This article about the T-Mobile/Microsoft Sidekick debacle from Edgelings.com comes as a reminder that you need to back up your data. As does this article on a similar topic. Trusting some third party, even a big respectable company like Microsoft, to always take care of the only copy of your important stuff is a risky proposition, especially considering how cheap hard drives and USB flash drives have become.

My wife was telling me about a friend whose x-boyfriend hacked into her web-based email account and erased all of her emails and business contacts. The friend knows her X did this because he was retarded enough to have sent her a text message bragging about it. But, she only had the emails and contacts in one place, so whatever legal action she may take against him is unlikely to result in her getting the emails and contacts restored.

I’ve been thinking about the unexamined assumptions we have with regards to electronic-based information and networks. I’m brewing up a larger post on that, but for now I want to remind everyone that everything breaks eventually. So, find a way to get your emails and contacts and family albums and music collections and calendars and so on in more than one place. And be sure that you own (and not rent) at least one of the places that your stuff is duplicated.