Church of Monthly Backup

As the excellent Gina of Lifehacker fame once wisely said, "While Macs may be less vulnerable to viruses and spyware than PC's, they're just as likely to get stolen or suffer from a hardware failure like a hard drive crash. When that happens, will it be a catastrophe, or just an inconvenience? It depends on whether or not - and how well - you back up your Mac."

Backing up is boring. And largely unnecessary. Until the ice dams in your gutter cause a stream of freezing water to slide down your library wall and render your computer null and void. (Insert your own situationally appropriate scary thoughts here.)

In recognition of the fact that not being sufficiently backed up is an avoidable hazard, and therefore one which whould not pass the "how would I explain it to Dad" test, my father and I have entered into a pact to ask each other, "So, how backed up are you?" at the end of each month.

So this? Is a picture of Silverkeeper in the midst of backing up my entire hard-drive to my external Fantom drive. Also known as "a good night's sleep." Thanks, Dad!

(Geek aspirants may want to read
the rest of what Gina had to say on the subject here.
There's a kind of hierarchy... first start with backing up by hand
the stuff you know you'd be hard-pressed to replace,
then think about automatting the process,
and about WHERE the backups should live.
Right now, if my house burned down, my Fantom drive would, too,
but hey, it's a start. And starting is huge, IMO.
Tune in later this weekend for photos from the 2008
FIRST Robotics Regionals!)