People need to learn the basics of working with a computer. I can't imagine working for years on an important project without any backup system whatsoever. Getting your computer stolen is only one of the tens of the possible scenarios of things that could happen.
> I can't imagine working for years on an important project without any backup system whatsoever.
I've "worked with computers" since I was a teenager, but for a long time I didn't make backups even though I knew it was something I should have been doing. It wasn't until I actually had a hard drive crash on me that I got backup religion.
I'm in the same boat (still am). I hardly ever back up my data.
My employer though, uses source control rigorously and makes deployment and usage of those tools dead easy. We also have folder redirection possible if you wanted to make your "My Documents" folder available (and backed up automatically) on the network. There's SharePoint too, but sometimes it's a PITA.
My hypothesis is this: Given OU Medicine's student computer requirements [1], I'm betting that these researchers just didn't have the patience or knowledge in integrating a Mac into their Windows-centric network.
> I'm in the same boat (still am). I hardly ever back up my data.
How much data are we talking about here? <10 Gigabytes? Solutions like Dropbox are just so simple for data in that range that you'd be crazy not to use them.
The only irreplaceable data I have is photos/videos of the family. It's getting to be about 10 GB - I've got two hard drives in my PC that I'm planning to mirror the data across. At the very least it'll save me from hard drive failure. Theft/acts of god are something I haven't planned for. I have thought about burning a bunch of DVDs (of just the photos) and storing them somewhere else (work/relatives/bank).
I use dropbox to sync passwords and some docs from work/home. I'd like to use dropbox (or something like carbonite) to back up the rest, but frankly I'm too cheap/lazy to go through with it.
10 GB is also small and cheap enough to buy a USB drive for and back it up on. It's what, $10 for a 16 gig thumbdrive or so? Afaik, they also have less concern about bit-rot than DVDs or CDs, not to mention the ease of use.
When you are up against human nature, no amount of learning can help you.
Of course, she knew about backing up, but who has the time to do it? After all, who wants to figure it out, install stuff, port stuff or even choose a service! Who has the time...
Such things really aren't a result of ignorance, but laziness. Yet again are we any different?
