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As a teenager I was riding a bicycle on Victoria Road, Gladesville, in the middle of a violent thunderstorm when I heard a hissing, crackling sound above me. Looking up I was startled to see lightning playing along the power lines and, as I watched, they parted and fell. Had there been time to think I'd probably have believed I was about to die but, in emergency, the body reacts ahead of thought; I laid the bike down like a racer in a velodrome and shot across the road. These days I'd have been run over but there wasn't as much traffic in 1952.
That's the advantage of being human. We can dodge.
Computers can't!
Lightning strikes and power surges are a very real danger to your computer and, when they occur, can easily fry the gizzards of your second-best friend (behind your dog, of course). We need to use a prophylactic. In computer terms that means one of two things—a surge protector, or a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply).
Surge protectors vary from the cheap and useless to the elaborate and expensive.
Basically, it's a device that sits between your electrical equipment and your power source. It regulates the current by either blocking or earthing dangerous surges of electricity.
A UPS differs from a surge protector in that it comes with batteries that, as the name suggests, continue to supply your equipment with power during outages. These aren't necessarily intended to be used as alternative power sources while you wait for a blackout to end; rather they are used to finalise your session before switching off.
Don't be lulled into a feeling of security by plugging in one of the cheap and nasty surge protectors available at the supermarket. You need to go to a supplier you trust and talk about it. (That doesn't mean one of the high-publicity electrical retailers who promote their wares on television. Too often you'll be talking to an inexperienced shop assistant who is only quoting – or misquoting – from the sales brochure.) If you don't know of a reliable computer shop whose people you can trust, talk to your friends and try and get a recommendation.
Your UPS will come with an audible alarm that will warn you if there's a power interruption. Mine bleats like a little lost lamb until I do something about it.
The cost will vary. My UPS cost about $100 a couple of years ago but I could have paid a lot more than that. Look around. It's cheaper than replacing your computer and a lot more convenient.
In case you were wondering about the title of this piece, "quick" doesn't refer to the speed with which I crossed Victoria Road. Until the 13th Century the word meant "living" and not "fast" or "speedy". So, "the quick and the dead" comes from the New Testament and threatens some kind of retribution for those of us who aren't quick enough—in either sense of the word.