Personal Cloud or commercial service

[Coronita]

[quote=svelte]
i don’t really trust anyone else to hold my data due to all the security breaches. i can remember when flu kept all his data on a computer not connected to the net for the same reason, now he lets offsite companies hold it? My, how times have changed.[/quote]

The more I work with smartphones, tablets, and data systems, the more I realize that no matter what precaution you take, if someone really wants to steal from you, they can…. You might be foolproof, but not everyone that you do business with….

The best way I found to deal with this is to assume your information has been already compromised, and plan to minimize the damage.

Social security numbers are a prime example. I dont bother trying to make it super secret anymore, because my social security number has already been breached many times. I can’t count how many times during the loan process, that my personal forms with my SSN was sent over email across different people… I can’t count how many times my SSN went across emails during a background check…And most recently, my full SSN appears in all my paperwork at the hospital i go to, including discharge papers/etc, where anyone at the hospital (nurses, doctors,etc) all can see… As a result, I don’t bother to really go out of my way to try to keep it a secret anymore…I just use a credit freeze and update the pin every so often.

I store bank statements, but not with the full account number.

And I don’t store unencrypted data files that are sensitive to the cloud. I use TrueCrypt, but some folks uses PGP.
http://www.truecrypt.org/
For important data stuff…I create one or more virtual drive “image”, and backup those images to the cloud… So my backups to the cloud are actually truecrypt images, not individual files.

For really important stuff, I use some of features outlined here…

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=plausible-deniability

[an]

[quote=flu]Neither. But I have two cartoons for you. 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id_kGL3M5Cg%5B/quote%5D
I’m a big Linux fan myself. I’ve been trying to replace my Windows with Linux every year for the last 10 years. Can’t seem to fully jump over though. There’s always an app or two that I need that Linux just doesn’t have. It’ getting better every year, but it’s not quite there yet. Mac is not as stable like Linux and doesn’t have all the UI nicety like Windows (expanding windows from any edge, double click of the top bar to maximize, maximize = maximize, drag windows to the left edge of the monitor span the window to 1/2 of the screen, etc., I can go on but the list is way too long), so, I feel like it’s the worse out of the 3.

[svelte]

i haven’t had a single crash with win 7 after running it 10 months. i have had 2 or 3 freezes, but i have attributed that to hw issues (maybe incorrectly, i don’t know).

i do know that for the mountain of money i save buying hw and sw that is much much cheaper than apple or linux counterparts, i can put up with a few more problems and i’m not sure i even have more problems at this point. that’s just me.

i don’t use external usbs due to sw crashes but due to hard drive failures, which are much more devastating.

[an]

[quote=svelte]i haven’t had a single crash with win 7 after running it 10 months. i have had 2 or 3 freezes, but i have attributed that to hw issues (maybe incorrectly, i don’t know).

i do know that for the mountain of money i save buying hw and sw that is much much cheaper than apple or linux counterparts, i can put up with a few more problems and i’m not sure i even have more problems at this point. that’s just me.

i don’t use external usbs due to sw crashes but due to hard drive failures, which are much more devastating.[/quote]
HDD failures is the biggest reason why I don’t take care of my own back up. Although, I do have plan to put a RAID 5 on my main box, on top of the online back up. HDD failure is so much more devastating than SW crashes, like you said. SW crash and you just restart. HDD failure and your data is gone (unless you pay big bucks to try and recover the data from the platters, that’s not a guarantee either). I find external drives are even more prone to failures.

I agree on the price difference between PC and Mac as well. For the price difference, I can toss on a few more drives and run RAID 5, which gives you even more data protection.

[all]

[quote=AN]Mac is not as stable like Linux and doesn’t have all the UI nicety like Windows (expanding windows from any edge, double click of the top bar to maximize, maximize = maximize, drag windows to the left edge of the monitor span the window to 1/2 of the screen, etc., I can go on but the list is way too long), so, I feel like it’s the worse out of the 3.[/quote]

Mac touchpad is major productivity booster and with Lion you can grab any edge to resize a window (and with some tricks if you hold option or ctrl simultaneously, but no win+left/right arrow for snap-to-edge like on Win7). What I don’t like are the tools. Having to use Xcode 3.xx after VS2008 was frustrating experience.

+1 for dropbox and for turning down 100M+ offer from Steve Jobs.

[afx114]

Seconding Backblaze. They’ve been nothing short of amazing. Cheap. And their recent update with auto-throttling really improved things. I used to notice when it was running because my internet would slow down, but not any more. Now it’s almost invisible, you don’t even notice it’s there. I have a massive media library, with nearly a terabyte (that’s over a thousand gigs for the non-techies out there) of data backed up with Backblaze for $10/month ($5 for each of my wife’s and my own computers). And it’s unlimited so I could back up another terabyte of data for the same price if I needed to.

http://www.backblaze.com

I have tested file recovery with them and it’s a breeze and worked as expected. Luckily I haven’t had to do a full restore yet, but I like the option of paying to have them ship you an entire drive with all your files on it.

Another benefit is their “Locate My Computer” tool. Works similar to iOS’ “Locate my iPhone/iPad/MacBook”. Basically, if someone steals your computer, Backblaze is still running in the background and you can use it to locate your lost/stolen computer. They have a story on their blog where a theif was taking pictures of himself with the built-in webcam, and the pictures were being uploaded to Backblaze without his knowledge. The owner could see the files being uploaded to Backblaze, which gave him plenty of evidence to take to the police to catch the guy and get his computer back.

The only bummer, but it’s true of all cloud backups, is that it took literally a month running 24/7 to complete my initial backup of 600+ gigs. Once the initial backup was complete though, the incrementals are minor, quick, and hardly noticeable.

Note that I use Backblaze as a backup to my backup. My primary backup is still a local external drive using Time Machine. That’s always been enough when I’ve needed to restore an older file revision or rebuild a file-system (which I’ve had to do more than once). Time Machine has been more than enough. But it’s obviously not enough if the house burns down or I get robbed, which is why Backblaze gives me the piece of mind I need.

[an]

[quote=captcha]
Mac touchpad is major productivity booster and with Lion you can grab any edge to resize a window (and with some tricks if you hold option or ctrl simultaneously, but no win+left/right arrow for snap-to-edge like on Win7). What I don’t like are the tools. Having to use Xcode 3.xx after VS2008 was frustrating experience.

+1 for dropbox and for turning down 100M+ offer from Steve Jobs.[/quote]
I HATE touchpad. Always did and always will. I like my mouse. I turn up my mouse sensitivity to max, which allow me to get around the screen with very little movement. With touchpad, I have to move too much, and I don’t like that. It’s fun seeing people taking over my mouse without asking me (so I can turn down the sensitivity) and freak out because they don’t know where the mouse went.

I don’t have Lion, so I didn’t know they finally implement that feature. But I’m glad they did. Windows and Linux have that feature for well over a decade now. There is a 3rd party app that let you snap to edge like Win7, but you have to pay ~$20 for it.

I totally agree about XCode. XCode 4 is much better than XCode 3, but still light years behind Visual Studio AND Eclipse. Also, the fact that XCode 4 for Lion doesn’t work on Snow Leopard is retarded.

[Rich Toscano]

Great post afx… you pretty much summed up my experience as well. Like you, I use Backblaze as the secondary backup, with Time Machine as the first line of defense.

[an]

[quote=Rich Toscano]Great post afx… you pretty much summed up my experience as well. Like you, I use Backblaze as the secondary backup, with Time Machine as the first line of defense.[/quote]
Thanks guys for vouching for Backblaze. I will definitely consider it when my Mozy contract end.

[Author]

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