One of the biggest solo projects I’ve ever completed is Ef, my custom data backup system. I’ve written about data loss before, but that post glazed over the software I actually use to create backups. Up until a year ago, I used duplicity to back up my data. I still think duplicity is an excellent piece of software. Custom backup software had been on my to-do list for years, but I kept postponing the project because of how good my existing solution was already. I didn’t feel confident that I could produce something just as sophisticated and reliable on my own. But as time passed, I decided that until I dropped third-party solutions and wrote my own backup system, I’d never fully understand the inner workings of this critical piece of my personal infrastructure. So last June, I started writing… more →