Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> They want to keep every monthly backup forever. The other tapes get 
> rotated for a year, and then the whole lot get "archived". So we have 
> full backups from each month, and then a load of differential backups 
> from the last few days of the year. Like, WTF?

So ask them when they'd expect to use those tapes. Maybe there's some 
regulatory or accounting mechanism that requires them to be saved. Point 
out where files that were changed in October won't be saved on either 
the Jan or Dec tapes. Ask them under what situations they'd expect to 
use the differential tapes.

>>> I suggested MD5 hashes or something would be a good idea. I even 
>>> suggested a procedure for using 'em...
>>
>> What's wrong with "comp"?
> 
> Does that exist on Windoze?

It exists in DOS 1.0 and everything after it.

> particular scenario, a basic file compare would be fine. (We would 
> probably have to formally test the correctness of the compare program 
> though!)

You could probably do that if you wrote it in Haskell. ;-)

> The chart *is* a calendar - but it shows only 1 son tape, 1 father tape, 
> and 1 grandfather tape, which makes no sense at all. But then, none of 
> the parts are labelled, so you have to take guesses at what it's saying...

Ask to clarify. Or guess, and ask them to confirm.

Not that it helps. I once spent a couple weeks and did 30 pages of UI 
design, showed it to the person in charge, had her initial each page as 
being right, and when the program was all done, she comes back with "OK, 
now let's work out what the screens should look like."  Hey, b___h, if I 
hadn't hardcoded the screens, I wouldn't be asking you to read them, now 
would I?  (And yes, everyone thought she was a b___h, but she was 
sleeping with the CEO, so...)

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

Post a reply to this message