Lifetime support?

[Chuck(G)]

I've made a warranty claim on a drain spade that broke in half (the blade, not the handle). The response was "we're not honoring the warranty because you're not using it correctly." Huh? I'm using it to dig a hole.

That isn't to say that all warranties are garbage. In my kitchen, there's a Moen "Hi arc" faucet from about 35 years ago. It developed a leak. That particular model has been long discontinued, but Moen Fedexed replacement valve cartridges no charge.

 

[g4ugm]

As we all know "the cloud" is just somebody else's computer. I would never trust someone else to preserve my data, especially not random startups like "Ganso" (who apparently vanished between the time that article was written and now...)

Yes, but so long as I have a copy, "some one elses computer" is the best place to put it. Trying to arrange that without "the cloud" used to be a pain. Hopefully its far enough away from my house so that flood, storm or pestilence doesn't affect it. If some on breaks in and steals my computer, or I leave it on a train or at Airport security its most likely still there.
When I buy a new computer or my SSD dies I link it to one drive and the data appears. Would you really tell a mobile phone user not to back their pictures and videos up to the cloud? How often do I see posts where people have lost pics and where a cloud backup would have saved them....

Really if I was looking for a backup location then cloud really is ideal. As a primary store, such as is used with say a Chrome Book, nope, but as secondary storage its great.

 

[Plasma]

Yes, but so long as I have a copy, "some one elses computer" is the best place to put it.

It's really not. I would never advise anyone to back up their photos to the cloud unless they put zero value on their privacy.

 

[g4ugm]

It's really not. I would never advise anyone to back up their photos to the cloud unless they put zero value on their privacy.

So how on earth do you back up photos taken on an iPhone? So many people posting on social media "I have lost my only pictures of my dead <insert close relative> after my phone was stolen". No way they have the skills to back yup to a PC even if they have one, which many don't these days. Really not put it on iCloud?

 

[Plasma]

If you can drive a car, you can plug in a USB cable. People are just lazy.

 

[jafir]

I don’t have any risqué photos on my phone, but I still don’t want my photos in the cloud, so I have iCloud turned off.

 

[Google]

You guys should read this article it pretty much explains why this is happening, it’s definitely a scam targeting less tech savvy Gen Z-ers Kind of like those “military grade” Facebook ads that targeted us (millennial’s) back in the 2010s.

These tips can help Gen Z avoid online financial scams

When you think of those most likely to get scammed online, what kind of person comes to mind?

www.reuters.com

spoke to a bank teller not to long ago that confirmed it all as well she recieves multiple calls each week from younger people about their accounts being broken into, It’s messed up.

 

[whartung]

Really if I was looking for a backup location then cloud really is ideal. As a primary store, such as is used with say a Chrome Book, nope, but as secondary storage its great.

I use Backblaze for my offsite backup. Time Machine is my local backup. I'm completely satisfied with it. I pay, like $70/yr or something. I think I'm up to about 2TBish being backed up.

I have my free DropBox. It's, like, 7GB of storage. It started as two, but they had a promotion of "if you use it, you can have it" to boost it up another 5GB several years ago, I wrote a script to fill it up. I've had this for over 10 years. I've got 11-12 year old files on my free DB instance.

I have a lifetime service plan on my car. It covers pretty much anything that's not a wear item. My car is 10 years old this year, 95K miles. Whenever they decided to cut me off, then I'll consider selling the car. I'm guessing when the cost of the repair is greater than the value of the vehicle, they'll balk. But the service person at the dealership has seen them honoring the plan on cars with 200K+ miles.

It's at the shop getting a new power steering pump and some suspension bits as we speak.

The key point about lifetime things is that all lifetimes are limited by something.

However, speaking of "lifetime", there's this anecdote about Listerine, the mouthwash.

Inspired by Lister, Lawrence came up with a compound of alcohol and essential oils that seemed to kill whatever bugs it touched. To honor Lister (and presumably to take advantage of his fame), Lawrence named the concoction “Listerine.”

He tried to sell it to dentists but wasn’t getting traction. In 1881, he ran into a local pharmacist, Jordan Lambert, who acquired the secret formula in return for royalties on future sales. Apparently not fully thinking through what “future” meant, Lambert signed a contract that guaranteed payment to Lawrence (and his heirs and successors) $20 for each 144 bottles sold. The contract consisted of two sentences with a total of 127 words.

1881. This contract is still valid. After 70 years, the company tried to get it canceled, but after a court case, the courts said "No.". The company that makes Listerine is still paying out this royalty to Lawrences heirs, 142 years later.

 

[tradde]

I'd never consider using the "cloud" for anything. I back up my pictures to my NAS which backs up several times a week to a local USB hard drive.

 

[DougM]

https://www.ridgid.com/us/en/full-lifetime-warranty

How Long Coverage Lasts

This warranty lasts for the lifetime of the RIDGID tool. Warranty coverage ends when the product becomes unusable for reasons other than defects in workmanship or material.

Sounds reasonable to me.

I *almost* fell for that. Then I read the fine print, and when the tool breaks you have to send it back to them to repair (on your own dime). You can't just pop down to the local hardware store, hand it in and get an instant replacement.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

And I suspect that Dyson's "digital motor" isn't really digital.

( Although, strictly speaking, aren't all motors digital? They are either on or off. )

... I would usually say that most of what Dyson says or does is highly suspect (I have one of their vacuum cleaners and have… “opinions" about it), but if you go down the rabbit hole looking for what Dyson's "digital motor" actually is (a "Switched Reluctance Motor") I guess I have to give it to them, the name is… reasonably descriptive? It certainly wouldn’t work without a computer, at least.

 

[mark0x01]

It is marketing reasoning not technical, so for motors, I suppose if it is brushless and "digitally" or electronically driven it might pass as a digital motor.

 

[whartung]

I'd never consider using the "cloud" for anything. I back up my pictures to my NAS which backs up several times a week to a local USB hard drive.

This is a house fire or flood waiting to happen. At least cycle the hard drives, and stash one in the glove compartment of your car, or take it to work, or a friends house and stash it there.

I use BackBlaze because it's painless.

 

[Chuck(G)]

In addition to backing up my systems to a like-configured system every month, I keep a SSD backup right in my daily driver which gets connected (USB) and refreshed with whatever I'm working on weekly. It's saved my bacon a couple of times. In the former case, if my DD goes down for some reason, I can continue with the backup system by moving my chair.
As mentioned, I use the cloud for distribution, but not for backup.
I wasn't so religious about backups earlier, so my on-line backups only go as far back as 1988. Off-line ones are a bit spotty, but extend into the 1970s.

 

[tradde]

IEC has them, but but both of the cables just have edge connectors. Here and Here. You'll need an edge connector adapter to make it work with a gotek.

This is a house fire or flood waiting to happen. At least cycle the hard drives, and stash one in the glove compartment of your car, or take it to work, or a friends house and stash it there.

I use BackBlaze because it's painless.

If I have a house fire or flood I have much more to worry about than my pictures and data. I have nothing that I'd absolutely hate to lose. You can only back up to a certain degree that you can either afford or live with. Keeping data offsite sounds nice, but where would I send it? I don't have another location to set up another NAS. So I have to live with what I have. Your mileage may differ.

 

[g4ugm]

If you can drive a car, you can plug in a USB cable. People are just lazy.

Well yes, that is the modern way. I back lots up to OneDrive and my NAS. I have minor concerns about privacy, but then If you use an iPhone or Android you sighn your rights away when you sign up...

 

[krebizfan]

My idea of offsite data protection is a hard drive in a safety deposit box. Simple and it takes less time to drive to the bank than to upload all the necessary data to the cloud.

 

[g4ugm]

My idea of offsite data protection is a hard drive in a safety deposit box. Simple and it takes less time to drive to the bank than to upload all the necessary data to the cloud.

A few issues:-

1. I don't actually spend time uploading data to the cloud => my phone and PC upload the documents as needed. When I get a new phone they download. Just leave the phone/pc on.
2. Its getting hard to find a bank brank in the UK. They are closing them like no ones business

Here’s the full list of bank branches closing in the UK this year, from HSBC and Lloyds to Barclays and NatWest

Is your local branch on the list?

www.timeout.com

3. Renting a box is about three times the price I pay for cloud storage:-

Sizes & Prices

Safe Deposit Box Sizes and Prices, Our safety deposit box prices start from just £40, making them the best value safe deposit boxes in...

thesafedepositcentre.co.uk

So whilst it may offer better privacy your scheme is never up to date, requires be to drive and park somewhere where its impossible to park,...
... lastly does any one who promotes non-cloud backups actually carry them out? As I said, I see so many people on social media who lose unreplaceable photos and videos of beloved ones that would have been there had they ticked the backup to iCloud/Google Drive/Microsoft One Drive.
If they are on social media then why would they worry about the privacy of cloud backups, they already have said by their actions they don't care.

 

[whartung]

Keeping data offsite sounds nice, but where would I send it?

Well that's why I suggested the car. Grab the drive, shove it into a padded envelope, and toss it either in the glove box, or the trunk, or whatever. Save for the sun, cars aren't particularly hostile to electronics (I think modern cars have more CPUs and MCUs than most of the folks even on this forum), and it just lowers your risk. Maybe you live in Phoenix, or drive off road a lot, but most don't. Cars are pretty secure places.

Sure, if your car is in a garage attached to the house, the whole thing can go up in flames, but it's just that much more rare. Certainly easier than taking it to a safe deposit box, or anything like that.

I mean, even if you had a friend who you see twice a year, better than nothing.

Heck, get a cheap plastic box from Harbor Freight, filled with foam, put it in an anti-static bag, and throw it into a corner of your backyard. Box'll keep the elements out (dunno about the squirrels...). All sorts of ad hoc solutions.

Encrypt the thing, for heavens sake, even if it's stolen, who cares.

For me, it's mostly the photos. Lots of photos, lot of memories, they're on my phone, on my computer, up in BackBlaze. I don't use iCloud.

Still trying to get my wife's notebook synced to my machine so BackBlaze can hoover it up, right now she just uses Time Machine.

 

[Bentendo64]

A "lifetime" subscription like this sounds more like an archive than a backup. But it's probably more of a backup that will suddenly disappear one day than an archive.
History (even recent history) has proven one of the best archival mediums is paper. If you have photos you really don't want to lose, get them printed!

I personally don't like the idea of cloud storage, and make periodic backups on hard drives. More important documents get burned to a DVD or CD.