski
Bartosz Bachurski
Poland
Local time: 14:55
English to Polish
+ ...
Back-ups, extra PC Mar 3, 2016

In the middle of bigger jobs I simply do backup copies and send them to the spare, old computer. But first of all, I try to include extra 10-20% of time in the schedule for some unexpected events (vistit at the pediatrician etc.). Lately, I suffer from often short power outages in my area so I am also thinking of buying and UPS for the PC and a router.

 
Marie Alsina
Marie Alsina  Identity Verified
Local time: 09:55
English to Spanish
Plan B, C and D Mar 3, 2016

I have trained my two adult sons to carry on my work in case of a medical emergency (or worse) and they are pretty good translators.

I also have an e-mail address just for translation work for which they know the password. I also keep an agenda open on my desk with all the translation projects, due dates, clients' names and telephone numbers. That should cover short term emergencies!

And of course, an external hard drive that I update every week. There are over thre
... See more
I have trained my two adult sons to carry on my work in case of a medical emergency (or worse) and they are pretty good translators.

I also have an e-mail address just for translation work for which they know the password. I also keep an agenda open on my desk with all the translation projects, due dates, clients' names and telephone numbers. That should cover short term emergencies!

And of course, an external hard drive that I update every week. There are over three thousand translations I have made in the last 28 years stored in it!
Collapse


 
Louise Etheridge
Louise Etheridge
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:55
In agreement with Alison Mar 3, 2016

Everything you need for an emergency plan is covered in Alison's points.

I think the key thing is to regularly back up work (daily on a USB), monthly on a hard drive, at a minimum.

Also remember to back up all your financial information (whatever file you use to keep track of your income and previous financial years). All is very important.

I like to do my invoicing before I travel anywhere. Make sure family knows where to find your financial details (busin
... See more
Everything you need for an emergency plan is covered in Alison's points.

I think the key thing is to regularly back up work (daily on a USB), monthly on a hard drive, at a minimum.

Also remember to back up all your financial information (whatever file you use to keep track of your income and previous financial years). All is very important.

I like to do my invoicing before I travel anywhere. Make sure family knows where to find your financial details (business bank account, invoicing, etc.). You might not need it, but they might!
Collapse


 
Sarah Lewis-Morgan
Sarah Lewis-Morgan  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:55
Member (2014)
German to English
+ ...
A question I have pondered sometimes. Mar 3, 2016

As I live on my own (the dog not being computer literate) and my PC and laptop are both password protected, if something did happen to me my work would be left high and dry. But, as I believe someone has already pointed out, if I am dead the money doesn't matter anyway.

Last year I called an ambulance for myself in the early hours one morning because I thought I might be imminently in the "if I'm dead" situation. It took a great deal of pain and effort to actually turn my computer o
... See more
As I live on my own (the dog not being computer literate) and my PC and laptop are both password protected, if something did happen to me my work would be left high and dry. But, as I believe someone has already pointed out, if I am dead the money doesn't matter anyway.

Last year I called an ambulance for myself in the early hours one morning because I thought I might be imminently in the "if I'm dead" situation. It took a great deal of pain and effort to actually turn my computer on and write the email, but I did send a message to the PM concerned that I was off to hospital and could he please reassign my current job. (It was a broken rib that I had ignored because I thought I wasn't that badly hurt and acting normally had made the situation rather worse). To be honest, though, my major concern was the dog's welfare.

And I still don't have that emergency plan. It is on my to-do list.
Collapse


 
Teressa Weaver
Teressa Weaver  Identity Verified
Local time: 08:55
English to Spanish
+ ...
Forewarned Is Forearmed Mar 3, 2016

This is a scary, but important subject.

Right now my notes on scheduling and due dates are rather haphazard. I know my family and friends are going to be concerned about my wellbeing. I would like to have an efficient system in place for contacting the companies I am translating/interpreting for so it is easy for them to do that.

I was able to communicate with the one project manager I had a job going for in Sept. 2014 when I was suddenly hospitalized. But if I had bee
... See more
This is a scary, but important subject.

Right now my notes on scheduling and due dates are rather haphazard. I know my family and friends are going to be concerned about my wellbeing. I would like to have an efficient system in place for contacting the companies I am translating/interpreting for so it is easy for them to do that.

I was able to communicate with the one project manager I had a job going for in Sept. 2014 when I was suddenly hospitalized. But if I had been sicker, I don't know who would have thought to do that for me. I don't like the idea of leaving people in the lurch and having no idea of why I'm not fulfilling my agreement with them.
Collapse


 
Viviane Marx
Viviane Marx  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:55
German to Portuguese
+ ...
CLONE PROGRAMM Mar 4, 2016

Tom in London wrote:

Monika Rozwarzewska wrote:

It is said that there are people who make back up copies and those who will.
I do it daily and save a copy on an external drive. In case something happens, I have my CAT tool and other essentials installed on my kid's computer.


I clone my entire hard drive to an external drive, every day. Sometimes more often than that.

If my hard drive crashes or something else bad happens I can boot my computer, or any other Mac, from the clone, and continue working. Or clone "from the clone" on to another computer and continue working.

It's a safety net. A clone is better than a backup because it includes *absolutely everything* that's on your hard drive, all in exactly the same setup. Including all those system settings, saved passwords, email preferences, all system files, all music and videos, etc. Only takes about half an hour (because after the first complete clone, only items that have changed are updated).

[Edited at 2016-02-23 10:24 GMT]


Hi Tom:

which software or programm do you have to get things cloned? I would like to do the same, but I'm somehow dummy in such things. So it has to be an easy one.
Thanks


 
jyuan_us
jyuan_us  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 09:55
Member (2005)
English to Chinese
+ ...
I think the answer depends on the type of emergecy Mar 4, 2016

bartnick wrote:

In the middle of bigger jobs I simply do backup copies and send them to the spare, old computer. But first of all, I try to include extra 10-20% of time in the schedule for some unexpected events (vistit at the pediatrician etc.). Lately, I suffer from often short power outages in my area so I am also thinking of buying and UPS for the PC and a router.


What kind of emergency are we talking about? A health problem? An earthquake? A thunderstorm? A computer crash? problem in internet connection?

I think the topic needs to be narrowed down, because the preparedness for these will be quite different.


[Edited at 2016-03-05 08:39 GMT]


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:55
Member (2008)
Italian to English
CCC Mar 4, 2016

Viviane Marx wrote:
Hi Tom:

which software or programm do you have to get things cloned? I would like to do the same, but I'm somehow dummy in such things. So it has to be an easy one.
Thanks


If you're on Mac I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. The excellent website explains everything: https://bombich.com

If you're on PC it's more problematic and like all PC-based things, much more nerdy and not user-friendly like Mac; but seemingly not impossible. I don't know much about PCs but here are a few links:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3505126

http://alternativeto.net/software/carbon-copy-cloner/?platform=windows

http://lifehacker.com/5839753/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-windows

"Regular cloning is one of the Buddha's Threefold Paths to Wisdom"



[Edited at 2016-03-04 15:24 GMT]


 
Christina B.
Christina B.  Identity Verified
Sweden
Local time: 14:55
French to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
"Lighter" emergency Mar 5, 2016

jyuan_us wrote:


What kind of emergency are we talking about? A health problem? An earthquake? A thunderstorm? A computer crash? problem in internet connection?

I think the topic needs to be narrowed down, because the preparedness for these will be quite different.


[Edited at 2016-03-05 08:39 GMT]


When I started the topic, I was thinking about "lighter" emergencies, like computer crash or going to hospital/ the pediatrician. Situations where it would be good if someone could contact the PMs and tell them that I won't be able to deliver within the deadline. It's for these situations I keep a list with ongoing projects, PMs and deadlines visible on the wall, both for myself and/or my family.

In case of a lethal accident, earthquake... we all would have other things to worry about...


 
TechStyle
TechStyle  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:55
Backing systems up Mar 6, 2016

Tom in London wrote:

If you're on Mac I recommend Carbon Copy Cloner. The excellent website explains everything: https://bombich.com

If you're on PC it's more problematic and like all PC-based things, much more nerdy and not user-friendly like Mac; but seemingly not impossible. I don't know much about PCs but here are a few links:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3505126

http://alternativeto.net/software/carbon-copy-cloner/?platform=windows

http://lifehacker.com/5839753/the-best-disk-cloning-app-for-windows

"Regular cloning is one of the Buddha's Threefold Paths to Wisdom"



[Edited at 2016-03-04 15:24 GMT]


Actual system cloning is less useful on Windows than on the Mac - as Tom points out, for the most part I could stick [a copy of] my MacBook Pro's hard drive into his Mac, boot up, and have all my software and data available on his machine, or vice versa (better still, we could just connect the two with a Firewire cable, reboot, and one of them would be running the other's drive, without even opening a case!) - but stick the drive from one of my Windows machines into another one, you're in for a lot of errors. (It's improved a lot recently, but still, Windows is "personalised" for each machine it runs on, with different device drivers for each.)

Keeping the data intact is the crucial thing. At my old office, we've been using Dropbox for years: there's a company shared folder, which is present on everybody's computer and constantly synchronized. Dropbox also keeps old versions available in case you need it, so it takes seconds to revert to yesterday's copy or last week's copy of a document.

Switching machines can raise other issues too: it's quite easy to change languages on Windows now, which is fine until someone needs data off the Greek guy's machine ... which is entirely in Greek. He was out of the office at the time; my Greek isn't great, but since the menus and dialog boxes were slightly different to the other PCs in the room, that was all we had to go on...

Something to bear in mind for contingency plans too: if you leave instructions for your partner or friend to contact a client, do they both speak the same language? (English is probably enough for most cases - but we've got some Arabic-speaking clients and only one Arabic speaker in the office; that could be a problem if anything goes wrong!)

There's also a tool called ViceVersa from a company called TGRMN Software which can synchronize files between two places (local or over a network) either constantly or on a schedule. I used that at work for something during the free trial period, and it worked OK, but rather than pay I ended up writing my own replacement. (Not a huge saving at $60, but this way I can reuse it for other things later - or give it away free if I get round to tidying it up a bit for public release.)


 
Ricki Farn
Ricki Farn
Germany
Local time: 14:55
English to German
Always carry an extra smartphone charger in your handbag/purse Mar 6, 2016

because you might end up at a hospital, and if both you and your device are out of energy at the same time, you might not be able to react to people who are looking for you.

(not thinking about any specific incident - *innocent whistling*)

(no I don't know what the masculine word for handbag/purse is - men have pockets?)


 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:55
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
@Ricky Mar 7, 2016

In warm climates (such as here in the Canary Islands) men need their man-bags as much as women need handbags. But if I were to plan so carefully for an accident every day I'd soon be diagnosed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder). I always plan to enjoy myself when I go out. Though five hours in my new accountant's office this week wasn't much fun.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:55
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Solved Mar 7, 2016

Ricki Farn wrote:

because you might end up at a hospital, and if both you and your device are out of energy at the same time, you might not be able to react to people who are looking for you.

(not thinking about any specific incident - *innocent whistling*)

(no I don't know what the masculine word for handbag/purse is - men have pockets?)


I have solved this problem by never carrying a phone. I am of a generation that didn't have them, and has the ability to function without one. Think of me as the post-smartphone generation. This also has the incidental benefit that my activities can't be tracked by the authorities.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:55
French to English
paranoia setting in as I read all this! Mar 7, 2016

Ricki Farn wrote:

because you might end up at a hospital, and if both you and your device are out of energy at the same time, you might not be able to react to people who are looking for you.

(not thinking about any specific incident - *innocent whistling*)

(no I don't know what the masculine word for handbag/purse is - men have pockets?)


And that's why I only ever buy men's jackets, I keep my phone in my inside breast pocket so I don't have to ferret through my bag as it rings.

So I have a charger at home and another in the office. From now on I'll have to keep one in my bag.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 14:55
French to English
disabling the geolocation Mar 7, 2016

Tom in London wrote:

I have solved this problem by never carrying a phone. I am of a generation that didn't have them, and has the ability to function without one. Think of me as the post-smartphone generation. This also has the incidental benefit that my activities can't be tracked by the authorities.


It took me a while, but I disabled all the geolocation stuff on my phone so nobody can track its whereabouts. My phone now tells me that I'm in a place I never go to, just because I froze the geolocation feature just as the airport shuttle was zipping me through there. It also tells me that the weather is nice and sunny, which just cracks me up every time I see it. I mean, who's so dumb they need the phone to tell them about the current weather? (rhetorical question please don't answer!)


 
Pages in topic:   < [1 2 3] >


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:


You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Do you have an emergency plan?







Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »
Trados Business Manager Lite
Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio

Trados Business Manager Lite helps to simplify and speed up some of the daily tasks, such as invoicing and reporting, associated with running your freelance translation business.

More info »