{"id":141,"date":"2007-05-19T13:59:54","date_gmt":"2007-05-19T13:59:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/2007\/05\/19\/making-other-arrangements-for-backing-up-data\/"},"modified":"2014-05-20T09:12:06","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T08:12:06","slug":"making-other-arrangements-for-backing-up-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cyberelk.net\/tim\/2007\/05\/19\/making-other-arrangements-for-backing-up-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Making other arrangements for backing-up data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago I read the article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.orionmagazine.org\/index.php\/articles\/article\/7\/\">Making Other Arrangements<\/a> by James Howard Kunstler, and I suppose that might have been the catalyst for my decision to change the way I make back-up copies of my data.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I first started having automated back-ups after losing all the data I wanted to keep: I suppose that&#8217;s the way of things.  Since that time I have made sure to keep daily back-ups.  The method of storage has changed over the years, but the timing has (until recently) remained the same.  Rather than have the computer working away at compressing data while I was actually trying to use it, I would have it done overnight.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the computer was already on through the night, downloading bits and pieces of free software from mirror sites.  And anyway, it meant I got to boast about how long the computer had been running (yes, there really was a time when I thought like that, and I&#8217;m sure that some other people still do).<\/p>\n<p>It was the noise that made me first decide to switch it off at night.  The house is so much more peaceful without a computer whirring away.  I changed the back-up so that it ran in the evening, and finished by the time I went to bed.  As for fetching software updates from mirror sites: well, that can be done during the day.  It&#8217;s not really any hardship.<\/p>\n<p>Recently my &#8220;other arrangements&#8221; have gone further still.  The back-up runs just as I am finishing work, so there is technically no need for the computer to be on at all in the evening.<\/p>\n<p>It dawned on me as well that it was taking too long to run the back-up because I was compressing the data too much.  It didn&#8217;t need to be compressed with the slow-but-effective bzip2 utility, so I switched to using the fast-but-good-enough gzip, and even used the &#8220;fast&#8221; option so it knew not to spend too long trying to squeeze extra bytes out.   The longer the compression takes, the more energy is used to do it.<\/p>\n<p>I have a SqueezeBox for playing music, so I do need the computer on for that, but I can switch it on and off as necessary.  In fact, I can even switch the machine off while I have lunch, even if I&#8217;m in the middle of something.  It&#8217;s as easy as selecting System \u25b8 Shutdown and clicking on Hibernate &#8212; it suspends to disk, so that next time I switch it on I get right back to where I left off.<\/p>\n<p>Now why didn&#8217;t I ever try that out before?<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the point of all this is that it didn&#8217;t take much effort at all to use a lot less electricity.  All it really took was for me to become more aware, and change from &#8220;I need the computer on all the time&#8221; to &#8220;Do I really need the computer on right now?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few months ago I read the article Making Other Arrangements by James Howard Kunstler, and I suppose that might have been the catalyst for my decision to change the way I make back-up copies of my data.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thoughts"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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