ON Sunday evening just after seven we heard an explosion and we could feel a shock wave move through our house and neighbourhood.

We were not sure what had happened, but after a while when we went outside we saw that a house in one of the town house complexes next to ours was on fire.

A gas cylinder had exploded. Most of the house had already burned down and we realised that everything in the house had already been turned to ashes. As we walked back to our house we spoke about what the first things were that we would try and rescue if something like that were to happen.

I realised that these days you would grab your computer or laptop. Not for the documents, but because you are probably storing all your photos on that computer.

Maybe you would grab all your discs with your backups or an external hard-drive. We do not keep our memories only in printed format anymore. When we take photos on our cellphones or cameras, we first transfer it to our computers and then maybe print some of them. I realised the importance of having a backup system in the “cloud” or should I say online. If you are not backing up three times you may have a problem. Here is my advice. First make a local copy on an external hard drive or DVD of your most valuable data. Your second step is to take your most valuable data and also make a copy that you keep with a friend or family member in another location, not your house!

Lastly, get online storage for your most valuable documents. For minimal data, use something like Dropbox.com and if you need more space you can always find other solutions.

I’ll link to a few at www.nicobaird.com for you to click to. Just be safe with your data and don’t take any chances.

www.dropbox.com

www.wookio.com

DIE afgelope week het ek en my vrou ’n bietjie by die see ontspan. Ons het ’n vakansie nodig gehad en het see toe gevlug.

My vrou het ook ’n tegnologie-slaaf geword en deel nou in al die vreugdes wat in ons lewe moontlik gemaak word deur die tegnologie en dat ons altyd en oral aanlyn is.

Met die aanvang van ons reis het ons gesien dinge gaan tydens hierdie vakansie anders wees.

Ons het begin met ’n kompetisie met mekaar om die meeste punte bymekaar te maak met FourSquare (www.foursquare.com).

Ons neem die etes wat ons die meeste geniet af en sit dit op FoodSpotting (www.foodspotting.com).

Ons deel deur die loop van die dag foto’s op Instagram (www.instagram.com) en so elke nou en dan deel ons die groot aantal foto’s wat ons neem op Facebook (www.facebook.com).

Die foto’s wat ons op ons selfone neem, word feitlik onmiddellik gedeel en die foto’s op ons kameras deel ons ná die tyd wanneer ons by ’n rekenaar is wat ’n konneksie het.

Sommige mense sou sê ons is dalk van ons trollie af en ons spandeer te veel tyd om dit te doen, maar dit is so deel van ons lewe dat dit spontaan gebeur.

Ons lewe is baie oop en almal deel in ons ervarings.

Die dae dat ek gedink het ek gaan met vakansie om weg te kom van tegnologie is verby.

Tegnologie en die gadgets is so deel van my lewe dat, indien ek met vakansie sou gaan sonder om dit saam te neem, ek vir seker nie my vakansie sou geniet nie.

Die grootste rede vir ons om hierdie foto’s en plekke te deel is eintlik dat dit ons tot voordeel strek.

Ons het outomaties ’n tydlyn van alles wat ons tydens ons vakansie doen.

A WEEK ago we said goodbye to Steve Jobs. For those who do not know who he was I can promise you that he has touched your life in many ways, from the commercialisation of the first personal computer to the mouse that you are using each and every day to interface with your computer.

Did you enjoy Toy Story? Well, he acquired and improved Pixar in 1995 and by producing Toy Story he put Pixar on the map as one of the top animation studios.

I think the products that he will be best remembered for are the iPhone and the iPad.

Both these products changed the way we consume content. Apple led the way and all the other manufacturers followed, and they are still following.

According to Wikipedia, as of 9 October, Jobs is listed as either primary inventor or co-inventor in 342 United States patents or patent applications related to a range of technologies from actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves and even lanyards.

We will still see innovations from Steve Jobs for more than five years. He has already laid out the development and enhancements of the iPad and iPhone for the next five years. Some of the technologies to be included have not been invented, but he has left the developers with years of new developments that they need to achieve and develop.

It is said that only about half of the technologies envisaged by him in the next five years already exist.

Jobs died on 5 October due to complications from a rare form of pancreatic cancer.

His genius will be missed.

AS most tech journalists and enthusiasts I spent my Tuesday evening following the Apple media event. Each year at this time it is time for Apple to wow us with their latest and greatest gadgets.

There were many announcements of new services. iOS 5 will be available from 12 October and you will be able to update your iPhone 4 to the new iOS 5 for free.

There are loads of improvements in the new iOS. From a new user interface for the camera to Twitter integra-tion, location-based notifications. There are actually so many new features that I do recommend that you go to www.apple.com for more information.

We were all waiting to hear about the new iPhone. Now, as I have written before, there were some so-called experts on radio talking about the features of the iPhone 5, even though nobody knew before. Well, there is no iPhone 5.

The new iPhone is known as the iPhone 4S. This new iPhone 4S has loads of improvements on the iPhone 4. The phone will have a dual core CPU and is about seven times faster than the previous iPhone. It is an incredible gaming device. The phone now has an 8 megapixel camera with enhancements.

Another features is intelligent voice search. You can now ask your phone a question and you will receive an answer.

Voice recognition together with Wolfram Alpha and search engine integration will give you a hands free experience that was lacking in your cellphone.

Don’t forget that you can actually dictate emails to your phone and send it with-out actually having to type a thing. Your phone will now also be your own personal assistant.

The iPhone 4S should be available in South Africa before the end of the year. For more information visit the Apple website.

CNN Tribute to Steve Jobs

AS one of more than 750 million users of Facebook you may have noticed a whole lot of changes to the user interface in the past week or two.

Facebook has taken on all its competitors by incorporating all the greatest features from their competitors into their network.

They have taken ideas from websites like Google+, Tumblr and even Twitter. You will see timelines and also newsfeeds quite prominent on your new Facebook front page.

It is not often that we see that a successful network make such huge changes to their user interface.

It is usually done when things aren’t working well, but I think we can all agree that Facebook is very successful.

A major change is that Facebook used to be a very private social network by default, now the default has changed to a very public network.

You need to now realise that all your content on Facebook is very public, except if you were to choose not to make it public.

You do still have all the options available to make it private.

One feature that I think will be great in Facebook is the Timeline profile option.

Go take a look at what you can expect at www.facebook.com/timeline.

You will soon have the option to have a true “life-page”.

This feature will be available soon, but you can go and take a look at the features.

Facebook is no longer a very easy network.

The learning curve has been raised, but with so many features and options you may need a course just to get all the settings set.

If you do not want to share your life with the world you will need to check your settings.

THE advances in educational technology are amazing. The showcase that I wrote about last week was a huge success and it was wonderful to see the latest technology being showcased in Bloemfontein.

As I wrote last week, the showcase invited four companies to exhibit their latest products and also to give a short presentation about their products and the uses thereof. Something I think we need to realise is that if we do not invite innovative technologies to the Free State we will be left behind. We are centrally located in our wonderful country, but the technological hubs of our country seem to be Cape Town and Johannesburg. We are merely a stopover on route from one to the other. And that is only if they travel by road.

Whatever happened to the computer fairs that used to be presented in Bloemfontein? We are living in a technology-based society where all we do are either technology driven or enhanced. How can we get companies to see Bloemfontein as a destination for technology instead of just a stopover from one technology hub to the next? We have two universities and many other educational institutions.

I am not just talking about technology in education, but in all spheres of our lives. I am currently looking at applications for the iPad for home automation. Did you know that with the right hardware and switcher systems you can control every light, fan, television, hi-fi and geyser in your house through a little app that runs on your iPad? You can also control all of these things from your iPhone or other smart phone.

These are things we are not seeing as we are not lucky enough to have regular technology shows in Bloemfontein. I spoke to some of the companies last week and they said that if they got invited they would love to come and exhibit their wares. Someone just needs to invite them. So here is a business opportunity for someone. Contact these vendors, get a hall and start something in Bloemfontein!

THE past few weeks I have been writing quite a bit about educational technology and innovations.

I think this is due to the fact that I am working quite hard in this area at the moment exploring new technologies and the applications of these technologies to enhance the teaching and learning experiences of both the student and the lecturer/teacher.

For the past few months I have been working on the development of an Active Learning Centre to be implemented at the Central University of Technology (CUT), Free State. This type of classroom is often referred to as a Smart Classroom or a Classroom of the Future. I think it is vital for educators to use technology in their teaching. Even if it is just sending emails to students to remind them of a test the following day or maybe to send them a link to content online that could be of value.

Next week the CUT will, as part of its 30 year celebrations, host quite a number of showcases. I have put together one of these showcases on 20 September. There will be a number of presentations including my presentation explaining the development of the Active Learning Centre. During the day a number of educational technology providers, including Apple and Smart Technologies, will be showing some of their innovative products. I would like to invite all educators or technology enthusiasts to join us. You can attend the day for free. If you would like me to email you the program please email me at nbaird@cut.ac.za and I will forward it to you. .Nico Baird is a new media expert and can be contacted at nico@clicksa.co.za or visit www.nicobaird.com.