Offsite backup of my computer files

How important are the files on your computer to you?

Can you afford to lose any of them?  Maybe.

Can you afford to lose all of them? It probably wouldn’t kill you. It’s just data after all.

Are you *willing* to lose all of them? I know *I* am not. Pictures, videos, resumes, taxes, email. All of which I have spent time and effort collecting or creating over the years. Some of it irreplaceable, some of it extraordinarily difficult to reproduce. The tiny investment in time and thought required to secure that investment gives me tremendous peace of mind.

I keep a small external USB drive in a locked location at my office.
About once a quarter I bring this drive home and back up ALL the files that I care about on my computer to it. The drive is easily big enough to hold 50% more data than EVERYTHING on my hard drive now so I don’t need to be overly discriminating in what I choose to back up. Basically anything that is “data” gets backed up. That’s nearly everything in my user folder plus stuff that I’ve deliberately stored outside of that folder for ease of access for other computers on my network (music and a few other items).

Because I’m taking the drive out of my physical control, I use TrueCrypt to create a huge, encrypted volume with a strong password (and some other tricks) to secure the data. Don’t consider your office, or friend’s or parent’s place to be secure just because they are comfortable locations. Stuff can go missing from anywhere. I’d just as soon that the data be useless to whomever takes it should that ever happen.

Using SyncBackSE I already have a profile set up so I don’t have to re-think my backup selections when I do this. Although I will inspect the selections to ensure any new stuff is accommodated.

The backup this morning took just 13 minutes.

This is over and above nightly local backups that my system performs for me automatically to guard against casual mistakes or hard drive failure. An offsite backup’s raison d’etre is to guard against some catastrophic failure – a house fire, theft of your computer, a flood or other natural disaster. Things with a very low likelihood of happening, but with a terribly high cost if they should ever occur. Total cost for me is about 15 minutes every 3 months and about $100 for the drive.

This is cheap insurance.

Refinancing a mortgage with SunTrust – Denoument

To close this chapter on my refinance saga, I ended up leaving a voicemail and a final email (last Friday)with George Connolly. I heard back from him via email on the Monday indicating that the omitted funds would be credited to my Visa card in the next few days.
I am pleased to report that the credit *did* show up in my checking account this morning.

So, in the end and with a bit of fussing, the refinance was completed with the original terms intact. No doubt the appraisal fee / application fee issue was a miscommunication. An assumption that I would be familiar with what the mortgage industry considers normal even though I may associate with this world *maybe* twice a decade.

The overpayment on my original mortgage is still sitting in escrow. An email that I sent to the SunTrust customer care center on March 7 via their “Secure Mail” system associated with their mortgage system remains unanswered so I will need to follow up via phone.

I did receive a response regarding the overpayment of my Home Equity Line of Credit. Apparently the most effective way to get the cash back is to visit a branch and write a check for the balance and deposit into my account. Not sure why this can’t be done over the phone but it’s better than NOT being able to get the money back.

I chose to document these experiences partly as a reference for myself so that I can recall and refer to what transpired and partly as a resource for others who would research this topic on the Internet in preparation for their own refinance.

Is my experience typical? Should you do business with the people I have dealt with? My one experience would need to be considered in aggregate with others before making any decisions. You may not know my biases and my whole experience may be a fluke. All I can do is add my voice to the others out there and hope that I can contribute. It seems that this is the only recourse that the average Joe really has – the ability to share his story.

Even if you end up having the exact same experience, at least you can be steeled against it so that you know that you are not the only one for whom the experience goes this way.

If you have found this information useful, please feel free to leave a comment.

My Affiliations and Causes to which I contribute materially

I was doing my taxes and realized that, aside from the zillions of sorry, sad causes that I’m forced to support through my tax dollars (bailouts of the irresponsible from Wall Street to Main Street, domestic spying, “wars” on everything from drugs to fatty foods) I am giving my support to more and more causes that seek to directly counter the above foolishness as well as those that I think need our support because they are a good idea.

If you know me, you may share some of my ideals and perhaps get some ideas for organizations that could use your support.

SIUE (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville) Foundation – In support of the Astronomy Cast podcast. This is an EXCELLENT resource for people wanting to learn about astronomy.

Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) – Not anti-religious as some may claim but rather working to ensure that no single religion will become our “state” religion. There would be only one winner in that case and many, many losers.

Foster Kids – A positive way to expose kids to a less institutionalized, more stable home life.

Wikipedia – I think this is a worthwhile initiative and want to see it grow. I also use Wikipedia, the beneficiary of Wikimedia’s efforts, ALL THE TIME

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – In addition to challenging private nonsense in our technologically advancing world, the EFF serves to counter and watchdog some of the many abuses that our own government naturally engages in as it grows into new and uncharted territory

PBS (WABE) – Some of their content actually makes it to my podcasts (“Tech Nation” is a great example). Public broadcasting can both provide intelligent programming and demonstrate to our more cynical networks that there *is* demand for something other than friggin’ WWE, “Reality TV” and NASCAR.

Our Troops overseas – When we can we contribute items directly through friends who have relatives and loved ones overseas to ensure that they have some of the nice things you just can’t get in a 3rd world desert.

Conversations Network – They provide a LOT of content of consistent quality and on a reliable schedule that you simply cannot get anywhere else.

American Red Cross – They do a huge amount of good work directly both in our community and abroad. I’ve never needed their services but I want to be sure they’re there for us and for anybody else who needs them

United Way – Somewhat controversial, but there are so many worthwhile causes out there that I use the United Way to paint a very broad stroke to help charities that I may not have even heard of do their work. I support directly those that I have a direct desire to support and I have to have faith that the United Way will honestly and fairly distribute my donation to deserving institutions.

GoodWill – It’s good to know that my no longer needed, but perfectly good, items can continue to be productively used by others and help to support folks in need at the same time.

SETI Institute – I earnestly believe that you can learn just as much by finding out that there is NO ONE OUT THERE as you can by discovering we are not alone. The work being done by the SETI institute lifts the spirit and expands your mind in ways that no religion ever will.

James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) – Striving to be a beacon of rationality in a world filled with folks prone to superstition and other silliness, the JREF is becoming more and more the Skeptical (Sceptical for you canucks out there) center for organizing events to encourage grass roots activism and education across America.

Habitat for Humanity – A very grounded and hands-on way to help someone get back on their feet.

Aircraft Owners and Pilot’s Association (AOPA) – Advocating for issues of concern to general aviation, they provide a wealth of information and, through the ASF (Air Safety Foundation) work to educate pilots and make flying even safer.

Indian Hills Civic Association – Because you have to take care of your own backyard too.

Refinancing a mortgage with SunTrust – Ongoing

It wasn’t until I was finally able to sit down with all (34) of the documents from the refinance that I noticed some anomalies.

It turns out that the $250 credit for working for my current employer that had been represented in the “Good Faith Estimate” was missing.

I’ve contacted George Connolly twice now by email. On Feb 24 I sent him:

Hi George,

In reviewing the mortgage closing fees I see that the $250 credit for working with Equifax was NOT included.

What can we do to correct this?

Marc

To which he nearly immediately responded:

I will look into it and follow up.

When I didn’t hear back, on February 28 I sent another email. I decided to be more direct this time:

Hi George,

Any news?  It looks like a simple omission. Will you be sending a check or just depositing directly into my account?

Marc

This time the answer was a little slower in coming, but I suppose it was the weekend after all:

I will check on this today and get back to you.  Thanks

 George Connolly

So am I getting the blow-off?  I’ll have to now invest some time calling and chasing him on the phone. Man, I can’t believe how little help I’m getting here.

On another note, one of the myriad documents I have shows my original mortgage payout amount. Yet my closing costs reflect an amount $156.38 greater than this. I’ve got an email in to Christine Arcand (my Mortgage Relationship Specialist) to help me track down the difference. I shot her a message on Feb 28 and have yet to hear back.

Of course this is on top of the nearly $500 that I ended up overpaying to clear my line of credit. In pre-close conversation I was told by George Connolly that they would send me a check for any overage, but since my faith in him is now somewhat shaken, I need to contact the SunTrust Access 3 Home Equity Line of Credit folks directly to see about the disposition of this money.

I suppose, given the huge amounts of money they are constantly dealing with that these seem like pretty paltry sums to the SunTrust representatives. But suppose this was a car purchase, or the purchase of a new TV set, would that make the same money somehow more valuable? The fact that the money is a relatively small percentage of the overall transaction does not diminish its absolute value to me. That’s money that I earned and I am entitled to spend in ways that *I* see fit.

Some assistance from my bank would be appreciated.

A rare snow in Marietta

It snowed today, which is a relatively unusual event for those of us who live in the South.

It was supposed to be pretty spectacular so I thought I’d take a time lapse series of it to show how it progressed.

Well, it wasn’t all *that* spectacular, but here are the pictures nonetheless:

Click on the animation to see the individual images.

Kill A Watt EZ P4460 – DeLonghi SafeHeat radiator

When natural gas prices went through the roof I took a look at our heating system. We have a single central forced air system that supplies our entire house. This isn’t terribly unreasonable considering that we live in a single story ranch (no basement, no steps at all). But, even with a programmable electronic thermostat, I felt we could do much better energy-wise if I picked up some electric heaters and used them with timers in various rooms of the house.

I am looking at replacing the furnace / air conditioner now and will probably set up either two zones (with separate units) or set up a system that controls where the heat is being directed throughout the day so that we are not heating unused rooms unnecessarily.

I have this DeLonghi Safeheat radiator (rated for 1500W)in the master bedroom attached to an Intermatic Time-All (rated for 1750W). The timer will kick on an hour or so before we head to bed and it will turn off a couple of hours after we settle in. It again turns on an hour or so before we get up. The heater itself has its own thermostat so it won’t bother to turn on if the room is already warm enough. In this climate the morning temperature outdoors is just as likely to be 35 degrees as it is to be 50 degrees.

The DeLonghi has two switches, one supposedly rated for 600W, the other supposedly for 900W so you can have a low-med-high arrangement by using one, the other or both of them. Interestingly, when I had the unit hooked up to my Kill A Watt, I found that the 600 Watt switch was drawing about 700W and the 900W setting was drawing about 761W. So the tuning isn’t quite so fine as you might think. Also of note that both switches on consumed 1315W. Not really sure what that tells you.

RESULTS

Elapsed time: 1041 hrs (about 43 days)
Measured Minimum Consumption (Watts): 700
Measured Maximum Consumption (Watts): 1315
KWH: 123
Cost –
     Actual (for duration of test): $13.14
     Daily: $0.30
     Weekly: $2.11
     Monthly: $9.08
     Annual: $110.00 <– Take with a grain of salt. We only use the heater for about 5 months a year.

Refinancing a mortgage with SunTrust – Done

Continuing with my mortgage saga, I went in yesterday morning and *finally* got this done. There was one nasty surprise waiting for me there. ANOTHER copy of that dreaded 4506-T “Request for Transcript of Tax Return” form. As before it was completely blank. I asked the lawyer (he represents the lender, like I have a choice) if I can just remove it from the package. His response was that the package needs to be signed and initialed as-is or the mortgage can’t go through. So I said, “What if I fill in the values so this isn’t just a blank check to my entire IRS history?”. Again, he said he sympathized but no changes can be made or the mortgage has to wait.

I am Joe, ordinary citizen, and this is is typical of what we all face when borrowing from our lending institutions. For this transaction I had 34 documents on 75 pages of which all but 3 needed to be either initialed or signed.  The document letting me know that I have a right to my own lawyer was probably about number 20 in the pile…  Do the folks who legislate this crap really think it actually helps the lay person? It sure didn’t help any of the folks losing their houses to foreclosure. All I’m doing is signing away more and more rights. Even the stuff that I slowed down to read (I had to take a fair amount of the information on faith that the lawyer wasn’t trying to screw me over) was the kind of stuff that would take a good hour or so to really sink in or understand. And if I found any of it objectionable it’s not like I can NOT sign away all my rights if I want to complete the deal.

My credit rating is excellent, but that still gives me NOTHING in negotiating with these institutions. And I actually have a day job, so battling it out with them in court would be idiotically expensive and unproductive for me to say the least.

Anyway, I’m so glad it’s over. As with buying a car, you grit your teeth, hope you don’t get raped too badly and then try to recover from the disappointment, humiliation and dissatisfaction with the process and convince yourself that it wasn’t so bad so you will be able to bear it every time you make a payment without feeling you got taken to the cleaners.