Prototype Yodabox::A

Almost no questions asked
- most of the choices are determined automatically
- reasonable default values will be proposed
Completely unobtrusive
- makes itself visible only if something is wrong
- conservative use of system resources such as bandwidth, CPU cycles or RAM
As automated as possible
Simple
- rely on third party tools for scheduling, synchronization, compression, integrity checks, encryption, etc
- sacrifice uber-flexibility; pretty not bad backups are better than no backups at all
Reliable
- handle edge cases well
- if failure is the only option, fail gracefully
Proactive - predict failure before it occurs
- warn that there might be no space for the next backup
- increase the postpone delay if there were several postpones already
- check if the target device is available
Clear and humane - when something doesn't go well, make it clear what exactly is wrong
- which files were not copied, why it happened
- do so without using tech-slang

People will be willing to buy an external storage device large enough to hold their data, as long as they can be certain that data are safe
- for a regular person, it is cheaper to buy a bigger hard disk than to think about delta backups
An Internet connection is available
- It may not be very fast
- But people are willing to wait, as long as:
  - it is clear how long they have to wait
  - it is guaranteed that when the process is finished the data are safe

Backups on CD/DVD - because finding something on a disc is very difficult
- People prefer a one backup to rule them all approach, rather than
- having try multiple discs before stumbling upon the right one
  - or consulting an index in order to find where the file is supposed to be (assume that the index will always be lost)
- Large files that span across several discs are difficult to handle and involve additional complexity

a file is locked by a process
- wait, try later
- stop the process in a polite way
- kill the process of all else fails
target disk not connected
low free space
network connection down
abort the backup process in case of emergency
- misalignment of planets
- power outage
- battery on laptop is about to die

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