• Hit the Quicksilver key combo (I use ctrl-space)
• Hit the . (period) key to go into text-entry mode
• Type your message… for example, “Stand up and stretch”.
• Hit tab, then ctrl-return to ‘freeze’ the message.
• Start typing ‘Run after Delay…’ (after the first 4-5 letters it should show up in the lower QS pane).
• Once Run after Delay is shown, hit tab (a third ‘lower pane’ in QS should now appear).
• Type the time interval. (10m = 10 minutes, 2h = 2 hours, 30s = 30 seconds, you get the picture)

Now, after the time interval has elapsed, you’ll get a big full-screen message reminding yourself of whatever it was you needed to do. It may seem like a lot of keystrokes, but it’s actually VERY fast once you get used to, and incredibly handy for setting a regular stretch/exercise if you spend a lot of time at the keyboard, or just reminding yourself of random daily tasks lest you lose track of time. I regularly use this trick as a ’surf timer’, to limit my random web surfing to a specific timespan, but the more you get used to it the more uses you’ll find for it. I’ve been using it a lot lately for ‘check on the baby’ reminders, for what it’s worth.

Enjoy, and happy Quicksilvering!

So from there, I checked out a bunch of online backup solutions – iBackup, xDrive and Mozy- but Mac support was minimal if even present. In the 5-6 months afterwards, I’ve basically been flying blind. I switched my video/image asset management backup to redundant hard drives (one of which goes with me to work each week, swapping for the other – so that I can keep one away from my house in event of fire), but really still ached for something lightweight to backup the key day-to-day workfiles and config settings.

Thank god Mozy finally released a Mac OSX client to beta. I decided to pony up and try a year (at ~$5 a month), and the setup/kickoff process was pretty painless. Just a small menubar app that runs to give you status and allow you to view the log and kick off new backups. A 448-bit encryption scheme allows some peace of mind that my files will stay my files, too. And although it took a couple days of ‘trickle transfers’ to upload all my initial backup data, now it transfers perhaps a few megs a day at worst when I’m not active on the computer (hence not sucking up bandwidth when I want it the most). Very painless and unobtrusive system, and despite being a beta release, I’ve had nary a crash or hitch so far.

Read more about the Mozy service (Mac and Windows) here.

Now I know 2 weeks isn’t a long time to test and gain confidence in a new backup solution, but last night I encountered my first filesystem emergency that required restoring some files from the online Mozy backup. I choked and mistakenly deleted a directory in my Documents area – bonehead error in retrospect but one that does occasionally happen. Restoration was a breeze- just went online, clicked the files I wanted to restore, kicked off the process – and there they were. Like I never brainfarted and deleted the files at all.

Mozy- you’ve officially done me right.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for in a lightweight backup solution!