I was lucky enough to lose all my data within months of acquiring my first computer. This event drove me to despair at the time, but in retrospect, it was a heaven-sent lesson.
Since then, I dutifully made regular data back-ups, and slept soundly at night knowing that my clever foresight would protect me from mechanical failure, acts of God, and forgetfulness.
However, data back-ups seem to be going the way of door-to-door milk deliveries, and printed Christmas cards.
Nowadays, we back-up on the web. All the nitty-gritty details of our professional and family lives are safely stored away ... there ... somewhere. It's safe, but we don't know exactly where it is.
In fact, everything is drawn slowly, but irresistibly, towards the web. Having lots of programs on your PC once seemed like a good idea - but today the idea of buying software is going down the same lonely road as the milkman.
Google is now happy to give away most of the applications that Microsoft's Office can offer for the cost of a second mortgage.
My attention was caught recently by a free web-based translation program.
Ebiwrite seems to be a simple, no bells and whistles, translation memory program. It comes from the same workshop as a nifty notes program called Helipad.
I don't think that SDL Trados - the 'Microsoft' of the translation industry - will be trembling in its boots yet, but the writing is on the wall.
You can try Ebiwrite at:
http://ebiwrite.com/home.html