When in doubt, backup!

I considered myself to be a very secure geek, who follows recommended practices for keeping my data safe and secure. That is until I read this harrowing account of Mat Honan’s entire digital life being erased and taken over in a matter of minutes.

The scary part about this event is that while there was steps that Mat could have done to protect his data (backups!), there is literally nothing he could do regarding Amazon and Apple’s account recovery policies being so weak that it took trivial detective work to take over his accounts.

In this case, the scariest part of this for Mat was the loss of data due to not having proper backups. He could get his Gmail, Twitter, etc. accounts back, but has to cross his fingers that data recovery can be done on his laptop for the priceless photos and other data that weren’t properly backed up.

Backups are the one thing that everyone regrets not having when disaster strikes. The reason everyone regrets not setting up backups is that historically, backups are a pain in the ass, especially if you use a laptop. Luckily the days of going to your backup drive and pulling out the backup tape have long since passed and there are options that are literally set and forget:

  • Local Backups – In my case, I have a Time Capsule that does this for me hourly and most importantly, without me having to initiate any action other than my laptop being on and in my house.
  • Remote Backups – I use the cloud for this. Backblaze is awesome, cheap, and a extremely easy to use. I’m even contemplating using my own Private Key so no one can get to my data unless you have this key.
  • Offsite Backup – This is one that I admit is still on my to-do list. I probably will get some big 3.5″ hard drives, do a massive backup, and store the drives offsite in a safe deposit box or at a relative’s house. Then maybe once a quarter refresh the backup.

These simple measures will ensure that as long as one of my three backup options are safe, my data is in turn safe and recoverable.

Thirty

I’ve been lucky enough to be on this earth for thirty years. It’s been a learning process and I’ve still got much to work on, but I think it has turned out rather OK.

Here is to another thirty (and hopefully many more)!

HP Photosmart 7510: Why I will never buy another HP printer

I hate printers.

There isn’t any way to sugar coat it. Printers rarely work for a long period of time, throw up arcane errors, ink costs are insane, and have stupid limitations. Given that printer companies make money only on the ink cartridges, they do the absolute bare minimum to develop a functional printer.

Nearly 5 months ago, I bought a HP Photosmart 7510. The idea was simple: all-in-one printer/scanner with a document feeder that would allow me to go paperless.

First there was a very light but audible hissing noise the printer makes that several Amazon reviewers have since noted.

Then there was the brilliant idea by HP to have icons for a bunch of web site services on the printer itself. This isn’t the touchscreen of your iPhone…very non-responsive and tough to move around. Sorry HP, no one uses the printer touchscreen itself to print from Facebook, Disney, Yahoo, or many other sites.

The final straw was an artificial limit that has been imposed on this printer. In an effort to prevent business users from using a HP consumer printer, you can only use the Automatic Document Feeder for up to 75 scans at full speed. After that, each page after that takes takes several minutes to even begin scanning.

You think that sounds insane? HP admits it themselves on this forum post:

“The behavior that you are seeing  in your printer is normal in that product, this printer is merely  design to home users where their needs are not as high compared to business users. The unit  reduces its speed to prevent overheating the motor in the Automatic-Document-Feeder (ADF). So, there is nothing wrong with that behavior  and you can still use it even if the speed of scanning or copying through  the ADF reduces. I hope this information is helpful.”

The reduce speed to prevent overheating makes sense at first…except it will do this even if you wait a hour between scans. I’ve tested this myself. There is absolutely no reasonable explanation for this behavior.

Amazon was wonderful. Even though I contacted them 5 months after I bought the printer, they are issuing a full refund. I am instead going to Epson for my new printer. Never again will I go with HP.

The started a simplified home tech life

An new iPad (3) in hand, I am beginning an experiment to simplify my home computing life: go without using my home computer for two weeks and still do all of my needed computing tasks.

The reason is straight forward: as the iPad gets more and more amazing software, there is less and less computing tasks that requires a home computer. I have a smaller amount of time to do my home computer tasks than I used to, thus I need to do them in ways that are easy and efficient.

I am also simplifying my entertainment needs. I am selling my PlayStation 3 as it collects dust and as I realize that I get just as much if not more entertainment playing $0.99 iPad games compared to $60 PS3 games.

What else can I do to simplify my home tech life? That is something I hope to explore in the next few weeks, with a series of blog posts written on my iPad or iPhone (just like this blog post).