# Computer guru needed!!! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 18, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536 "2009-04-18T16:09:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/1 "2009-04-18T16:09:10Z")
Sorry I typed that in all caps, y’all, but I am at a loss. A BIG loss. I lost something I was working on for **jackdavinci** who in my Work At Home for Google Earn 375.00 thread asked me what a “Stringer” is. It’s someone who works for himself but sells stories and photographs to newspapers. Back in the 80’s I wrote a little booklet about how one goes about doing this kind of work and was going to sell it for 3 bucks, etc. etc etc I had almost gotten his question answered in the form of that booklet and i even added a little humor in this time, and I was REMEMBERING! Oh God, it was so great, and i kept thinking “he’s gonna just _love_ that i went into so much detail about being a stringer”… and I don’ t know what or how it happened, but All of a sudden, the computer went DING and the answer disappeared off my screen, and I couldn’t get it back!!! It was easily 5 thousand words Y’all, and i was SO PROUD that i was writing again and answering **jack’s** question for him, and now it’s gone! My question is: even though it disappeared off the screen, mightn’t it be on my computer SOMEWHERE and how can I recover it? I looked in history, documents, hit the BACK arrow keys, but that’s as far as I can go with my limited computer skills. Does this field have a character **limit**? I didn’t know… Anything I can do? That post took me an hour and 15 minutes and I was ALMOST finished! Help? Thanks Q ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/2 "2009-04-18T16:49:41Z")
Likely it is gone by now. Partly it depends on the browser and what specifically went wrong. I know in Firefox if I accidentally leave a page and hit the back button what I had typed is _almost_ always still there. Again, depends on a variety of things (which browser you were using, what went wrong, what you did just after and so on). My guess however is that it is just gone. Sorry. In the future, if you know you are going to write a lengthy post, try writing it in a word processor since those generally have an auto-save feature to protect you from losing everything. Then cut & paste into a post. If it helps such things have happened to me in the past as well. Very frustrating and I feel your pain. Misery loves company. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/3 "2009-04-18T16:57:32Z")
Thanks, \*\* Whack\*\* I’ll try to work it up again later tonight, I guess. 🙂 Q ETA: **Is** there a character limit in this field? ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/4 "2009-04-18T17:33:53Z")
I second the idea of using a desktop program (Word Processor, NotePad, TextEdit, whatever) to write long content, hitting save every now and then. Copy and paste into the field when you’re done. This propensity for Web applications to toss everything you’ve been working on because you exceed a limit, hit submit but the server wasn’t responding at that exact moment, hit back accidentally, failed to fill in one minor field in a form and it cleared the whole thing, exceeded a time limit, hit return in a field intending to end a paragraph but instead submitting, etc. etc. is, in my opinion, why the idea that everyday computing is going to “move to the cloud” is likely still at least several years off. The current state of Web application user interfaces is about where desktop applications were in 1988: fragile, mysterious, and with a lot of implicit user knowledge necessary to use them safely. Things like Ajax, Silverlight, AIR, and better programming skills are improving the landscape, but it’s still got a long way to go before the “it just works” phase. Browsers were meant to browse - using them as applications is, and shall remain for the near future, clumsy and fragile. ---
**Author:** ![ChrisBooth12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/5 "2009-04-18T17:44:30Z")
I have always got into the habit of doing a Ctrl-C right before I hit send so I can always paste it back. Since I have been posting on the SDMB I have used Word a lot more to type longer posts to do a quick spell and grammar check before I hit post. I have to imagine Firefox has some add-on somewhere that saves form information. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Potato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Stealth\_Potato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Potato)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/6 "2009-04-18T18:45:34Z")
Yeah, it’s probably gone for good, depending on exactly what happened (and what browser you’re using). Firefox usually tries to save form inputs, but even it sometimes fails. Once, when Firefox lost a long post of mine I had been writing, I was able to recover it by opening Firefox’s virtual memory in a hex editor and searching for specific words I remembered using. It took a few searches to find it, since various bits and pieces of my writing were scattered across FF’s memory, but I managed to find the whole thing intact and copy it out. IIRC I had to fix up the linebreaks, since the hex editor had translated them into some other character, but it was much better than writing the whole thing again. 😛 When I compose long posts now, I just do it in an external editor; that’s definitely the safest way to go. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/7 "2009-04-18T18:48:36Z")
Thanks, Guys It’s IE7 I thought maybe it sent itself? Is that possible? Could I have exceeded the max number of characters? Q ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/8 "2009-04-18T21:08:29Z")
IE7 makes no efforts to preserve data in text boxes after you leave the page. Its long gone and you should probably switch to firefox as it tries to save text in text boxes. I absolutely need this feature also and use firefox. I cant remember the last time I lost text this way. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-guru-needed/493536/9 "2009-04-18T21:55:03Z")
You know, it wasn’t that it was any kind of “masterpiece”, but today was one of my \*good \* days (and I don’t have many of those lately), and my Muse was “with” me. I was _remembering_ something I wrote back in the 80’s, and the “trigger” word was _Stringer_. Our fellow Doper **jackdavinci** had asked what the word _meant_, so I was gonna give him the “Cliff Notes” version. Well, I tried, but it seemed like everytime I would write a sentence, I’d think “Well, you can’t leave him with just _that_”, so I’d write a little further, etc., and it was like everything flowing smoothly, and falling in place until the last 5 words: I had them in my head and was about to lay my hands on the keys when _DING_ the screen went black and then to white again. At first, I was _stunned_, uncomprehending, and then the “siren” started: real slow, like a WWII air raid. NooooooooOOOOOOOOO! I’m not tellin’ the rest, 'cause if I _did_, I’m afraid y’all won’t let me come back, and I _need_ this place and it’s inhabitants!🙂 Suffice it to say, a major clean-up will be necessary. This is life these days, y’all. Things which may seem inconsequential to you, are **super-important** to me. So **jack**? Thanks for asking the question, and I will have your answer late Sunday. Thanks Quasi