"The mind is like a TV set - when it goes blank, it's a good time to turn off the sound." ~ Communication Briefings
Fairs Year-round Information	F.Y.I. Volume 7, Issue 17 February 27, 1998

Immediate Management Opportunity
Assistant General Manager ~ Placer County Fair

Placer County Fair, in Roseville, California, is accepting applications for the position of Assistant General Manager. The fair is looking for someone with experience in fair activities, as he or she will be responsible for daily fairtime and interim operational activities. Salary depends on qualifications.
For an application, please call 916/786-2023. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled..

Take advantage of the convenience of CFSA's Government Surplus Purchasing program while you still can. Due to budgetary reasons, the surplus purchasing program will be discontinued after April 30, 1998. Because CFSA's surplus buyer is currently clearing out the warehouse, he's no longer accepting special order requests, and all items are available on a first come, first served basis.

NOTE: If your fair is on record at the General Services Surplus Department (Graeme helped fairs fill out the paperwork when CFSA’s surplus program was established), your fair is eligible to shop the General Services warehouse in Sacramento. To shop one of California’s federal or military surplus yards, you must have a Screener’s Card or be accompanied by a State Buyer.
To find out if your fair is eligible to shop the General Services warehouse, check with Graeme. If it isn’t, he’ll help you with the registration process. In the meantime, here are a few items still in CFSA’s South Sacramento surplus warehouse:

• Shade cloth - approximately 85 percent shade; measures approximately 28’ x 32’ hexagon
• White nylon rope - brand new; ideal for marking walkways and display areas
• Heavy-duty pulleys with hook
• Open-face storage cabinets - approximately 6’ tall x 4’ wide
• 80-drawer storage cabinets. Two available

For more information on these and other great buys, call Graeme at 916/765-3673. Please note: CFSA’s Surplus Purchasing Program is only authorized to obtain surplus property for California’s fairs.

Welcome to Part Two of Mike Johnson's series on the importance of computer backups. Here, Mike, a computer technician with CFSA, explains the different types of backup systems available, their pros and cons.

Choices, choices, choices
There are a lot of choices when it comes to deciding how to back up the data on your hard disk. The main differences between these backup methods are the device and medium used to store the backup.

Floppy disks
Floppies are slow, relatively unreali- able and don't hold enough data to make effective backup devices in the age of 1GB hard disks. Although they can be used for archiving small files, floppies are better used as emergency boot disks to store system information in case of a hard disk problem.

Tape drives
Tape, in many cases, is the best backup medium for the average PC user — as long as you get the right kind and use it properly. Tape drive advantages include:

• Capacity - Low end models can hold up to 5MB, for example
• Low cost - Prices start around $250
• Reliability
• Simplicity and universality - easy to hook-up and compatible with most PCs

Removable Storage Drives

• Large Floppy Disk Equivalent Drives: The Iomega Zip Drive is an example of this type of drive. Current ZIP disks hold up to 100MB of data. (There's rumor of a 200MB system in the works.) Because of their relatively small capacity, Zip drives are best suited as backup for the smaller hard drives
• Removable Hard Disk Equivalent Drives: Iomega's Jaz Drive falls into this category. Better suited than the ZIP drive as a backup device, Jaz disks have a capacity of 500MB to 1GB
• CD-Recordable: These "write-once, read-many" drives have a capacity of about 650 MB. Although the hardware is expensive, it does give you the advantage of being able to refer back to "historical snapshots" of your disk. The disks are relatively durable, and readable by any CD-ROM drive

In-Place Hard Disk Duplication
If you have more than one hard drive, you can use one for programs and data, the other as backup. This method, however, doesn’t protect against theft, fire, viruses, etc. There’s also a tendency to use the second drive for data when the first drive is full.

Network Backup:
For PCs on a network, back up over the network is a viable alternative to using removable drives. The process is fairly simple: copy data from one PC to another over the network.

File Archiving:
This is a supplemental backup method where you periodically make backup copies of files used infrequently. Simply copy the files to another location on the hard disk. This method only really protects against accidental deletion — hence the term “supplemental.”

For a more detailed report on backup methods, call Mike at 916/263-6155, or go to http://www.pcguide.com on the Internet. Questions about which backup method is best suited for your fair? Talk to Mike.

Karen Gallay, CFSA Purchasing, reports, if your fair has already purchased the 1998 California Chamber Employer Poster Set, California’s March 1998 minimum wage increase is already included. (The Chamber notes that although the federal minimum wage notice wasn’t updated, it must still be displayed.)

To confirm you have the most up-to-date two-poster set, check for the “1998” designation on the lower right-hand corner of the posters. Need a new set? Karen has them for $7.50 per set (The Chamber sells them for $12.50, plus tax.), in your choice of English or Spanish. Call Karen at 916/263-6191.

F.Y.I. invites and encourages all fairs to contribute articles and article ideas for the Fair Exchange column. We'll even write the article for you. For details, call Melissa Thurber at 916/263-6178.
To add F.Y.I. to your press release mailing list, send or fax releases to:

1776 Tribute Road, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95815
Attn: Melissa Thurber
Fax: 916/646-1238