You are right to be cautious. That's something I learned in 25 years as a systems programmer. Whenever our company carried out surveys of staff attitudes we always came out low on enterprise and gung-ho. Which some managers didn't like, but I just asked them if they would prefer devil-may-care systems programmers?
So we planned what we would do if/when it went wrong. And what we would do when that went wrong. Which meant it very rarely did go wrong, even when we transferred an entire megacomputer* system from Bletchley to Rochdale in the middle of a blizzard.
So plan what you will do if you get the black screen of death. Then talk it over with a fully-trained pessimist. If your route back is sound, go ahead.
*Actually it seemed mega then. Your desktop is probably more powerful now.
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Date: 2008-08-06 08:29 am (UTC)So we planned what we would do if/when it went wrong. And what we would do when that went wrong. Which meant it very rarely did go wrong, even when we transferred an entire megacomputer* system from Bletchley to Rochdale in the middle of a blizzard.
So plan what you will do if you get the black screen of death. Then talk it over with a fully-trained pessimist. If your route back is sound, go ahead.
*Actually it seemed mega then. Your desktop is probably more powerful now.