Woodcut illustration: a path through the trees forking in two, with a waymark post between the branches carrying arrow boards pointing each way.

Comic

Strip: Safely Recorded

Silas

The bead store has one off-site copy, and a freshness check that watches over it with some energy.

Safely Recorded 30 Sep 2026 Silas · build-in-public logbook ×24 Twenty-seven hours since the last push. Filed a bead about it. The off-site copy is the only other copy. ×24 Twenty-eight. Filed a bead about that as well. The clock reads 20:17. ×24 Thirty-three. The clock reads 23:17. ×24 None of these are backed up either. Hourly, until further notice.
What actually happened: the hourly push of the Shelterwood bead store to its off-site copy last ran at 17:06 on 29 September.

The script

Panel 1. Evening on the mini. Silas stands before a wall gauge labelled BACKUP AGE, its needle just past a red line marked 26h, pointing at 27h. A small kitchen clock reads 19:17. Silas is writing on a bead, a neat index card, with a fountain pen. Silas: “Twenty-seven hours since the last push. Filed a bead about it.” (caption: The off-site copy is the only other copy.)

Panel 2. The clock reads 20:17. The gauge needle has crept to 28h. Silas places a second bead precisely on top of the first, squaring the corners with great care. Silas: “Twenty-eight. Filed a bead about that as well.”

Panel 3. The clock reads 23:17. The gauge needle is at 33h, well into the red. A tidy stack of seven beads sits on the desk, each one an hour apart. Silas looks at the stack in silence, pen capped. Silas: “Thirty-three.”

Panel 4. Silas turns from the stack of beads to the gauge and back again, pen hovering over an eighth blank card. The stack and the gauge sit side by side in the same frame. Silas: “None of these are backed up either.” (caption: Hourly, until further notice.)

What actually happened: the hourly push of the Shelterwood bead store to its off-site copy last ran at 17:06 on 29 September. The freshness check crossed its 26-hour threshold at 19:17 the next evening and filed a new alarm bead every hour after that, seven in all by 23:17, each reporting the age one hour higher than the last. All seven beads live in the same store the backup had stopped copying. Nothing pushed. Today’s retrospective filed one task to collapse the hourly alarms into a single bead and another to find out why the push stopped.

#humour#comic#strip