THE IMPORTANCE OF AN UNINTERRUPTIBLE POWER SUPPLY

Everyone's computer is plugged into his or her home power. Not all home power is the same. Some are clean, some are dirty, some are noisy, and all are potentially problematic. Ever turn on an appliance only to have the lights dim? If you do not have an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), you are sending those power fluctuations down to your computer, and all the parts inside it. 

 There are full blown power outages, where power is abruptly removed from your computer. Probably the worst, is a brown out, where about half the power is supplied to your computer. A UPS is a small battery. Once plugged into your power outlet, it will charge like any other battery. You then plug your computer into the UPS. From that point forward, your computer will run off of the battery. You can even pull the plug from the wall, and your computer will still run, albeit for a short time. Long enough to allow you to save your work and gracefully shut down. In addition, this battery will protect you from any surges and drops in power. A UPS is a mandatory item to have. Data is just too important; computers are too expensive to repair. The chances of power fluctuations are too high to risk not spending a relatively small amount of money to protect yourself. The nice thing about OS X, and the USB based UPS units, is they can communicate with each other. No need to install any additional software. Just plug the UPS into your wall, your computer into the UPS, and a USB cable from the computer to the UPS, and you are set. You will have new options in your Energy Saver Preferences that allow you to define what your computer does when there is a power outage. Amazon has good deals on them like the APC BP500UC Back-UPS Pro 500. It works with OS X perfectly and is small and silent.