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Response: strixy and slugmax
September 16th, 2017
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Strixy writes [0] about backup systems in a post Crashplan world. I don't
know that I have too much to add to the discussion, though. I used
Backblaze for a couple years when attempting to back up my entire system.
They had no limit on the amount of data you could back up, but the
bandwidth to do so was limited. It took me over 6 months to get a full
backup at that rate. They also didn't have a very good system for getting
that data back to you in the event of a loss. Getting a package of
eleventy-billion DVDs? Not so good. Shipping hard drives had an outragious
cost. Eventually I dropped it completely.

These days I am very selective of what content needs to be safe. I store
that content--financial docs, personal docs, work archives, etc--on synced
drives using services like Spideroak, Nextcloud or Dropbox (depending on
sensitivity). I keep code projects and writing projects in plain text, and
therefore use git and private repositories on bitbucket. I may also add
a remote on the SDF meta array.

When it comes to storing bigger things, like movies and music, I don't
really have anything reliable. That content is so easily found again that
I don't consider it very often. I do keep my Doctor Who episodes
duplicated on two drives in case of a drive failure, but that's the only
exception for video. My audiobooks also have a Nextcloud spot on S3.

I wish strixy luck in finding a reliable, easy-to-use, and well-licensed
system. I hope he writes more about his eventual solution. Maybe I'll join
him at that point.


Also on gopher, slugmax celebrates his son receiving his Canadian
citizenship certificate this week [1]. First I want to add my
congratulations to slugmax and his family. That's surely the culmination
of an incredible amount of work and dedication. Canada is a great place
and I suspect it just got a little bit better with his citizenship. I am
planning on living the expat lifestyle soon, and strongly considering
emmigration from the US. I hope, when the time comes, I'll have the
fortitude to see it through like you guys.

[0] gopher://sdf.org/0/users/strixy/phlog/20170915-backups.txt
[1] gopher://sdf.org/0/users/slugmax/phlog/citizenship-ceremony-immigration