The worst thing ever written of all time (Ph.D Student Loses Laptop, Thesis)

[Phokus]

Holy shit... what is with people who don't use online cloud backup services. Shit, for something that important, i'd use TWO online backup services.

Needed a better title; people couldn't find this thread
-ViRGE

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I don't really understand why this is everywhere on the net suddenly and why anyone cares.

People are stupid.

 

[Greenman]

My guess is he's not going to be getting that advanced degree after all...

 

[Pardus]

PhD with no street smarts. cloud storage, flash drive, etc would have worked.

 

[2timer]

Holy shit... what is with people who don't use online cloud backup services. Shit, for something that important, i'd use TWO online backup services.

How in the world does this qualify as the "worst thing ever written" when he just wants to retrieve his stolen hard work and get credit for it?

You sitting there and smugly judging people who don't use cloud backups just makes you a huge douche bag.

 

[mmntech]

Depends how you categorize "worst thing ever written". It's not Mein Kampf, the Bible, or The Communist Manifesto bad.

Guy's dumb for not having a backup of something that important. No wonder it's written like it was authored by a panicked monkey.

 

[Slew Foot]

I still say the bible is worse.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Most over-stated thread title ever written.

(EDIT, forgot to add) ...of all time.

 

[mjrpes3]

I feel bad for the guy.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Holy shit... what is with people who don't use online cloud backup services. Shit, for something that important, i'd use TWO online backup services.

imma say hes getting what he deserved as well for being stupid enough to not make a back up, so no sympathy here...

 

[Mixolydian]

PhD with no street smarts.

:thumbsup:

 

[grrl]

I'm not fully convinced. It could be a ploy to try to catch the thief. Plus, that Lenovo was first built in 2011. Are we to assume he transferred the data from an older machine but never kept a backup?

 

[colonelciller]

I'm not fully convinced. It could be a ploy to try to catch the thief. Plus, that Lenovo was first built in 2011. Are we to assume he transferred the data from an older machine but never kept a backup?

many people write their thesis in the last 6 months to 1 year. often all the good data flows in in the last year a well... at least this is often the case in the life sciences

 

[colonelciller]

Holy shit... what is with people who don't use online cloud backup services. Shit, for something that important, i'd use TWO online backup services.

how about never using insecure-by-design "cloud" backup "spy on your data and give it to anyone who asks for it" services and instead copy the backup onto a USB memory stick? for bonus points make a duplicate copy onto a second memory stick and stash it in your desk at the lab.

 

[mistercrabby]

I'm not fully convinced. It could be a ploy to try to catch the thief. Plus, that Lenovo was first built in 2011. Are we to assume he transferred the data from an older machine but never kept a backup?

^^^

 

[blankslate]

You sure it's not...

Any Twilight Book?

or

that soccer mom pr0n 50 Shades?

 

[Sulaco]

Holy shit... what is with people who don't use online cloud backup services. Shit, for something that important, i'd use TWO online backup services.

Worst thing written of all time?

So...you haven't read any Juror No. 8 or Prod1gy posts I take it?

 

[D1gger]

When my kids started university, I ensured they understood to backup all of the school work. So many laptops disappear or simply stop working from being dropped etc. that it should be well understood that there has to be a backup.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Holy shit... what is with people who don't use online cloud backup services. Shit, for something that important, i'd use TWO online backup services.

Damn.

Yeah. Backup, backup, backup.

Nice taste in laptops though.

 

[ZaneNBK]

how about never using insecure-by-design "cloud" backup "spy on your data and give it to anyone who asks for it" services and instead copy the backup onto a USB memory stick? for bonus points make a duplicate copy onto a second memory stick and stash it in your desk at the lab.

Any good cloud backup service encrypts your data on your machine using strong encryption and a passphrase you've chosen and is transmitted to the servers in that state. The better ones allow you to provide your own key for the encryption as well. They never have the ability to examine your data let alone give it to someone else.

Just to list a few backup services that encrypt before transmission:

Mozy.com
Carbonite.com
Blackblaze.com

 

[Blackjack200]

Pretty good password strength...

 

[Codewiz]

Happens all the time. I worked in IT for my college when I was in school. I can't tell you how many PhD students had hard drives crash that came asking us for help.

None could afford expensive data recovery services. We would do low tech things like putting the drive in the freezer then try to pull data off.

In one really desperate case, the drive wasn't clicking, it just wasn't being recognized at all. We had access to a clean room so we tried a platter swap with a known good hard drive that was the exact same model and firmware version. Didn't work......

 

[Mixolydian]

I can't tell you how many PhD students had hard drives crash that came asking us for help.

A PhD should be able to figure it out.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Not even close.

To be honest, your thread title needs work.

 

[Kaido]

Reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhp_20j0Ys