This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> Subject: Re: [svlug] backup solutions? Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 23:03:59 -0800 From: J C Lawrence <claw@kanga.nu> On Thu, 4 Jan 2001 16:21:35 -0800 Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote: > 1. Inform people that files they're paid to create must reside in > appropriate folders/directories on the maintained file server, > rather than on their workstations. When I'm presented with such ultimata I tend to nod, smile pleasantly, and continue my work on local disks or, if they're very insistant, proceed to get another job. I expect those I work for to trust my expertise, not to second guess me. > If they do otherwise, they're obviously playing around rather than > doing their jobs. No, they are working in a manner which they, in their professional opinion, consider better for some reason, which reason they are typically willing and well able to support. They fact that you disagree is incidental and largely immaterial. They are, one would assume by the fact that they are working for you, professionals. If so, why are you telling them how to work? Do you second guess and tell your car mechanic what tools and methods he should use with your car? <...delete rant about NFS being a virus...> Network filesystems are inherently unreliable and do not implement standard semantics (don't even mention NFS locking) for intermittent or disconnected operation. As such they are suitable for posted data -- compleated work that is ready to be viewd or shared by others on an almost solely R/O basis -- a need which is incidentally almost compleatly satisfied by web and FTP servers. Network filesystems: Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. That way lies the dark path of silent corruption, wasted work days, and midnight screaming sessions. > Workstations obviously are not reliable storage. Really? I've generally found my workstations to be more reliable than the servers that surround them. It is a shame that so little attention is paid to distributed backup tools, techniques, and strategies, and that instead the problem has been glossed over with the generic evaluation of "too difficult/expensive/uncontrollable". > Files you create are of interest to the people you report to, and > thus should be where appropriate managers can potential get access > to them. Sure. Management gets them when I consider that they are ready for the world to see, as defined by the fact that I submit them, check the code into a shared repository, post them to the file server, etc. Until that point they are just slightly-less-than-random bit orderings, localised areas of reduced entropy. They are incompleat works whose import and value cannot be determined due to the simple fact that they are statements that haven't been uttered yet. When they're posted, they gain value and are admissable. === Date: Thu, 4 Jan 2001 23:10:56 -0800 From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> To: SVLUG@lists.svlug.org Subject: Re: [svlug] backup solutions? begin J C Lawrence quotation: > When I'm presented with such ultimata I tend to nod, smile > pleasantly, and continue my work on local disks or, if they're very > insistant, proceed to get another job. I expect those I work for to > trust my expertise, not to second guess me. [...] [...] Consulting treating you well? > <...delete rant about NFS being a virus...> Sorry, you seem to have read some post other than mine. > Really? I've generally found my workstations to be more reliable > than the servers that surround them. Find a competent company. And go troll someone else, by the way. === To: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> Subject: Re: [svlug] backup solutions? Date: Thu, 04 Jan 2001 23:23:59 -0800 From: J C Lawrence <claw@kanga.nu> On Thu, 4 Jan 2001 23:10:56 -0800 Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> wrote: > begin J C Lawrence quotation: >> When I'm presented with such ultimata I tend to nod, smile >> pleasantly, and continue my work on local disks or, if they're >> very insistant, proceed to get another job. I expect those I >> work for to trust my expertise, not to second guess me. [...] >> [...] > Consulting treating you well? Yup, tho I would follow (and recommend) the same line as a perm hire. >> <...delete rant about NFS being a virus...> > Sorry, you seem to have read some post other than mine. Nahh, I'm just carrying scars from prior NFS experiences, and get a bit twitchy sometimes. >> Really? I've generally found my workstations to be more reliable >> than the servers that surround them. > Find a competent company. Its not a question of competancy, but of change rates and loads and the resulting effects on _opportunities_ for failure. > And go troll someone else, by the way. You may wish to re-read my original post then as you seem to have not understood it. === Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 07:45:46 -0800 From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> To: SVLUG@lists.svlug.org Subject: Re: [svlug] backup solutions? begin J C Lawrence quotation: >> And go troll someone else, by the way. > > You may wish to re-read my original post then as you seem to have > not understood it. You know, J C, I wasn't going to say anything, but this is a rather ironic claim, giving that your entire tedious rant was based on attributing to me a position I do not hold and never stated. To wit, you seemed to attribute to me an assertion that employees should be informed they're not allowed to keep company-important work materials on their workstation hard drives. Wrong. That I did not say. I was questioning the entire rationale of a company backing up employees' workstation hard drives. Bad idea. Way, way too many problems when any company-significant work material can and should be on the fileservers where MIS can properly look after it. The implication was not that employees should not be _allowed_ to keep their stuff on their "desktop" boxes, but rather that they have no business coming crying to MIS about losing six months' work to an accidental deletion or local hard drive failure. Therefore, neither does it make sense for MIS to promise to back up those local hard drives. Now, frankly, those details should have been flippin' obvious, and our having this conversation has been a waste of your time and mine -- twice, each. Enough, sir. Please work out past traumas elsewhere, without highjacking my points for lengthly irrelevant digressions. ===