A Good Laugh from Mozy: FileSlinger™ Backup Reminder 12-05-08

This is not the Backup Reminder I was planning to write this week. Either of them. But I woke up without my higher mental functions this morning and was dozing the day away playing Solitaire (not a good idea when you have a banjaxed wrist) until I got a notice saying there were packages to pick up.

One of the packages was the monochrome laser printer I’d ordered in order to conserve the expensive ink used by the Epson Artisan 800. The other was a box from Mozy. When I saw the box, I remembered that they’d said they would be sending some goodies.

The box contained two T-shirts, a DVD, and a card good for one year of Mozy Home Unlimited. The T-shirts are the best part, with the provocative injunction to “Back the F:\ Up!” emblazoned on them in bright orange. (They’re also rather provocatively see-through.)

I do, in fact, back my F:\ drive up, daily, to my L:\ drive. But I only started doing that recently. Most people (if they aren’t the Ur-Guru) don’t even have an F:\ drive. But anyone who understands Windows’ drive lettering system will get the joke.

The T-shirts are part of a new campaign by Mozy, which may be feeling the pressure to differentiate from its many competitors. (One of the columns I was thinking of writing today involves a new online backup service, about which more next week.)

The other part of the campaign is explained on the DVD: the computer nightmare video contest. Submit your 60-second video about your worst computer nightmare (staged or real) for a chance to win an assortment of snazzy prizes, including some Mac hardware and a Flip video camera. (Excuse me, but if you’re capable of making a video to enter in the contest, do you need a Flip video camera?)

In honor of all this excitement, and because I can’t see myself actually wearing that T-shirt in public, I’m going to have my own contest, and give away the T-shirts and the test license. (I do fine with Mozy free.) Just post a comment to my blog before next week’s backup reminder appears and tell me when and how you last backed up. Note that the T-shirts are size medium (the one I’m wearing in the picture) and large (not very large, given how snug the medium is on me, and I usually wear a small). If there are more comments than prizes, I’ll select one at random. Make sure you give me a way to get in touch with you!

Until next week—back the F:\ Up. Or at least back the C:\ up.