Hi Karl,
Good job on http://www.la-grange.net/2009/02/16/data-independence
I read it today, and wanted to make one little suggestion:
Right now you have:
• Best Practices For Users
• Data Local Copy
I would add a counterpart:
• Remote Backup
Suggested text:
Whenever possible, always keep a secure remote backup of your data.
As a counterpart to the good practice of always having a local
duplicate of data remotely held in a data silo, it is generally wise
to organize remote backup of the kind of data you would usually only
keep on a local computer. A local computer can be stolen, crash,
break, burn or be flooded. In the latter two cases, the data you may
have backed up on any media in your house or office is likely to be
destroyed. too.
In the words of Linus Torvalds: “ Only wimps use tape backup: _real_
men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the
world mirror it ;)”. His strategy of course only works for non-
sensitive data, although some hackers have been known to upload
heavily-encrypted data to bittorent.
For the rest of us, remote backup can be achieved, for example, by
renting cheap server space, using a webmail service with plenty of
disk space, or register on a remote backup service.
--
olivier
