Tools: Backing up doesn't mean retreating

["Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

Given that I've had several friends lose large amounts of their data lately
because they didn't have adequate backups, I thought I'd mention an article
I've written on the subject of backups. It now appears on the Raycomm site
(where I'm a columnist and frequent contributor) at the following URL:
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/backups.html

The article seemed to me to be reasonably comprehensive and accurate when
last I revised it, but if you have any substantive comments (things I got
wrong or left out, things that aren't nearly so clear as I first thought),
by all means drop me a line--the nice thing about Web publishing is that
errors are so easy to fix. Of course, if you find any typos, don't mention
them; I cherish my delusions of perfection in all I do, and wouldn't want my
fragile grasp of reality shattered. <g>*

Tech. writing tie-in: Though the article was originally written as a summary
of how you should go about backing up your important files, I I modified it
for Raycomm to show how understanding your audience can also lead you to
include miscellaneous important things in your documentation that you'd
otherwise forget to write. When was the last time you read documentation
that reminded you to make backups of your data and also told you how to do
it? You should be able to modify what I've written and provide something
similarly useful in your own docs, and that ought to repay itself in good
kharma down the road when someone writes in to thank you for saving them
hours or even days of grief.

--Geoff Hart, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Tarzan's rule of data processing: Never let go of one vine until you have a
solid hold of the next.--Anon.
 
*Okay, just kidding; send along the typos too. Pointing out my mistakes
helps keep me humble, and surely that's a good thing.

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