skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
I'm becoming less and less comfortable with hard drives as long-term backup media. The other day I plugged in my external to back up some family photos, but the drive wasn't coming up and while I was investigating (this was Linux so it could have been any number of reasons) this faint noise was bugging the crap out of me. "What is that, a metronome?" It took a few minutes before the "oh shit" set in.

Time machine is nice because its nearly impossible to remember to do backups regularly (unless it's your job) and the backups are highly available, but really its more like an extended trash bin, not an archive. Storing your backups on-site is one thing, but keeping them plugged in and mounted is just asking for it.

Whatever happened to tapes? They're like comically expensive now. Another option is to copy your Time Machine out to S3 once a month. (Would probably take that long) but I don't know how you'd preserve the aliases / hard links.
Was meant to lighten the mood. I also said: "i am going to go cry now". I did not really do that. =D

But to be clear, yes, I agree, I am trying to make things that outlast my physical presence here on earth as well.
I love that the mother stays silent until everything is fully cooked. Can you imagine that? Coming to someone with a real concern, and they start just cooking stuff for half an hour, without saying a word. I would be like "wait, so are we eating dinner or what?..."
But that wasn't the message of the story, at least not how I read it. I thought it was very explicit near the end: "If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you." Then there were a few more grafs of meaningless platitudes, but that was really the point that I thought it was driving at.

It wasn't just that different things respond differently, it was that some things respond poorly and the beans respond well. But the metaphor only works if you accept the conclusions and don't try to examine it closer. For example, did either of the characters in the story taste the water? If the whole point is that the beans changed the character of the water, it does your metaphor a great disservice to ignore the fact that the carrots are going to change the flavor (admittedly it's not going to be as nice as the coffee, but it's the exact thing that the center of the parable hinges on).

As an example of what I think is a nicely constructed metaphor, look for the first metaphor in Book I of the Aeneid (too large to reproduce here, check out http://classics.mit.edu/Virgil/aeneid.1.i.html and search for "His finny coursers"). It comes in the scene where Poseidon is calming the seas of some rogue winds loosed by Aeolus, and compares him to a "grave and pious man" talking down a rioting crowd. The correspondence between the rioting crowd and the sea is intuitively clear, and the modern innovation of modeling crowd and traffic behavior with techniques from fluid dynamics serves to reinforce it. The image of calming the crowd with "sober words" lends insight into Poseidon's approach toward his domain. On a personal level it also invokes the story of Joshua Norton calming a San Francisco riot by reciting the Lord's Prayer in the street.

The point (which I've taken an awful long time to get to, I apologize) is that unclear and ambiguous metaphors tend in my experience to bely unclear thinking. When I can rewrite a story as I read it to have the opposite meaning as it was supposed to, it suggests to me that it was not written in the first place with a critical eye.
I can now see why Apple approved this app -- it's not that useful actually. The sound quality from a 3G-streamed song is a bit faint. What's worse, I never thought I'd feel so crippled having a music player that can't run as a bg process. I can't use Spotify and at the same time, for instance, read/write email or write this post. I'm sorry to say the Spotify iPhone app is not for me...
Argh. Got a premium subscription just so I could use this, installed it on an ipod touch, and it crashes as soon as I open it (no user input, just opening the app makes it crash).
Are Open-Source Cameras The Way Of The Future?
There's another part to this: enforce the patent, or lose it (in the same way that trademark must be enforced or lost).

This stops, say, Fraunhofer Gesselschaft from waiting years as the MP3 community developed using the code it uploaded to ISO with no license attached, then retrospectively demanding $15,000 for every encoding project. Or Unisys failng to enforce the LZW patent while GIF became a standard, then retroactively asking for payment.
I haven't used it myself, but I've heard good things about Backblaze. $5/month, you download a small piece of software that runs in the background and backs up your data to their servers.
I just checked Windows and OS X licenses and there is specific language disclaiming liability for damages. Apple's license in particular disclaims liability for loss of data, in explicit terms. So your state or country would need laws specifically dealing with this kind of thing. Anyone know of any such laws?
Here is a problem with the idea that you should stay in high school in order to learn how to socialize: How many geeks who finished high school learned how to socialize?

Learning happens when you are ready and interested. The fact that you are in the middle of a fierce competition for popularity and girls does not mean that you're going to learn a thing about it.
This is a good option for backups to the cloud:

http://tools.rackspacecloud.com/applications/jungle-disk/
Your blog is in my feed reader. It's awesome. My business parter has already contacted you, and you've already said yes. So thanks. ;)
Movie Studios See a Threat in Growth of Redbox
Check the OSX license, available at http://store.apple.com/Catalog/US/Images/MacOSX.htm. Excerpted:

YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT USE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO SATISFACTORY QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, ACCURACY AND EFFORT IS WITH YOU.

and

TO THE EXTENT NOT PROHIBITED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL APPLE BE LIABLE FOR...LOSS OF DATA.

and for good measure,

THE APPLE SOFTWARE IS NOT INTENDED FOR USE IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS, LIFE SUPPORT MACHINES OR OTHER EQUIPMENT IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE APPLE SOFTWARE COULD LEAD TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE.

Bottom line is that these licenses don't mean much anyway - they just make it slightly harder to sue someone, in the same way that those personal liability forms you sign before doing anything are just to scare you. In the absence of an explicit contract - as in Apple guarantees "this will not cause any data to be deleted" - they've got a very good case that while it's sad you lost your data, it's not their fault.

Paying for something may create more of an expectation, but does not (in and of itself) guarantee you anything or increase liability.
Good advice. Also, you can stay a 'child' as long as you like, even in college.
Hah I actually signed up for jungle disk after this happened.

I like it so far but I don't think it solves the alias/hardlink problem, so you'd just get one or two good snapshots before it got to be really expensive. The great feature of time machine (or rsync --link-dest) is that your snapshots share storage of unchanged files, and I don't know how to make S3 do that.
On my Time Machine preferences pane it says 'Notify after old backups are deleted'. I read this to imply if TM decided it needed a monstrous amount of extra storage and decided it needed to delete a lot (or all) of the old backups, there wouldn't be any notification until they were gone. I don't see any option to notify before deleting them; perhaps a confirm option there would have been useful?
http://faircompanies.com (sustainability stuff.)
I'll reply once and only once.

Mainly, you are taking my post way too seriously. Your counter points are all based on what I literally wrote.

Socialization: Never said anything about having sex or forcing the issue with girls. I said get a gf for the sake of experiencing getting a gf. So what? Obviously he does not have to if he does not want to. Taken too seriously.

College: I specifically said I did not go to college, so I don't know what model of mine you are referring to.

Maturity: Never said anything about the internet. Yes I know you intended to be witty. Never said anything about doing anything. My take on maturity is simple: You have to mature to be mature. Actually I think we are in agreement there, though I don't know why you assume we are not. Skipping a grade, nor does any other one action entail maturity. My advice is simply to enjoy the experience and slow down.

On self-help.
Agreed. I speak of self-help books because I've read them. There is a time for learning and a time for doing. Currently I very rarely read anything any more. All the books say the same thing, and I have learned not to search for answers, but rather simply to learn from tests. Learn and grow, learn and grow.

I hope i have clarified everything for everyone else reading. I am not really religious, but I like buddhism. Finally, my post wasn't a thesis!

Have fun.
Well, considering that their units are supposed to be something like 20%+ efficient... I think it should be pretty good?
Well first, don't apologize for a long but thought-out response. :)

Virgil is a great choice for examples of metaphors that are well done. Your example is a good one, no argument there. Is the metaphor in the parable as tight as one written by Virgil? Certainly not. Indeed the line you quoted from the parable is a poor stylistic choice; it ties the reader in too closely with literal interpretation. However the central question that needs to be asked when examining any metaphor is this: was it effective in communicating to the reader the central message? I argue in this case yes. When I read it, I didn't get tied up in the specifics of the food. My thought process was this: (1) Three objects placed in boiling water (2) Outcomes are all different (3) Some outcomes are good, some outcomes are bad (4) All the objects are food, why are the outcomes different? (5) The internal characteristics of the food led to different outcomes (6) Perhaps the internal characteristics of a human being could lead to different outcomes.

If the metaphor wasn't tight enough for your liking, that's ok! Personally, I don't have the same expectations from a piece on the internet and a piece by Virgil. The metaphor was good enough to get the job done for me, but I certainly wont argue with you if you refuse to accept it. :)

The main area where I disagree with you is when you say: When I can rewrite a story as I read it to have the opposite meaning as it was supposed to, it suggests to me that it was not written in the first place with a critical eye. My point is that your rewritten version actually means the same thing as the original. I don't think the story has anything to do with coffee beans in the literal sense. The writer could have used lobsters. ;)
>> Newly mounted external drives should be excluded from backup by default.

Hey! Let's solve a backup trimming problem by potentially never backing data up unless the user digs around in their preferences! This seems like a cure that's worse than the disease.
Well, the startup is called CloudFab. We haven't announced a whole lot, so all I'll give you is the link: http://www.cloudfab.com/ We're currently in super closed alpha, beta coming when it's ready. I'll be sure to post it here when the time is right.

Well, as for some of the really cool cutting edge stuff, just last week 3D Systems bought Desktop Factory, and they said that they're commited to keeping the sub-$5000 3D printer idea alive. We'll see how that goes. There's also
that whole 'print in stem cells' thing... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80DhBLEhdzk seems to be good, I'm on a computer without sound right now, but I think this is the one I saw.

In terms of where good stuff is... I read a _lot_ of RSS feeds. Check out my PostRank account: http://www.postrank.com/user/SteveKlabnik
There's a lot of good stuff in there, including the one replicatorblog mentioned in a sibling post to yours.
I don't think patents should apply to any product only to methods of creating products and internal practices.

The original point of patents were to get ideas into public knowledge. If you are selling a product it is public knowledge and we have no reason to offer a patent. If the idea isn't very novel it will be easily reverse engineered if it is novel then it won't be for some time.
Obligatory: IANAL

I knew that these disclaimers were in both licenses. However I think that the fact that Linux is given away for free and that OS X is a product makes a difference in the clause TO THE EXTENT NOT PROHIBITED BY LAW. I mean, you can't buy an Apple computer without OS X on it. Are they really allowed to disclaim all liability for everything? In my legally uneducated mind that seems unlikely.
Now you have me confused. People are watching videos on the Web, so they need 3GHz chips. Applications which require 3Ghz chips are not economical for use on the web and should be on the desktop. I think there's been some disconnect here, because it seems like a totally nonsensical discussion from my point of view.

Anyway, the definition of a "Web app" can be stretched quite a bit with special plugins. People are apparently satisfied to stick a plugin in the browser and call their desktop application a "Web app." The defining feature of these "Web apps" is that they do not require installation. A native-code plugin can make quite effective use of system resources.
Note to the O.P.

My post seemed to have implied that the main reason you should stay is social. I think that is mostly true, but I did not intend it to be in the sense of "learning social skills with your peers". I kind of don't know how to explain it.

What I mean is you are at a point in your life when people are in high school. So you should be in high school and enjoy it. The whole social aspect is simply because high school is social. If you are not the social type, hey no one is saying that is a sin. All I'm saying is, in some ways, are lives are longer then we think (even if it never seems like it) so we ought to just appreciate where we are now. The thing is I was so much like you. SO EAGER. And now when I look back, I realize that was a mistake.

So I think my advice is not so much "stay in school because its socially good", but how about "stay in school because there is no rush". In other words, no need to be so eager!
The whole hangup on the social aspect is very simply because I believe a large part of Happiness is derived from social experiences. Trust me, I'm not a social kind of guy, I do not have a facebook. But it is in that, that i am able to appreciate the value of humans as innately social beings.

You will accomplish all that you want, if you want it and keep at it.

Best of luck to you man. Stay in touch here at HN and we'll see how it works out!
When the backup drive get full Time Machine is going to delete the oldest backups, that's how it works. Using it for a permanent backup solution isn't too smart.

On my systems I also backup to a BackupPC system for longer term storage.
Craigslist works.

People who complain about it being a crappily designed site are missing the point. It gets information to people who need it.

See http://blog.topix.com/archives/000095.html
NY Times Considers Ethical Issues With Tech Writer David Pogue
The energy conversion efficiency is independent of the cost per watt. 20% is a pretty good figure but not at a cost of $3 per watt for example.
"where do you realistically expect someone without even a high-school diploma to get a great job?"

Netscape. ;-)
It's both. I upgraded to Snow Leopard, and I remounted external drives. In Leopard, there was an option to warn before deleting old backups. In SL that option has changed to "notify after deleting old backups." That plus deleting the external volumes from the exclude list was the nasty combination.
Just have two external hard drives. I have one at home I use daily, and then one I keep in my desk drawer at work I use weekly [1]. The chances of both failing at once are pretty unlikely. You could do the cloud, but I'm not comfortable having all my data in the could. If you have to use an external provider, use Rysnc [2] . They seem trustworthy [3].

[1] http://jwz.livejournal.com/801607.html

[2] http://rsync.net/

[3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=702247
While I see that you got a few people slightly irked, I really appreciate your input and time.

I think I understand what you're saying. However, my question is such: Can't you just switch out your senior year of high school for a year of college? Stay in college an extra year. If you were to do that, what would you be missing?

I do not think I'm rushing my life; I'm just trying to get the most that I can out of it. Is the social experience of college going to be that much different (worse? less educational?) than the social experience of high school?
In most jurisdictions, whenever you accept money for a product there are implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. Since TM is widely touted by Apple as one of the features of OS X they cannot disclaim the warranty that it does what it is supposed to do, namely, back up your data. What Apple has done is analogous to selling a fire extinguisher that actually sets your house on fire. You can't disclaim liability for something like that.
> Whatever happened to tapes?

<Begin rant>
Oh jeez. I worked at a company that made tape drives and you do not want to use tapes ever. They are the slowest, most unreliable thing imaginable. Especially now that they are making them more and more dense and the media is exposed to the elements (unlike a disk platter).

Yeah, they use more redundant ECC than disks but I still wouldn't trust them at all. I had definitely drunk the kool-aid for a while and happily used tape for data transfer and not just backup. I can't tell you how many times I got stuck with a bad tape hours away (physically) from the original data, frustrated beyond belief. I firmly believe most people don't even know just how many of their tapes are corrupted because they've never tried to restore except for the initial testing period and the occasional file or two.

Tape sucks. Tape is dead. Long live disks.
<end rant>

> Another option is to copy your Time Machine out to S3 once a month. (Would probably take that long) but I don't know how you'd preserve the aliases / hard links.

One of the interesting things about time machine is how it deals with network backups. It creates an HFS+ disk image on the remote machine and then mounts that and does the backup to it instead of directly to the remote volume. It uses the "sparse bundle" style disk image which partitions the disk image into a bunch of 8mb slices. So you could rsync those slices to S3 daily or monthly or whatever and not worry about the format details at all.
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The Arm-based netwinder I had some 10 years ago worked decently as a small web server. His point is really another one, though; about whether it would make sense for big server farms.
More on the ZFS situation http://storagemojo.com/2009/08/31/why-did-apple-drop-zfs/
(1) Are you planning on going to university?
a) most top (u.s.) universities look down upon graduating early. They'd prefer to see you really use up all your resources in your area and say, win siemens, start a non-profit, become a lobbyist, start a start-up than graduate early.
b) can you get into a (good) university right now?

(2) Finances. Do you currently rely on your parents' finances? Upon graduating high school, will this change? Would you have to pay for university yourself?

(3) Are you mature enough to be doin' what 18 year olds do when you're 17? I assume you're a dude (most folks here are), and dudes mature slower than girls do. There's a big difference between 17 and 18 (although not really a big difference between 22 and 23, or 40 and 41...)

(4) (small one) Having to explain to all your peers for the next 5 years that yes, you are younger than them and why. Not being able to drink in public legally for a year longer than all your friends.

Honestly, I don't know where you live, but I'd look into Other Enrichment opportunities before graduating early. I went to a state-run public boarding school for science and math in my junior year that was more like college than some colleges are.
Can you just take less classes senior year and work on a start-up? (I presume you're interested in those 'cause you're here...)
Are there good universities (or bad ones) in the area that you could take classes at?

All of those seem like much better options than graduating early and "starting life" earlier. "Starting life" always seems just around the corner when you finish yet another milestone, but I'm slowly becoming more aware of the fact that life starts now (not to get too philosophical).
They'll be protected by solar panels. Duh, what did you think "solar panels" did?
Ask on insert of external drive?
Is the end of the iconic classic-style iPod upon us?
> "Starting life" always seems just around the corner when you finish yet another milestone, but I'm slowly becoming more aware of the fact that life starts now (not to get too philosophical).

That's my main inspiration for trying this. Why waste time in high school?

Anyway, thanks for the response and the pointers as for what to consider. 1) is really the major one, as well as 2).

(I think I'm mature enough? Well, then again, who would say they weren't? And I do not drink, and do not plan to start.)

Thanks :)