[dnanian]

Although the "root" trick should work, I don't know if it'll work under Leopard. You can certainly try, though. Alternatively, you can use a non-privileged account. Leave that logged in and in front when you shut down, and it'll back up from there, with no risk to your stuff (and certainly less risk than a root install).

And, sure, you're screwed if things are stolen and everything's there... but if that's a concern, perhaps it's time to do an online backup too.

And, yes -- you aren't guaranteed that one backup is always 6 months back -- it's a MAXIMUM of six months back, unless you rotate two six month backups.