After having sat in my parents' house and seen would-be burglars walk up the drive (they didn't see me!), and had my mother's car stolen whilst it was in my possession, and had the house I was living in broken into (a flatmate arrived home as the burglar was in my room, but before he had had the chance to take anything), and had the flat above mine ransacked, I'd sadly resigned to the fact that sooner or later someone's going to break into my place and take all my stuff.
Indeed, every day it's a minor relief to come home and find the door and windows unbroken...
My irreplaceable data is probably creeping up towards the 1 Gb mark now. If the city I live and work in was destroyed, I'd not lose it altogether, but would lose up to a year (depending on the last time I dumped a backup onto my father's pooter). And whilst it's not true to say I've never lost irreplaceable data, I've not lost much.
Also, the dividing line between irreplaceable property and irreplaceable data is becoming a bit blurred.
My irreplacable things are irreplacable due to sentimental value.
I haven't lost irreplacable data on this PC yet but am aware it's just a matter of time. My sent-to-a-friend-in-London backups are rather old, too, but at least they exist.
I backed up my mail directory two nights ago, for the first time in (literally) six months.
I've never lost irreplacable data but through luck not back-ups. Linux can talk to 'dead' HDDs that Windows refuses to see any more; my recent phone crisis turned out to be a case of forgetting that I had got backups for 90% of my numbers on another phone (and real life conversation accounted for the other 10%). I've still 'lost' a couple of pics but they're still physically on the phone, I just can't access them until I buy the correct cable. :-/
Indeed. I'm sure I've lost irreplacable data in the past, but I can't remember what it was, and suspect that if I still had it, I'd look at it quizically and ask myself 'what was that all about, then?'
I have irreplacable things that are irreplacable due to sentimental value.
My irreplacable data is mainly digital images. I've already lost some of these.
My backup strategy is a bit poor, although better than it used to be. The biggest flaw is that it's not automated and relies on me remembering to actually take action every month or two.
My backup strategy is a bit poor, although better than it used to be. The biggest flaw is that it's not automated and relies on me remembering to actually take action every month or two.
I finally got around to sorting out home contents insurance in the last few weeks, although I suspect it's technically not valid until I work out how to make the bathroom window actually latch.
First part is pointless to answer in my opinion - things are not exactly duplicable in the way data is, and thus *everything* is irreplaceable FSVO irreplaceable. Qua the sentimental value criterion - then the number varies from day to day depending how sentimental I'm feeling. Right now, X item may be something I'd be loath to lose, but next week I may change my mind.
Part 2 is hard to answer too - most of my irreplaceable data is work-related, and as such is entrusted to work's backup systems, of which I have little knowledge. They *used* to be crap, but have improved since we brought in an actual sysadmin. Certainly they'd survive my house burning down - but that's because they're not *at* my house, and have never been there.
Well, yes, everything is irreplaceable for -some- value thereof but obviously the intended meaning concerns whether you'd go out and buy another one and then forget all about it (or perhaps even be pleased you'd got an upgrade at the insurance company's expense), or whether you'd think that wasn't good enough.
I have a few things it would annoy me very much to lose, and a few quite expensive things, but nothing I couldn't carry on from.
I have no data I genuinely need, but quite a bit (schedules, notes, fiction) it would be very aggravating to lose. It's not officially backed up, but is periodically updated between my computer, and a colo server. I need a better system, but if I lose a few months, that's not such a big deal (unfortunately, or I'd have got around to it).
That would survive my continent being nuked to the bedrock. I'm not sure how I could survive loss of my planet -- I'd probably take my laptop with me if I did. Probably in a sophistry Egan way, in which case I would have the data...
I've counted things as 'irreplacable' if it would take me such a large amount of time and money to replace that I would probably just live without them.
Like most people who do backups, I imagine, I backup onto portable hard disc drives. But I leave the drives on the table with the computer on, so any half-competent burglar would nick the lot.
I've interpreted "irreplaceable" in its normal rather than literal meaning.
That's not to say I don't take care of things, or that I wouldn't be unimpressed by someone gratuitously depriving me of possessions or data.
I think the distinction I am making is that if all my possessions were destroyed by a natural disaster or accident, the fact that some of them couldn't be replaced or recovered wouldn't be registering at all in my list of priorities.
I've lost (personally valuable) irreplaceable data due to it being on old media that could no longer be read by any computer I currently had, and due to not realising I'd lost it until it had fallen off the end of the backups.
<nods> I took the effort in 2000 to convert media and burn onto CD-ROM all the data I had in old media—mostly 5¼" floppy disks in ADFS L-format—whilst I still had access to a machines that could read them and convert them to an intermediary format (3½" disk in DOS format) that the machine with the CD-ROM burner could read); also to convert BBC Micro format screenshots in GIF images.
I'm glad I did so; my father's BBC Master is now broken, leaving me with no way to port such media in future.
Now my only problem is the fact all my old programs in BBC BASIC and AMPLE are in tokenised form and unreadable, except on my (own) BBC Master. (I did start a project to convert the former, but ran out of steam after not very long.)
Much of my important data exists on several different computers and in hard copy as well, though not always as a result of deliberate backups. Pretty much all my important data could be rewritten, by me, although it would be time-consuming and probably not produce an exact replica of what I wrote the first time. (Though this wouldn't necessarily be bad.) The irreplacable data I've lost in the past has been mainly things like lj or Usenet posts, or Word documents, which I was typing and then lost in some way e.g. the PC crashing unexpectedly. I just had to type them again, probably not quite the same way as they were in the first place.
Some of my data e.g. my thesis, has been emailed to people in other countries, or would exist in Google caches visible from other countries, so it should be recoverable even if the UK were destroyed! But I think actually I might be more worried about other parts of my life than about recovering my thesis if the UK were destroyed.
I had a hard disk crash in early 1998 which lost me a load of software I'd written, including the most up-to-date sources of the program which later became PuTTY. Fortunately, I had an earlier copy of that stored elsewhere and resumed development from there; but the thing I was really cross about losing was the source to my Telnet answerphone program.
The idea of this was that since my computer at the time dual-booted between Linux and Windows, people might occasionally telnet into it in order to ytalk to me, only to find it was running Windows because I was playing a game. So I rigged up a small and simple telnetd for Windows, which gave the user the option to leave a message that would pop up on my screen in a dialog box. This turned out to be very useful, but I lost the source before getting round to fixing its many very annoying bugs.
Nowadays I wouldn't use such a program, because (a) I can now afford to buy one machine per OS instead of multi-booting, (b) nobody should be using telnet anyway these days and doing the same thing with a miniature sshd would be a lot more work, and (c) for people wanting to contact me remotely I have a telephone. But even so, there are traces in my SVN repository which betray the fact that I did once intend to get round to rewriting that program.
I started running backups a few years after that (after passing through a more ad-hoc phase of keeping really important data on more than one machine), but stopped again when hard disks grew by a factor of ten and tapes didn't. Last year I got some large USB hard disks and resumed backing up properly, and the improvement to my peace of mind is considerable.
How are you defining backing up, as distinct from keeping data on more than one machine?
By "backing up", do you mean in an incremental manner, so you can do back to data from any previous day/week (as the presence of an SVN repository for your personal data tends to suggest)?
I've lost irreplacable data because the person who had the data didn't have backups (quilt photographs which went onto a computer that died). Although this data becomes potentially replacable if emperor decides to take photos of said quilt.
And mstevens' post reminded me of other irreplacable data I've lost - Adrian reformatted the drive that had all our honeymoon photos and videos on. Now that's irreplacable.
I was thinking this too. But I figured that what to do with consonants that change when you add an 'able' or 'ible' ending is quite problematic anyway, and so I wouldn't quibble. But seconded :)
I contradicted myself because I'm in the middle of trying to sort out backups for my writing stuff :) I lost a bunch of stories when my laptop got nicked in my final year, and so I'm taking backups more seriously now I've got stories I may someday want to get published.
I am gradually taking the interim measure of burninating to CD things on the desktop before lovely pjc50 constructs an extra HD for me to put things on. Most really important work things (ie dissertation notes) live both on my USB stick and on the allegedly safe Napier network drive, which always seems to fall over when I try to get into it and get stuff out, sigh. :/
I used to lose schoolwork thanks to the old chestnut of floppy disks in my pocket getting messed around by the school's magnetic fire doors. That was very distressing! :(
I'm not sure if having a hard copy of irreplacable data would count as a back-up to most people, but it does to me[1] ;) My Part II thesis now only exists as a hard copy due to computer death.
Is irreplacable still irreplacable if it was unique but you don't really care that you lost it? Just out of interest :)
[1] But yes, I'm a techless artsy type who's compiling PhD data by hand anyway. In fact, the most irreplaceable things I have are photos (meticulously backed up on CDs) and stories (not backed up, but usually swimming in cyberspace somewhere retrievable).
My few 'irreplaceable' things are all sentimental in value: my engagement and wedding rings, some costume jewellery that belonged to my grandmother, certain babygros Charles wore in hospital with me, a few books that are now out of print. And a small box of things like wedding invitations and orders of service and so on.
Strictly speaking they are probably all replaceable, they just won't be the ones that belonged to us.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:25 pm (UTC)Indeed, every day it's a minor relief to come home and find the door and windows unbroken...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:22 pm (UTC)Also, the dividing line between irreplaceable property and irreplaceable data is becoming a bit blurred.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:23 pm (UTC)I haven't lost irreplacable data on this PC yet but am aware it's just a matter of time. My sent-to-a-friend-in-London backups are rather old, too, but at least they exist.
I backed up my mail directory two nights ago, for the first time in (literally) six months.
Crikey, this is depressing.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:39 pm (UTC)My irreplacable data is mainly digital images. I've already lost some of these.
My backup strategy is a bit poor, although better than it used to be. The biggest flaw is that it's not automated and relies on me remembering to actually take action every month or two.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:03 pm (UTC)This is what automated diary reminders are for!
(no subject)
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From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:53 pm (UTC)Part 2 is hard to answer too - most of my irreplaceable data is work-related, and as such is entrusted to work's backup systems, of which I have little knowledge. They *used* to be crap, but have improved since we brought in an actual sysadmin. Certainly they'd survive my house burning down - but that's because they're not *at* my house, and have never been there.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:57 pm (UTC)I have no data I genuinely need, but quite a bit (schedules, notes, fiction) it would be very aggravating to lose. It's not officially backed up, but is periodically updated between my computer, and a colo server. I need a better system, but if I lose a few months, that's not such a big deal (unfortunately, or I'd have got around to it).
That would survive my continent being nuked to the bedrock. I'm not sure how I could survive loss of my planet -- I'd probably take my laptop with me if I did. Probably in a sophistry Egan way, in which case I would have the data...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 01:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:17 pm (UTC)That's not to say I don't take care of things, or that I wouldn't be unimpressed by someone gratuitously depriving me of possessions or data.
I think the distinction I am making is that if all my possessions were destroyed by a natural disaster or accident, the fact that some of them couldn't be replaced or recovered wouldn't be registering at all in my list of priorities.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-27 12:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 03:22 pm (UTC)I'm glad I did so; my father's BBC Master is now broken, leaving me with no way to port such media in future.
Now my only problem is the fact all my old programs in BBC BASIC and AMPLE are in tokenised form and unreadable, except on my (own) BBC Master. (I did start a project to convert the former, but ran out of steam after not very long.)
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 02:59 pm (UTC)Some of my data e.g. my thesis, has been emailed to people in other countries, or would exist in Google caches visible from other countries, so it should be recoverable even if the UK were destroyed! But I think actually I might be more worried about other parts of my life than about recovering my thesis if the UK were destroyed.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 03:27 pm (UTC)The idea of this was that since my computer at the time dual-booted between Linux and Windows, people might occasionally telnet into it in order to ytalk to me, only to find it was running Windows because I was playing a game. So I rigged up a small and simple telnetd for Windows, which gave the user the option to leave a message that would pop up on my screen in a dialog box. This turned out to be very useful, but I lost the source before getting round to fixing its many very annoying bugs.
Nowadays I wouldn't use such a program, because (a) I can now afford to buy one machine per OS instead of multi-booting, (b) nobody should be using telnet anyway these days and doing the same thing with a miniature sshd would be a lot more work, and (c) for people wanting to contact me remotely I have a telephone. But even so, there are traces in my SVN repository which betray the fact that I did once intend to get round to rewriting that program.
I started running backups a few years after that (after passing through a more ad-hoc phase of keeping really important data on more than one machine), but stopped again when hard disks grew by a factor of ten and tapes didn't. Last year I got some large USB hard disks and resumed backing up properly, and the improvement to my peace of mind is considerable.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 03:48 pm (UTC)By "backing up", do you mean in an incremental manner, so you can do back to data from any previous day/week (as the presence of an SVN repository for your personal data tends to suggest)?
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 03:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 03:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 04:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 06:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 04:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 05:47 pm (UTC)I used to lose schoolwork thanks to the old chestnut of floppy disks in my pocket getting messed around by the school's magnetic fire doors. That was very distressing! :(
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 06:19 pm (UTC)Is irreplacable still irreplacable if it was unique but you don't really care that you lost it? Just out of interest :)
[1] But yes, I'm a techless artsy type who's compiling PhD data by hand anyway. In fact, the most irreplaceable things I have are photos (meticulously backed up on CDs) and stories (not backed up, but usually swimming in cyberspace somewhere retrievable).
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 09:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 06:20 pm (UTC)My other irreplaceable data is accounts (probably reconstructable from banks) and assorted letters, spreadsheets etc.
I haven't run a backup to removable media for a long time and probably should.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-25 06:25 pm (UTC)Strictly speaking they are probably all replaceable, they just won't be the ones that belonged to us.