Retrospect

It's capable of local and network-based backups, supports virtually every kind of storage (from hard drives to floppies to CD-RW's to virtually every kind of tape drive and robot), and, in contrast with most other tools of its kind, has two very simple and easy to understand backup models: copy everything to tape, or just append what's changed since the last backup (this is known as an incremental backup). It's quite happy backing up Macs and Windows machines simultaneously.

Having shopped around over the years and sampled, almost literally, every other competing product on the market, from freebie throw-aways to $10,000 "storage solutions," I've found that this simple, quite cheap little program is an order of magnitude better than its next nearest competitor. When they support Linux my life as a sysadmin will be much, much easier.

My own experience with it is that it's extremely easy to use, well documented, well supported, and best of all, phenomenally stable. Having had some contact with the technical staff at the publisher, Dantz Development, I count them as rare in the commercial software world for their thorough approach to design and development, and their ability to produce quality code. If only the OS I ran the software on was this good. Five stars.

Take your chances on the battlefield.
It looks one way.
Marching forward.
Step for step.
Move for move.
Into the setting sun.
Building fences.
Only forward.
Into dusk.
Into dust.

Where does the past live if not in memory...

Does it even exist any longer...

Did it really even happen at all...

Perhaps, as the dog-faced boy bagging groceries at the market told you, there is only one day in life. "There is no yesterday and there is no tomorrow. There is only today."

You asked him to please be gentle with your eggs.

It all looks so much tastier in retrospect. Parties become more vibrant. Love affairs so much more passionate. Friends were more dependable. Chocolate was a lot chunkier. That person you turned down for sexual party favors in the back of your father's Ford Pinto was a lot less chunky. Lets get down on all fours and talk about hindsight. Objects in the rear view mirror become more presentable through the power of reflection. This is the nowhere zone. Everything is up for re-interpretation. Remember how Terry walked out on you after you became convinced this was The One, the big bang that would become your eternal flame? Nowadays you remember how Terry snored and rarely brushed those teeth.

Ah, to once again be young and in love.

Looking back is like flipping through the pages of a tear stained magazine and not remembering how the pages got that way. How many times are you the one who was wrong in the stories of past exploits you tell your new friends? Bringing the giant bong into Mrs. Potter's house when you were taking care of her cat wasn't your idea. Yes, it was a mistake, and you can laugh about it now, but these days the story shifts blame over to "those guys." The present is a fun time to play with the past, because "those guys" never have to take the stand. They don't really even have to have names. And no one ever has to know about the time you danced around naked listening to Madonna singing "Borderline" but the story is funny enough to assign it to another person. "You wouldn't believe what I caught my cousin doing once..." You are guilty and you know it, but the court is out of session and trapped forever in the past.

Your arms can only stay open for so long before they wither and drop to your side. The clouds of consciousness converge and you wake-up with a hangover tempered by sobriety. You pull aside the sheets and step into the new day. It begins again and there are more memories to catalog. More memories that look better in retrospect.

Take your chances with the road ahead.
It rolls forward ever onward.
Walk it until you're dead.
Step for step.
Move for move.
Tomorrow becomes today.
Ahead of memory.
The past stays where it is.
Ghosts can haunt you.
And they probably will.

Re"tro*spect (?), v. i. [L. retrospicere; retro back + specere, spectum, to look. See Spy, and cf. Expect.]

To look backward; hence, to affect or concern what is past.

It may be useful to retrospect to an early period. A. Hamilton.

© Webster 1913.

Re"tro*spect, n.

A looking back on things past; view or contemplation of the past.

Cowper.

We may introduce a song without retrospect to the old comedy. Landor.

© Webster 1913.