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Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question

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On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 23:00:17 +0000, Novice wrote:

> I had the same concern. But that IS why I lost a bunch of my code. How
> do I explain that lost code in the best possible way WITHOUT admitting
> to the crash?
>
With difficulty, which is why I suggested you avoid mentioning it.
 
> In all honesty, I am still just limping along in the hope that the drive
> won't crash again. I have a considerably newer computer so my odds are
> better than they were with the aging computer that crashed but that's
> clearly no guarantee that I won't have another crash.
>
If there's a possibility of remote working in the contract this might be 
an issue: if you're storing the contracted work on your own computer then 
it *must* be backed up, version control or no version control. If the 
client uses a version control system then you'll probably be expected to 
use it too and that would most likely apply wherever you may be doing the 
work. As there are a variety of version control systems, both proprietary 
and Open Source, in common use you'll probably get away without knowing 
the details of a specific one, but some familiarity with what they all do 
and the common terminology would be useful. IMO doing a non-trivial 
coding project without using version control falls into the same category 
as writing C without understanding make or Java without knowing ant, 
maven or an IDE.

> I still don't have an adequate backup strategy and I know of version
> control but don't use it. I simply haven't had the spare cash to do
> something about that. I hope to do something about that as I make more
> money on contracts but it might be a while as I have some debts that
> need to be paid off....
>
In this day and age I'd accept a project backup scheme based on a cycle 
of two or more SD cards. That is, provided the most recent backup is 
somewhere offline, preferably in a fire safe or at least in a shed at the 
end of the garden. It would be a pretty big project if its documentation, 
source and test data wouldn't fit on a 2GB SD card - much bigger than a 
one person job for sure.

I'm currently using USB disk drives for system backups and doing the 
backups with rsync for speed. A 30GB backup to a blank USB 2.0 drive 
takes 3-5 hours, but a weekly rsync run to capture changes takes under 20 
minutes. 


-- 
martin@   | Martin Gregorie
gregorie. | Essex, UK
org       |

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Two More Very General Consulting Question Novice <novice@example..com> - 2011-11-30 21:00 +0000
  Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-11-30 21:45 +0000
    Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Novice <novice@example..com> - 2011-11-30 23:00 +0000
      Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-12-01 03:06 +0000
        Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Novice <novice@example..com> - 2011-12-06 15:24 +0000
          Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-12-06 20:59 +0000
      Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-12-07 05:45 -0800
        Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-12-07 18:58 +0000
          Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-07 18:57 -0500
            Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-12-07 20:33 -0400
              Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-12-08 16:04 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-12-09 06:53 -0400
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-12-09 12:51 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Lars Enderin <lars.enderin@telia.com> - 2011-12-09 17:26 +0100
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Martin Gregorie <martin@address-in-sig.invalid> - 2011-12-09 23:12 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-12-10 12:00 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-12-10 19:53 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-12-11 00:04 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2011-12-10 20:12 +0000
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Jim Janney <jjanney@shell.xmission.com> - 2011-12-12 03:05 -0700
                Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-12-12 06:39 -0400
            Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Joshua Cranmer <Pidgeot18@verizon.invalid> - 2011-12-07 20:55 -0600
              Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Andreas Leitgeb <avl@gamma.logic.tuwien.ac.at> - 2011-12-09 10:42 +0000
        Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-07 18:48 -0500
    Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-12-07 05:43 -0800
  Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2011-12-02 20:15 -0500
  Re: Two More Very General Consulting Question Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2011-12-06 16:45 -0800

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