need help finding and buying a UPS system

[swingerofbirch]

Hi everybody,

I am at my wit's end.

Just again tonight another completely random power outage. I know I would be better advised to use another program than textedit, and I'll start trying to use Word, and I don't know why, but for my purposes I always go back to Textedit.

I had then installed a keystroke monitor because my power goes out so often, but the one I installed (it was called something like Monitorer X ) really seemed to mess up my system and I had just finished uninstalling it (which was complicated) when the power went out the next night--just now.

So, I am thinking I want to get a UPS system. After a quick check on the Apple Store I saw the cheapest one is a $100. Is this about what they are supposed to cost?

Are there good ones, bad ones, any advice on picking one? This will be for an eMac, and there's nothing else I want/need to hook up to it.

The more information the better, because I really only have a passing idea of what a UPS is. Basically I assume that you hook it up to the wall and you hook the computer up to the UPS and that the UPS has a battery which the computer is always running off of and if the power supply drops the computer is able to run off the battery for an amount of time until which you can save and shut down? Tell me where I'm wrong! Thanks!!!!!!!! I am going out to buy one as soon as possible!

 

[OutThere]

APC products are great. They offer a selector here:

linky

You don't need to really know everything they ask, but it helps because then they can tell you how much power you need to get out of the UPS.

Their UPS' run $50+

 

[TheAnswer]

I've got an APC one that I got back when we had the power crisis. I think it cost me around $60, but since I bought it I haven't had a real need to use it. At the very least it's helped to ward off the power gremlins. –Knock Wood-

If you are just mainly using Textedit, you just need one that will allow you to hit save once the lights go off and hit shutdown. I think mine is supposed to last 10 minutes, which is probably a good amount of time for general purposes.

 

[swingerofbirch]

Thanks for the advice. I have calmed down a bit since being so huffy and puffy about having lost my work. Since the power outtage a few hours ago I have been using Word with it set to back up every minute.

And honestly if I can keep myself using Word, I guess I should be fine. The reason I had second doubts was reading about the lead batteries and just feeling wasteful buying another product if I could create a solution by changing my habits. To be honest I don't know why I start using Word and go back to Textedit. I guess Textedit feels "cleaner" to me. I also don't care for the esthetics of the W word icon in the dock, but it does have that handy auto-save and I already have it.

So I guess I will try with Word for now, and save the money otherwise spent on a UPS toward a laptop hopefully sometime soon.

Do you know by chance if there is a way that if you are keeping a journal file that Word can automatically when you open the document have the cursor at the end of the document instead of the beginning? That would make using Word a lot nicer.

I'm sorry for not putting your advice into action and having caused the ruckus of asking for it in the heat of the moment, but it's good general knowledge to have anyhow. Thanks again.