This post is an open invitation for anyone who wants to offer advice, ideas, suggestions, etc… Y’all are smart cookies. Please help brainstorm my idea. I’m open to creative solutions… fill my comments with wisdom!
My laptop runs fine. It’ll die eventually. I set for myself the goal of doing more “digital hygene” / best practices on or around Christmas. Here’s my goal:
I want to replace my laptop before it matters.
Also, I want to do something smart. I know… crazy thinking! But here goes:
I want a total duplicate machine… not a backup of files but a whole damn machine ready to go.
Not backups. Not files. Not my RAID plugged into its UPS. Not the cloud. Not a handful of passwords. I want a physical thing that’s always on deck.
I want to be able to toss a smoking wrecked computer out the window and use an understudy device already prepared and readied for it’s moment in the sun. I want that to happen in less time than it takes to brew a pot of coffee. I’d feel very James Bond if it came together like that.
Can it be done?
I have options. My needs are small and I have a good laptop now, a solid handle on my files, and nothing’s cratered yet. I can buy stuff new and I have a pile of junk machines hanging around. I can resurrect any of them (if I was willing to spend the time).
The problem is I only use one machine daily. I have my data backed up six ways from Sunday but only one computer that’s my “go to” device. I have data here and data there and passwords and cloud this and backed up that. I can (probably) recover from a pickaxe suddenly hitting my laptop. (I think.) But recovery would be a PITA.
“Rebuilding” takes time. I’d need to acquire a new machine (possibly using some cobbled together interim machine to surf Amazon), load up software, change the stupid idiot settings the newly installed software will include (we’ve replaced “menu” with “ribbon” that has all the same features but in new places), load up information, re-enter my passwords into whatever password manager is running, upgrade iTunes (iTunes always needs to upgrade… I don’t even use the damn thing but it’s like the cockroach of software)… and so forth.
I estimate a total electric shitstorm would kill 20 man hours. There has got to be a better way.
I can overcome a truck’s flat tire in 15 minutes. How? By having a spare that’s just as good as the regular tire. Why not switch to spare computer just like a spare tire?
Laptops aren’t free but they’re cheaper than the old days. Plus there’s stuff that’s practically free like RaspberriPi or jamming Linux onto something. What’s in very short supply is my time. I’m stretched to the limit.
Given that I’m thinking of buying a new computational critter (got no idea what) in a few months, now’s the time to be clever. How do I set myself up with dual redundant machines that stay more or less up to date? (The machines don’t have to match perfectly… I just don’t want the 20 hour hassle of “start from blank” if one dies.)
Surprisingly, I find not much about this on the internet. Mostly it’s “store your shit on the cloud” and “restore from backup”. Neither is the same as “computer A shit the bed so I turned on computer B which was already waiting”. (Hell, depending on the solution, maybe computer B can already be ON. A small thing might burn almost no AC.)
I might even keep computer A for travel and computer B for stay at home?
All suggestions and ideas are welcome.
A.C.
P.S. I was “inspired” in this endeavor by Claire Wolfe who had “an unfortunate event”. She reflected on the difference between a hard drive full of files and a functioning whole cloth computer. She has a good point:
“A functional backup computer. Given my reliance on the computer to earn a living and communicate with the world, I should not only have had backups, but should have had a fully functional, frequently tested second computer with those backups on it, up-to-date and working.”