Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek

By, For and About Silverlight Developers

Back up your code!

In 1993 I was given this brilliant cartoon - and I'd love to find out who created it...

Best Personal/ Small Business Offsite Solution I've Found

While I have you, one of the better, less expensive solutions I've found for solving my own off-site backups (after struggling for years) is to use Carbonite, which works silently and effortlessly on files or folders in the background at a tiny fraction of the cost of most off-site services. The downside? They don't version your files. The solution? Have them back up your versioning database! It is amazingly easy to set up, to maintain, to use, and absurdly inexpensive ($50 for one year, unlimited data!)
[This opinion is my own, does not express that of anyone else, lest of all any of my employers or publishers, I have no affiliation with the people who make carbonite, your mileage may vary, contents are hot, void where prohibited, the superman underwear will not make you fly, do not use hot irons on clothing you are wearing)

Uncertainty

Finally, while I'm totally off topic, I have to offer this as told to me by my 12 year old daughter....

Werner Heisenberg is pulled over by the state police who demand his driver's license. The cop asks him "Do you know how fast you were going?"

 "No," says professor Heisenberg," but I know exactly where I am."

Posted: Mar 24 2008, 09:35 AM by jesseliberty | with 10 comment(s)
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Comments

BenHayat said:

Jesse, how do you feel having your source (or worst, client's source) being backed up somewhere else, where you don't who might be looking at it? The idea is great, but if I offer it as an option to a client, and they ask me this question, what should I say?

..Ben

# March 24, 2008 9:54 AM

wisecarver said:

We should drink Espresso over this one.

For years I've stuck to a practice of making two backups, internal and external, at all times.

On-line backups are are still something I don't trust, for many reasons.

Heck, I've still got 4.99GB free on my SkyDrive. ;-)

# March 24, 2008 10:47 AM

re: Back up your code! | My Geek Solutions said:

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# March 24, 2008 12:10 PM

jesseliberty said:

I never back up anyone else's code without their permission and Microsoft (for example) explicitly prohibits it. I have no problem backing up my own that way, however. I just find it hard to believe that stealing code is worth the incredibly obvious law suit. But you are right, I had intended to point out that one does want to make sure that the only thing you are backing up that way is code you own.

I actually back up in 4 places:

1. My stuff is backed up to a local 500 Gig hard drive and to Carbonite

2. Microsoft's stuff is on a totally isolated set of computers and is backed up to a totally isolated local backup drive and to Microsoft's highly protected servers

3. My work for O'Reilly is backed up to my own backup drive and to O'Reilly's servers

4. My historic work is saved off to CDs that are then stored off site in a protected trusted location with *** Cheyney.

:-)

# March 24, 2008 12:37 PM

lenpal said:

Hi folks,

I'm sure each software coding project has its own contracts and rules, and so (as in Jesse's Microsoft example above), it may not be legal for you to back up code written under contract using an online backup service like Carbonite.

Contracts and legality aside, though, Carbonite uses heavy encryption and security, including the option to manage your own private encryption key. If the worry is simply the one that Ben voiced above, at least in the case of Carbonite, there is no risk of someone else accessing your files - not even Carbonite staff, even if you opt to let Carbonite manage your encryption key.

Sincerely,

Len Pallazola

Manager, Customer Service Systems

Carbonite, Inc.

www.carbonite.com

# March 24, 2008 4:08 PM

wisecarver said:

Thanks for the notes Len. (Appreciate it.)

I had U.S. Federal legal problems with these concepts in the past and am still recovering.

(32-bit Encryption methods I created with Borland Delphi for Commercial Data backups.)

# March 24, 2008 4:31 PM

Frank La Vigne said:

# March 25, 2008 12:30 AM

jesseliberty said:

I particularly like that the editor for this blog software thinks the vp's first name is obscene. I would argue that it is his behavior, not his name, but that would be on my political blog, not here.

# March 25, 2008 5:54 AM

Dew Drop - March 25, 2008 | Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew said:

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# March 25, 2008 8:40 AM

AliRedSox said:

Hi Jesse,

Thanks for recommending Carbonite! To add to Len’s comment, another thing you might be pleased to know is that Carbonite does offer file versioning. We added this feature in our latest release 3.5. If you’re not sure if you’re running our latest version, double click the lock icon in your system tray to open the InfoCenter. Then click “about” in the column on the left. If you’re running anything other than 3.5, you can go to the Carbonite website and reinstall.

Of course, if you still want to maintain your own versioning database, that’s fine too. But I thought I’d let you know that we can save you the trouble by backing up versions for up to 90 days.

Sincerely,

Alison Mahoney

Marcom Specialist

Carbonite, Inc.

www.carbonite.com

# March 25, 2008 12:50 PM