Aaron Adams’s Blowhard Blog

Here’s a conversation I just had. Keep in mind that Josh is semi computer literate, but not a techie. I would describe him as a “typical user”.

Josh: How does this new thing, Time whatever [Time Machine] work?

Me: It makes a copy of files you delete so you can get them back.

Josh: Where does it write the copy to?

Me: Another drive.

Josh: What other drive? I have a notebook.

Me: One you plug in.

Josh: I delete a lot of files to make room on drives. Why do I want to use more drive space with the files I’ve deleted?

Me: <pausing to formulate a good answer>

Josh: Never mind. I’m going to bed.

In just a few sentences, major shortcomings in the usefulness of Time Machine was pointed out by a “typical user”, and he succeeded to make the issue of automated backups slightly more complex than the presumption of backup and restore. Just wait until users who are more clueless start to wrap their minds around Time Machine. Oh boy.