It wasn’t complimentary, but I hardly consider myself or what I write here above criticism, so that’s not a problem in and of itself. The message was in response to my January 14, 2005 Backup Reminder, and because it does contain some valid points, I wanted to reprint it here.
From your blog, “The Geek Girls say that a differential backup copies the files which have changed since the last full backup and that an incremental backup copies the files which have changed since the last backup of any kind. (Are you confused yet? I am.)”
What’s to be confused about? It works exactly the way they say.
-You make a full backup on Monday
-On Tuesday, you change 1 file and back it up only. That’s Differential
-On Wednesday, you change 1 more file. Now, if you back it up and the one from yesterday, the only changes made since the last full backup, then that is Differential. If you only back it up and not the one from Tuesday, then that is Incremental.
That’s actually the clearest explanation I’ve heard of the distinction between differential and incremental backups.
Since when is a RAID system even similar to LIVE BACKUP? (“LIVE BACKUP is a term I found on a database backup site, and it refers to a continuous backup process, where backups are made as the files are changed. This is similar to what happens in a RAID system”) BACKUP backups data. RAID provides data recovery ability, not a backup.
I understand RAID much better now than I did in January of ’05 (which isn’t saying that much, as the Ur-Guru is now trying to explain parity bits to me after reading this post) and I agree that while some configurations of RAID duplicate your data as its created—and some people rely on that instead of instituting real backup systems—what RAID is really designed to protect against is disk failure, not the corruption or loss of data. If you delete a file on one disk, it will get deleted on the other disks in the array. If the file is corrupted, the corruption will be duplicated. So it’s not really a backup.
Yet the similarity between RAID and “live backup” or “continous data protection” (as most people seem to call it these days) should be obvious: the duplication happens when the data is changed, continuously, in the background where you don’t notice it.
That’s the useful part of the message. It’s followed by the snide part:
If you don’t know these simple basic facts and prefer to wing it by just using your own terminology (“Personally, I like the term “Differential Backup,” and that’s what I use to describe the way my own file backups work.”), then you have no business in the IT field. You’re an embarassment to the rest of us that do know our business and take it seriously.
Don’t bother replying (especially since this is a null address used for spammers). Either get out of the field or learn your craft properly.
Well, Thomas, or Rick, or whatever your name is, you might be relieved to know that I’m not in the IT business. I do provide some general-purpose consulting to home office computer users, based on having more experience than they do and being able to call on the Ur-Guru to answer questions I can’t. But I don’t claim to be a real IT professional, and I don’t want to be an IT professional.
I’m a writer. I’m writing a column, which I research to the best of my ability given the constraints on publishing it and the fact that I’m not getting paid for it. I correct mistakes when I’m made aware of them, but I don’t have every past post memorized, so unless I get new information shortly after publishing something or people point out errors, they may stay in the blog.
There are countless other people out there who know more about technology, and specifically about backups, archives, and data protection, than I do. None of them seem to want to write a weekly e-zine/blog exclusively devoted to the subject. And persistence usually wins out over genius.
The point of the Backup Reminder is to get people to back up their data. If they need to hire a real professional, and not me, to get that set up for them—all the better. But those who do hire me can at least be assured that I won’t treat them with contempt just because they don’t know as much as I do about something.
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I suspect that Thomas/Rick is suffering from a bad case of “Maxtor Shared Storage envy” or that he’s one of those guys in the IT field who are intimidated by females that speak or write the lingo and thereby provide a target for nasty comments aimed at feeding his evident superiority complex. The latter is definitely a strong suspicion because hiding behind a pseudo-anonymous address is a clear indication of being too intimidated to be open to communication.What nasty Rick doesn’t seem to clue in on is that most people don’t like dealing with all the tech details that obfuscate and complicate their daily lives and work and prefer to have things explain in simple terms, preferably by someone who has sufficient patience to deal with those that aren’t tech-savvy.Who doesn’t get confused about Differential and Incremental backups when in fact the combination of usage leads to incremental-differential and differential-incremental backups? Folks who like to backup in an incrementally differential manner only end up with incrementally different problems when real trouble comes to town.In the blind haste to write the nasty message he has even completely overlooked the fact that your comparrisson with RAID and LIVE BACKUP is technically correct because a real professional would immediately have assumed that you were talking about RAID0 (e.g. mirroring) whereby the second (or third or fourth, depending on how paranoid one is), disk is considered to be a backup of the first. It isn’t an offsite backup, nor incremental, nor differential, nor a history based archived backup. But it’s a backup as most people would consider it by the definition of the word.The tech-lingo purists may wish to debate that as they have done for the past decades and as long as it keeps them happy to have something to do, it doesn’t matter that much to real individuals with real data to worry about. I guess Mr. Thomas/Rick would only be satisfied if you saturated your writings with the intricate details of how the parity algorithms work and how parity is spread across a RAID array. But something like that would defeat the entire purpose of what you’re doing.I think the guy needs to reflect on how his snide comments could be considered an embarassment to the rest of us that know our business and aren’t intimidated by females using the once predominantly male dominated tech-lingo.Stefan DidakIgnyter
Dear Sallie, I read the original post, as well as the original article, and the followup comment by ‘ignyter’; I also looked at your web site where you state your services. After much consideration I have come to the conclusion that I don’t see anywhere in his letter where Thomas/Rick was rude. He simply stated the honest truth. You could interpret his final comment to be rude but I myself did not parse it that way.The fact of the matter is is that you are offering Technical Services (Computer Troubleshooting, etc) and charging money for those services. Ergo, you are representing yourself as an IT professional (regardless of your actual ability). He is correct that if you are going to talk about a subject, especially if as you claim to not be an IT person but a writer, then you should be doing your homework and know your craft. If you do not know the answer or are not sure, then run it by a professional, like ‘ignyter’, but do not post something you do not understand. ‘Ignyter’ brings up a whole different set of issues, though.Ignyter rightly points out that non-IT people do get confused about IT terminology, however, that is no reason not to clearly explain like Thomas/Rick did in his missive to you. However, in his zeal, ‘ignyter’ also makes the same mistake about LIVE BACKUP vs RAID. Simply put, RAID is a way of ensuring against hardware failure. If you delete a file or it becomes corrupted, as you pointed out it is gone…unless you have a backup. LIVE BACKUP however is NOT RAID. RAID is your hardware you are typically running realtime on and where you save your datafiles. LIVE BACKUP is a different location you currently copy your data to. They are two completely different pieces of hardware. They may be physically present in the same server or room, but they are completely separate pieces of hardware.I will also point out that Stefan is wrong about RAID0, as that is not mirroring. RAID0 is striping and it is NOT data redundant. As a computer professional with experience (judging by his website with Animagic and Manticore, but I shouldn’t make assumptions), he should know this without even thinking of it. Now, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in that maybe he pressed the wrong number on the keyboard, which is more than he gave Rick/Thomas in trying to analyze his character and personality make-up.By the way, here is a link for the both of you to read and understand RAID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#RAID_0Let me also give you a link as to what Continuous Data Protection is really about:http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/gDefinition/0,294236,sid5_gci1015407,00.htmlAs I mentioned prior, I am willing to give ‘ignyter’ the benefit of the doubt on RAID. However, the one thing I will bring Stefan to task on is his hypocrisy. It is reprehensible for him not to disclose his relationship with you. Would he be defending you as vigorously if you were not “Sallie, my partner for the past 8 years”? Yes, I found that posted on his site along with pictures of you. His failure to mention the relationship shows an ethical and moral failing and thereby denies him any authority whatsoever. The fact that you were complicit in not putting an editor’s note on his Comment citing the relationship when you claim to be a writer/author is an entirely different issue.To conclude, it appears to me that you have both been lacking in your responses. That is, you both denigrated Rick/Thomas’ skill set and his common sense advice of “Learn your craft or leave the field”. As an experienced professional with many years on both sides of the fence, it is my considered opinion that the two of you are more biased in this situation than Thomas/Rick. To re-iterate, his comments may be taken as snide/rude, but on the whole, you have firmly established that you and your significant other have no more claim to the high road than he does, and even less in light of what I discovered on your respective sites. You could have politely shown him to be wrong but you did not. Instead, you chose to belittle and psycho-analyze him. It was incumbent upon you as the recipient of his message to give him the benefit of the doubt. Neither you nor, to a larger degree Stefan, did so. In point of fact, you attacked his character and methodologies and attempted to impugn him. This is bald-faced hypocrisy at its worst. Will my posted Comment be left in your blog sans editing? Your choices here will mark you for the rest of your days, just as Thomas/Rick’s message will mark him with your posting bias.
Sr.wences is correct. I hit the 0 instead of 1 when I meant to say RAID1. When you run as many high performance systems as I do with so many RAID arrays (from 0 to 6 in varying configuration) it’s easy to slip a typo in.It is funny, however, that it is considered hypocritical of me not to disclose my relationship with Sallie. If it was my intent to hide that I would not have signed my post with my actual name. I leave the activity of cowardly hiding to those who feel a need for it. Anyone with even the modest understanding of search engines would easily be able to figure that out (especially tx.rr.com based internet users that leave an entire track of digital breadcrumbs *grin*) even by the legacy of links on the web. A lot of Sallie’s clientelle knows me, has met me in some capacity of another, so there isn’t any deliberate lack of disclosure, especially when it’s disclose of a public known fact.I wonder what’s next for Sr.Wences… perhaps he now also wants me to disclose what I do for a living, my age, or any other publically known or easily discoverable piece of information that can be obtained based on me signing my posts and identifying exactly who I am! :-)Stefan Didak (yep, once again with my actual name, without a need to hide behind an alias).