[OS X TeX] backing up /usr (and MacTeX)

[Joseph C. Slater PE, PhD]

On Jan 30, 2009, at 12:53 PM, George Gratzer wrote:

> 1. I bought Intego Backup, and through it away. Replaced it with  
> Data Backup from Prosoft, very good. If you buy the backup book from  
> Tidbit, you get Data Backup half price.
>
> 2. Compare FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, and you will realize why Apple  
> is no longer interested. Most new movie cameras use USB 2.0. And USB  
> 3.0 is so much more powerful, coming soon.
>

I did, and still don't understand. From wikipedia:

"Although high-speed USB 2.0 nominally runs at a higher signaling rate  
(480 Mbit/s) than FireWire 400, data transfers over S400 FireWire  
interfaces generally outperform similar transfers over USB 2.0  
interfaces. Typical USB PC-hosts rarely exceed sustained transfers of  
280 Mbit/s, with 240 Mbit/s being more typical. This is likely due to  
USB's reliance on the host-processor to manage low-level USB protocol,  
whereas FireWire delegates the same tasks to the interface hardware.  
For example, the FireWire host interface supports memory-mapped  
devices, which allows high-level protocols to run without loading the  
host CPU with interrupts and buffer-copy operations.[4] Besides  
throughput, other differences are that it uses simpler bus networking,  
provides more power over the chain, more reliable data transfer, and  
uses less CPU resources.[23]
FireWire 800 is substantially faster than Hi-Speed USB, both in theory  
and in practice."

Joe