The university burns

Seems related:
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2008/05/massive_fire_destroys_delfts_a.php [Broken]

 

I read in a newspaper that it is the civil engineering department that's on fire...
Terrible !

 

http://home.tudelft.nl/en/ [Broken]
says
"No injuries reported in fire at Faculty of Architecture"

http://www.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=fe4e29d1-c634-46ba-a042-9825b799e1e4&lang=en [Broken]
says

 

that's awful!

 

Once a very old library was on fire in Paris. Some books, several hundreds years old, disappeared into smoke and ahses. I must admit, that day I was more affected by this than by other news involving human deaths. It was strange to me at this time to realize that I did not feel ashamed for those feelings.

 

Good that everyone was ok.

 

Oh my goodness! This makes me want to back up my data.

A friend of mine at another Dutch university was just complaining to me that the fire officials are insisting that they remove their coffee machine because it is a fire hazard.

 

Indeed, people often don't take data backup seriously enough. Two copies in your office is not a backup.

Nonetheless, even with backup, with a fire like that, you lose equipment and ongoing work that could take years to set up again. Very unfortunate. Glad all the people got out safely though; that's the most important thing.

 

People have no clue. When I was the network administrator for a large ophthalmic medical practice, I insisted on off-site backups for all the financials, at the minimum. They had a bit of a clue before I got there, but the business office manager thought that an adequate backup was driving around with a weekly summary of the receivables in print-out form in her trunk. Duh!

 

That sucks. There were some very old books in that building.

 

I once worked with a Dutch postdoc, who worked at night, and needed a lot of strong coffee. Dangerous guy !

 

http://www.nu.nl/img.db/1566153+s(350!x234!) [Broken]

The building is pretty much completely destroyed.