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Tech Resolutions 2012: a Safety Policy for my Digital Life

I like to think of ALL hard drives as ticking time bombs: it’s only a matter of time before they blow up. The catch is that the hypothetical timer on the bomb is counting down, and only shows the seconds that remain… so you’re never quite sure if you have 10 seconds or 201 days and 10 seconds left before the bomb blows up, taking your precious data with it.

For several years, I’ve done little but sit around and watch the bomb tick away valuable seconds. My confidence has slowly degraded from ‘sure footed’ to ‘walking on nails’, and it’s time to do something about it. We all know that the cardinal rule of backing up is that few do it before catastrophe strikes (and, after that of course, it’s lesson learnt). While I’m fortunate enough to not have a single drive die on me while in use (good ol’ Maxtor), I don’t want to be caught with my pants down.

Saving my priceless pictures, my ripped movies, my digital music, and the rest of my miscellaneous data is getting elevated on my master priority list this next year. I’m planning a two-pronged attack – cloud based storage along with a secondary surge-protected backup drive – either a lonely external hard drive or a NAS box... funds depending. I will take every opportunity to utilize cloud services that allow my data to follow me where I go, without sacrificing data fidelity or accessibility.

And so what about you, folks? Do you plan on securing your data from certain doom? Do you have any New Year resolutions?

Credit for the image goes to brianjmatis on Flickr.

Read the whole series! Also check out our resolutions on Password Management, Productivity and Security and Getting things done using INTERNET POWER. One blog will be posted for each day remaining in 2011.

Kickstart Projects I love [2]: TechSync Wall Outlets/Switches

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with TechSync, and I have not (yet) backed the fundraising Campaign. I'm only a fan!

Here's the dream that we've been teased with on and off over the past decade: seamless, universal home automation of ligthswitches and wall outlets. Not only could the setup be wireless, but they could be automatically driven and scheduled. Some companies have tried to bring innovation to the home-electrical system, most consumer-grade solutions are unaffordable or unintuitive.

Steven Washington's idea is to create a unified network of wall switches and outlets that can be controlled by any device in your home arsenal - be it your Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, or Android device. Using Wi-Fi, TechSync's idea is that every switch or outlet will relay commands throughout your home or office, ensuring that the signal reaches it's destination, so that even if your outlet has three floors between it and router, the signal will (hopefully) be relayed through nearer-by devices.

Although it is yet to be seen, TechSync claims that their software is intelligent enough to analyze your use to help you save money. If done correctly, the software could make suggestions to help you save power. For example, TechSync might recommend you turn off outlets that getting crazy amounts of power sucked from them by devices in standby.

Is home automation part of your dream house? Does controlling lights and appliances on schedule or at the touch of a button encourage you? I'm very tempted to buy in for 3 switches and 3 outlets at $45 - this could be a really neat toy if the software is done correctly.

Kickstarter Project Page

Kickstarter Projects I love [1]: Capture

Disclaimer: I'm not associated with Capture, and I have not (yet) backed the fundraising Campaign. I'm only a fan!

Everyone who owns a DSLR is familiar with the pains of owning a DSLR: if you have the camera suspended around your neck with a strap, the camera is going to swing wildly in every direction when performing any sort of physical activity... making for both an uncomfortable and unintuitive photography experience.

Meet Capture, a new camera clip system that attempts to make DSLR-touting easier, and less of a headache.

Slide the camera into the clip, and it locks in place. Releasing the camera is as simple as lifting the camera up, while hitting the red button to simultaneously unlock the mechanism. The vanilla 'dock' itself can be attached to various articles of clothing, such as belts or straps; and the project designers have a mount in the works that promises to make attaching your camera to tricky surfaces (like your bike frame) a piece of cake.

As an owner of a DSLR (which recently hung around my neck as I travelled around Greece), I can definitely see the usefulness in a clip such as this. What about you, Tested? Is the Capture something you'd dish out $50 to have?

The project (at time of writing) has 3,959 backers, raised $258,476 (of $10,000), and is scheduled to end in 19 days (July 16, 2pm EDT)

Kickstarter Project Page

The story of a broken DS.

The tale begins with me enjoying my DS Lite while fixing a buddy's computer. Angry to see my having fun while doing work, he decided to join in. Fast forward 20 minutes, his DS Lite is running low on juice. To compound issues, his charger is hopelessly AWOL. Not to fear, though, as I had been (secretly) sipping juice from him while I worked, due to the fact my DS was running low on battery before I departed to his residence. So then, borrow mine! Sounds good.

For those of you know live in Canada - you know about Tim Hortons - and when you need a coffee, you need a coffee now. Eager to fulfill our craving, we began to take off for departure. Wanting to play his DS en route, he went to disconnect his DS Lite from the charger. However, while he wanted to disconnect the DS from the power adapter, the adapter would not budge. At all. No wiggle. Applying gentle, while steady force to the adapter did nothing to help our case. While my DS adapter is under warranty - his DS is FAR outside of warranty - he bought the unit when the first DS Lites came out.

Now beings a tale of a fearsome struggle for my friend's dear DS. What on earth would cause a regular DS Lite charger to become wedged into the unit, unable to come out? A quick visit to Google confirmed a fix that we had already thought about: brute force. It's the only way that people have been able to get a stuck charging connector out of the unit. With great tears in his eye (not really), he surrendered his DS; I, my charger. Let the brute force begin. First came the knife.

The knife has an advantage most other tools don't: a small, thin edge, perfect for sticking it into small places. Slipping the knife into the small crevasse, we began to pry and lever, hoping to break the apparently intimate connection between the two devices. No dice. The charging plug didn't move at all, and we risk gashing the backside of the unit with the small paring knife. Next came pliers.

Pliers are essential to a lot of brute-force removals. While you're able to apply great amounts of pressure to the thing you're plier-ing, you can still do so in a controlled manner. Squeezing the adapter right where it plugs into the unit, we begin to apply extreme force, attempting to pull out the plug from the unit. In fact, as the gripped surface of the pliers began to slip along the plastic on the plug, it tore the plastic from the plug. Exposed metal. fun. Charging unit 2, us: 3.

My buddy's DS, now with extra appendage!

prefer my DS with appendage. I do not prefer my DS to have an extra antennae. Yet it happened, anyhow. The cable ripped right out of the plug - which was still securely sitting inside of the charging port.

Ok. This clearly isn't working. Due to the late nature of the night, we decided to just put it to the side and we'll trek down to the establishment of purchase to seek advice - particularly regarding my very new charging adapter. And, as promised, we departed for Futureshop. Long shitty customer service story short, the Operations Manager told us to contact Nintendo, because they would classify the damage as physical and not repair it for the retailer. Next comes Nintendo's Customer service hotline.

For the most part, I have always pictured Nintendo as an A+ customer service company, and to some extent, I still DO seem them in such away. After escalating through several levels of tech support, I had only one answer. They would replace my charger because of how new it was, and would repair my Buddy's DS for $89, excluding shipping to their repair facility. Getting angry over the phone wasn't helping anything, so I conceeded and took the replacement charger, but I still think I'm right - go figure. I argued that because the equipment that has gotten stuck is very new (I had just purchased the DS a few days before), and because I did nothing to neglect or destruct the device, I felt that I was entitled to a free repair/replacement. The DS itself was still in perfect working condition, and we followed the DS's usermanual to a T. This isn't incredible difficult stuff. Don't put the plug in upside down. Don't charge in a thunderstorm. Don't mix device chargers. Nintendo held that simply because the DS was out of warranty, regardless of how I (mis/)treated the device, they could not repair the device at anything other than the flat repair rate.

Pulling the copper piece that rests inside of the DS charging slot was also something I didn't really want to accomplish, but was what happened anyhow. It appears that the copper piece is created in such a way that the charger will slightly lock in place, so that the charger doesn't accidently get bumped out while charging the device/prevent the charger from being pulled out from tension or from the weight of the cable. This is where the problem had lied - when we went to pull the charging adapter out of the DS, the small locking mechanism failed, preventing it from releasing the charger. I still maintain this is Nintendo's fault - a manufacturing issue. We haven't yet attempted to charge the DS, and are not sure if that copper piece was to protect anything, or if it was simply there just to provide basic locking function to the charging plug. The new charger is en route to me, but I can't help but feel that Nintendo had let me down - even if just in some small way.