Time Machine isn't going to be very useful until Apple opens up the API to third-party developers, and one of them comes up with a less stupid interface and solves the structural flaws. The idiotic background is the least of its problems. I'm more worried about the fact that backups are always writeable by the user who owns the files, so they can be deleted or overwritten by the same runaway process that destroys the originals.

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I haven't been able to delete *anything* from a test TM backup -- even files in my own user's directory. I wrote an Automator script that basically did a secure delete of all copies of something from the TM disk. It worked great, except for the fact that it couldn't actually delete the files it found.

Working in Terminal, I even tried some sudo rm -rf's with no luck at all. Are you really able to freely delete things from your TM backup?

-rob.

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Yeah.

Check the box Ignore permissions on external volumes. Navigate to the directory. Delete to your heart's content.

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Not possible on my TM drive. There's no such checkbox.

-rob.

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I hope all the people who are complaining about the TM interface realise they don't have to use it at all. The entire TM archive is navigable using the Finder.

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Did you read my complaint? I have no issues with the interface -- I think the "back in time" analogy is perfect. My complaint is with the (to me) annoying and distracting background *behind* that interface.

The Finder is a poor substitute for the TM interface as it's not nearly as easy to browse by date -- it takes a *lot* more clicking to get anything done.

-rob.

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it wold be great to have an option to disable the animated interface - it's almost impossible to use it via Remote Desktop on a standard DSL line.

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