On Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:58:40 +0000, Lisi wrote: > On Monday 29 November 2010 16:47:31 Camaleón wrote: >> Oh, c'mon. There is no need to be a "computer scientist" to care about >> your data. Not today. You can buy a USB external disk (or DVD media) >> and put there your beloved files. Even Windows can automate this task >> for you. > > In my experience hoi polloi simply don't understand the value of or need > for backup. I frequently find people who have data that is very > important to them, even crucial to their business, who have no backup.
"Important data" and "no data backup" in the same phrase do not compute :-) (yep, I know what you wanted to mean here) > They think of the computer as some sort of incomprehensible magic, not a > machine whose behaviour can be predicted or analysed, and which can > fail. I tend to instruct people who asks me about their computers (mostly my family -mother, uncle-... and friends) on the convenience of making periodical backups for their data (images, e-mails, docs, etc...) and how they can do the job with easy steps (by simply copy/paste a folder into USB keys, using a DVD or, depending on amount of the data to copy, using an external disk). I care of them and I give practical and exact instructions (by e-mail, by phone...) but I cannot manage all of their computers neither want to become the "handy-techie-do-it-all-support girl" here :-) > I'll give you an example. One old lady, whose computing I supported, > took 'photos of all her holidays, which she looked at often to cheer > herself up and remind her of a happy experience. These 'photos were > very valuable to her. I repeatedly advised her to have an off-computer > copy, instead of having only the one copy on one HDD. (She wiped the > 'photos from her camera memory card as soon as she had uploaded them.) > > One day she messed up her registry to the point where reinstallation was > essential. She assured me when asked that her precious 'photos were all > fine and she had off-computer copies of all of them. When, after the > event, it became obvious that a small percentage of the photos was > missing, she asked me to install Picasa "because that is where those > 'photos are". Re-ouch! The missing photos were stored online? At least she had a happy ending... this time. > Don't underestimate the gulf of incomprehension that exists in the > non-geek world at large. Yes, and the "gulf" can have the size of a "black hole" O:-)... but you know how these human-things go after all: unless they lose something *really* important for them, they won't care about backups, no matter what you do or tell, they'll simply do... nothing. Greetings, -- Camaleón -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/pan.2011.01.04.16.56...@gmail.com