When a reader wanted to divide long audio tracks into segments for public talks, we suggested he try Audacity, a free program.
Even though Audacity has been downloaded more than a million times, that doesn't mean it's safe.
The reader got a virus, possibly from downloading it at a nonofficial site, but it's hard to be sure. When he told us that, we tried downloading it ourselves, and, whaddya know, our computer started acting up too.
This was a new thing: We had downloaded Audacity twice before, both times on a computer using Windows 7, and never had any problems with it. This time we downloaded it to Windows 8, and had lots of problems. Things change.
Downloading free programs is perhaps the No. 1 way people mess up their computers. If it doesn't sound right or look right, don't download it. Many anti-virus programs will flash a warning message on the screen if they detect the free program trying to download something extra. The bottom line in that kind of situation is to skip the free program and pay to get an authorized version or a substitute.
In this case, for example, the reader turned to Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio, a $60 program he is very happy with. We've used the free trial version of this program and it worked great. It has tutorials for everything a user might want to do, such as split and combine audio files, or publish a creation to the web.
And, unlike most tutorials, a hand will point where you need to click. It's $60 at SonyCreativeSoftware.com/audiostudio. That's where users can find the free trial. If you want it to buy it outright, you can get it for $20 less at discounters like Amazon, CoolSavings or Newegg.
When something bad happens right after downloading a new program, use the Windows "system restore" utility to take the computer back to the day before or even weeks before. This doesn't delete any files, just recently downloaded programs. To find it in Windows 8, tap the Windows key and type "help." In previous versions, go to "start" and "help," then type "system restore."
When Disaster Looms
For nearly an entire day, Joy thought she'd lost her most important files. Fortunately, they were backed up in more than one way, even though she wasn't aware of it at the time.
The device that led her astray was the Transporter Sync, a $99 orb about the size of a hockey puck. It connects any external drive to the Web, creating your own private online storage area, your own private cloud, as they call it.
Let's pause here for a moment, because all this talk about things happening in a cloud, is very misleading. There is no cloud; it's a marketing term that refers to having file storage that's accessible by going on the Internet. That's all it is. Big providers of such storage, like Google or Microsoft, have row upon row of large capacity disk drives churning somewhere in air-conditioned rooms that can be anywhere.
Back to the Transporter Sync device we were testing: You drag a folder onto an image of the hockey puck which then sends it out to storage somewhere else -- i.e., the "cloud," where it is held in a private area reserved for you -- sort of like putting your stuff in a locker at the bus station. You can then supposedly get to that stuff from anywhere you can sign onto the Internet.
That's great in theory, and usually in practice, unless there's a cloud-burst. Then there's going to be rain on your digital parade.
In testing the Transporter Sync, we started by moving files from Microsoft's free online storage service, OneDrive, (which allows you to store up to 15 gigabytes) to our new Transporter Library. This was as easy as drag and drop. Unfortunately, the very next day, the files weren't there. A message said we either had a slow Internet connection or weren't connected at all. Not true.
We recovered the files, not from Transporter, but from Microsoft, which had automatically made copies in their recycle bin. We went to their OneDrive website, clicked "restore," and all the files came back. But our Transporter Sync device is still unable to access the files we transferred to their online Transporter Library. Tech support suggested we try a different router. This is absurd; you can't put out a product that is dependent on a buyer having only a certain kind of Internet router.
By the way, this is not the first time this sort of trouble has happened to us. Six years ago, we tried the popular DropBox cloud storage service, shortly after it started up. Up went our files, never to be seen again. Sorry about that, they said.
What does it all come down to? It's that we, you or anyone else should not depend on some outside storage company to save your files from a catastrophic loss.
Even if their equipment is sound, what if they go bankrupt? If the files are important, they should be kept in at least two places. One can be a storage drive right there by your desk, the other would be online and with a well-established company. If they're important files, make that two well-established companies. For the record, we use Microsoft and Google for saving files.
Gadget Mouse
We're enchanted by a $25 mouse from Satechi. It glows in different colors, cycling through red, green, blue, lime green, purple, turquoise and silver. Looks very space age. If you've got a favorite color, push a button on the back to lock it in. It works well and feels smooth, so color us gadget happy.
Internuts
• PBS.org/wgbh/nova has all the TV episodes from the science program NOVA, the day after they air. "Vaccines -- Calling the Shots" takes you around the world to look at epidemics -- particularly appropriate these days. "Rise of the Hackers" finds the supersleuths who decode the world's most sophisticated cyberweapons.
• PrintablePaper.net is a great place to print out lined or graph paper, forms for budgets, expenses, story-boarding and hundreds of others. If you do a Web search on "printable paper," you will come with many others, such as paper airplanes.
Bob and Joy can be contacted by email at bobschwab@gmail.com and joy.schwabach@gmail.com.
SundayMonday Business on 08/18/2014