#back up your data!

[not-poignant]

Hi Pia.

I want to ask— do you backup your wips? How do you do it?

I know there are things like Cloud and Dropbox but those are practically at the mercy of big corporations and with ai scraping now being the norm it feels risky saving work with online backup.

Do you use a USB instead?

Unfortunately nothing is risk-free these days.

I once saved a story to three different USBs, all different brands, and they all corrupted. Not all at the same time, but they all eventually lost the data. This was over a period of ten years, but of course some people have been relying on USBs etc. for this long now. Same with CDs burnt with data (something we used to do before USBs were cheap).

In fact a new study shows that over half of all external hard drives and USBs over a certain age (I think around 5 years) are already corrupted and often not being checked enough to check if they're still containing/keeping the data necessary. (To say nothing of entire batches of like Seagate and other brands being notorious for literally just...losing data and corrupting at any point in time - which is an issue for actual hard drives within the computer as well).

USBs and external HDs aren't necessarily safer.

In general it's a good idea to back up in three places, though this still isn't enough to guarantee safety. Those three places should be: a) hard copy (i.e. USB or external hard-drive), b) cloud copy (i.e. Dropbox etc.), c) on the machine itself (if it's a desktop). You can sometimes do like, a + a + c or b + b + a etc.

It still doesn't guarantee preservation of data! I think that's the hardest thing about preserving data and back-ups overall.

I have an extra bonus 'back up' in that 99.5% of all my writing is already public. And that a lot of that writing has additionally been snapshotted into the Wayback Machine. If all my methods somehow corrupted or failed, I could literally copy/paste my stories from AO3 back into Word documents (in fact I've actually done this before because I frequently go back in and edit AO3 chapters for typos etc. but don't mirror those changes in the original documents, so sometimes if I want to update a story, I'll copy/paste the AO3 chapter and override the original document).

Anyway, I use Dropbox Business (cloud), hard external copy (though not as often as I should), desktop version, and then also the AO3 version. Dropbox Business has additional data recovery protections that general Dropbox accounts don't.

We are always at the mercy of big corporations, anon. Big corporations make USBs. They make faulty external hard-drives that we sometimes mistakenly trust. Like no, they're not scraping for AI the same way, but I no longer believe - unfortunately - that this is truly preventable. Short of going a grassroots Linux direction, which...I can't, lol.

(This is a reminder to all writers: Back-up your writing! The beginning of the year is a good time to remember to do it, if you're not doing it every 3 months).

(And also, check all your USB/external hard drives! And make sure they're not your only source for that content, because you would not believe how much they degrade over time.)

If I ever needed a 5th option, I host my own domain and have done so through the same company for over 10 years with very high fidelity, and I would just dump it all into a database there so I could pull it back if necessary. That's not ideal (it's probably the easiest way I could be hacked because I check into the cpanel the least often), but it's doable.

But yeah I've been Dropbox Business for a long time. I don't like everything about them, but I trust them a lot more than Microsoft OneDrive (which I refuse to use) and many other cloud networks.

As for AI scraping, since 99.5% of my stuff is on AO3, it's already been scraped, and it's delusional of me to think it hasn't been. I have already had the majority of my art scraped into Midjourney, so sadly I've reached a level of disgusted acceptance that the gormless unethical billionaires of the world will just do what they want. If it has an internet connection to it, it's probably been scraped or will be scraped and putting something on a USB isn't going to stop that, because it needs to come off a USB if I want to work on an ongoing story.

[ew-selfish-art]

DP x DC AU: Danny desperately wants to find the explosion guy. Tim is really good at covering his tracks... he didn't account for ghosts.

The explosions make it onto TV as purported terror activity and most people haven't heard of that part of the world much less ever given a second thought to care about it. The only real reason it gets reported on has something to do with the Justice League and... Danny knows too much.

He's been in training for Clockwork's court (which he's suspicious of- feels like kingly duty bullshit- but Danny is playing along out of curiosity for now) and he's learned a lot about how the living and non-living worlds collide. That means learning about CW's usual suspects- one of which just happened to have a ton of bases around the area Danny was seeing on the news.

It didn't take long for Danny to try to piece together that whoever blew up Nanda Parbat was trying to fuck with the League of Shadows, and was doing it successfully. Less green portals in the world the better, same goes for assassins. But it gets Danny thinking... Maybe he can employ similar tactics on the GIW Bases that keep spawning on the edges of Amity Park. It would at least set them back while he and his friends navigated the help line desk to request Justice League intervention. None of them can leave Amity Park, so outreach is going to have to be creative.

So Danny figures he'll just find the guy. Call up some ghosts who were there, or er, came from there and get a profile and track him down. But the ghosts keep saying it was The Detective. Annoying!

Danny goes full conspiracy theory, gets Tucker and Sam involved, and begrudgingly asks Wes Weston his thoughts.

He hadn't expected Wes to garble out a thirty minute presentation (that had 100 more slides left to go before he cut it off) about how Batman totally trained with a cult and so did his kids. Danny kind of rolled his eyes but... hey, new avenue of searching in the Infinite Realms at least.

The ghosts confirm that Bombs is for sure not Batman's MO- But maybe his second kid would know? The second kid was already brought back to life though, so no way to easily reach him... Danny starts to realize that this might be the work of a Robin now. Wasn't the red one known for solving cold cases? (Sam provides this information- its a social faux pas to not know hero gossip at Gotham Galas- everything she's learned is against her will).

It all comes to a head when Danny goes about the hard task of opening a portal for the guy to come through at just the right time, explain the infinite realms so he doesn't panic and then describe what the fuck was going on with the GIW. It takes months, just over a full year, of random (educated guesses) portal generating- Finally, Red Robin drops into the land of the dead.

"So, you're the guy I've got to talk to about explosions right?" Danny enthusiastically asks.

Tim thinks he's died and landed in the after life following 56 hours of being awake and plummeting off the side of a building into a Lazarus pool. Nothing makes sense about the kid in front of him.

"Yeah, I got a guy for munitions." Tim answers cooly.

"How do you feel about secretly sanctioned government operations that violate protected rights?"

"Gotta get rid of 'em some how. Need me to point you in the right direction?" This might as well be happening.

[idk-bruh-20]

Irondad fic ideas #139

NWH AU where Tony's been in a coma this whole time. He still is. But the world thinks he's dead.

One day, Rhodey is in some science place (maybe SI, maybe a community college where he was giving a speech?) and he sees this kid tinkering who looks exactly like Tony Stark. The teen Tony Stark from when he first met him at MIT. Even down to the mannerisms. He goes up and has a brief conversation with this stranger, just curious. Then he leaves.

Unbeknownst to the kid, Peter, Rhodey managed to grab something for a DNA test. The kid just looked too much like his best friend. Like seeing a ghost

When they analyze the DNA, they learn that this kid is in fact Tony's biological son

Rhodey goes back to find the kid, this time bringing Happy. Peter gets to have the super fun conversation where two people who should know him but don't tell him that the person he saw as a father was his actual father, only it's too late

They convince Peter to come with them eventually. And Peter gets the shock of his entire life

Over the next little while, at Tony's bedside, Peter gets to know Morgan (who he would've seen as a sister anyway but this is insane). He also gets reacquainted with Rhodey, Happy, and Pepper, who all admittedly find him a bit sus with how much he seems to know.

But...this is Tony's kid. His son. So they let him be there, let him talk to Tony and hold his hand. 

Finally, finally, Tony wakes up.

And it turns out, being in a coma and thought dead by the entire world, including wizards, makes one exempt from certain magic

Bonus:

As he sits by Tony's bedside, Peter has to grapple with a lot of emotions. One of them is the realization that he was never actually related to Uncle Ben, which makes him feel like his uncle and aunt died for nothing

Pepper helps him through it. Even not knowing him the way she once did, she knows plenty about guilt complexes and chosen family. She assures Peter that he's still a Parker, no matter what, and that his aunt and uncle wouldn't have given him up for the world

Another thing Peter deals with is the fear of Tony waking up and not knowing him. It breaks his heart just thinking about it.

Cue THE most relieving hurt/comfort reunion ever imagined

[qangelbluebird]

Creation = The Thing (from the tubhole?)

Primary Protector (Creator (not used but could be)) = Tubbo

Rank 1 Shell = Sunny

Guardian = Philza

Shell (in general) = Eggs

Pancake Shell = Empanada

The Mother of Pancake Shell = Bagi

Duck Shell = Chayanne

Trauma Shell = Tallulah

[therentyoupay]

Hello, Kris! I think I might’ve already gotten the gist of it, but it’s been some time. What exactly IS Academia Mode? Are you still in school, or is this your actual job, and it just happens to be involved in the education system?

Many thanks!

hahah no worries!!! that is a good question 🤣😭😭🙏 for me, academia mode is currently finishing the 5th and final year of my doctoral program and includes (but is not limited to lol):

data collection, analysis, write-ups

writing python programs to support my data cleaning, data coding, stats, and data analysis/visualizations

applying for GRANT MONEYYYY

submitting abstract proposals to conferences (and applying for MORE GRANT MONEYYYY)

reporting research findings (writing journal article manuscripts, preparing conference slides)

writing my actual dissertation manuscript lol

supporting and instructing my research assistants

sharing my research with mainstream public audiences

writing my non-fiction book based on my ongoing dissertation research

teaching classes, grading papers, holding office hours, fielding emails, writing letters of recommendation for all sorts of students' fellowships/grad admissions/grant applications, teaching students how to strategize their personal statements, grant purpose letters, and other aspects of apps, etc.

peer-reviewing others' journal manuscripts, providing feedback to colleagues (blind review or not)

assisting with my advisor's research and textbook manuscripts (proofreading, copy-editing, internet sleuthing, finding more up-to-date citations, occasionally writing rough drafts)

writing chapters for edited volumes on various topics

READING. all the time. reading new literature and research articles constantly. ALL THE TIME. writing 1-pagers and mini-annotated bibs for future lit review use, etc.

WRITING. all the time. professional-speak, academic-speak, insructor-speak.

getting paid to travel to conferences to present my research (GRANT MONEYYYYYY)

by may 2025, i'll be a Ph.D.!!!!!! [screams]

academia mode! ✨🤣🤣🤣😭🤣💕 every day, i think about how lucky i am that i get paid to do what i do 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 hope you are having a magnificent day, and thank you for the ask!!

[thepioden]

I started a new medication for narcolepsy which is working really well and today I was able to:

1. Maintain a level of cope when my secondary HDD began to fail and my PC wouldn't boot

2. Unplug and mess around in the guts of my PC several times

3. Diagnose the issue, drive several miles to Best Buy, and pick up a new SSD and SATA/USB adapter

4. Pull out the old drive, realize it's a 3.5 inch, and do some Dire Chicanery with the slightly too short cables to get them to reach the 2.5 inch drive bay so I could install the new drive

5. Continue high Cope levels when the SATA adapter cable was for 2.5 inch only and doesn't provide enough power to spin up a 3.5 inch drive

6. Order a powered 3.5 inch SATA adapter to hopefully recover my data.

Two weeks ago, I would have made it, ehhhhh, halfway through 2 before collapsing in fatigue and despair and just laying on the floor morosely. My PC would languish, unused, for weeks or months.

Anyway it's fucking bonkers what people without chronic illness can get done in a day. Damn, y'all live like this?

[artseniccatnip]

hey guys did you know that uh

you should back up your data??? especially if you’re an artist? Please do this. please do it for me, remember me as i was

[kuromi-hoemie]

feels so good being the person in charge of deciding whether our organization will use AI or not. I'm going to write an argument so strong... no we will not waste an ounce of our time and energy on what's essentially a bubble the IT industry Really wants to try forcing on people and is betting on/wanting so badly for it to take off. The real gut punch is at some point I'm going to compare it to NFTs lol

[rouge-the-bat]

[druidgroves]

bit the bullet & updated my game & i'm pretty sure i lost my saves :)))

[icewindandboringhorror]

Everytime I face a new character limit on a website that didn't have them before/used to have really long ones... AUGHHhhh the modern social media world was not made for people like me (lovers of details, rambling, elaboration, thorough explanation, and nuance)

[btsbs]

I can’t believe Hybe trolling the internet for fan fic is a real thing that happened

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

55-75 dollars an hour for being a therapist? And all this time I’ve been giving services to adults for free since I was 10.

[mantisgodsdomain]

We think the very unintended manner in which we are experiencing BG3 (datamining the game and then reading all of the dialogue by manually going through the game files and reading the text) may be altering our impressions of the game slightly. If we ever release most of this shit we are probably going to need to stick a "disclaimer: author of this fanfiction mostly experienced this game via datamining, and may not be an accurate source on things like maps, because the wizard's computer cannot run BG3" on there. Unrelatedly, if any of you Tumblr users out there who are capable of running BG3 happen to be willing to hop on call with us and do nothing but take a freecam around the scenery for a while, we're open.

[deltastorm101]

infamous end-of-year-cleanup has begun babes

[dreaminginmysoup]

Sorry but yall are gonna have to pry me out of this place