Data management will eventually kill me ...

[Captain Kickass]

We all agree life in 2017 is largely digital, and while we love the convenience, etc, etc, etc ... with it comes the problem of password, logins, usernames, security questions, two-factor authentication, fingerprint ID, software updates and cloud storage.

I'm at a point now where if I don't overhaul what I do and how I do it, data management is likely to give me an aneurysm and I need to prevent my wife or kids from finding find me slumped over at this desk one morning after an all night stint "fixing shit".

SO, I'm reaching out to you numb-nuts ... Help your Uncle CK live sane, and live longer.

Problem #1 - Miss10 has an iPod touch. Changed her 4-digit code today (on a trip to the city, after being told to leave it at home). Somehow, she got it wrong and her intended code of 3553 always fails. Now she's locked out with no idea what code she entered as her new one. On it is six months of photos, videos.

Request #1 = What do you suggest, other than a factory reset, to resolve this ?

*****************************************

Problem #2 - Recognising a year ago that our kids are about to enter the digital/social media age as complete noobs, we saw another looming ongoing drama on the horizon. In an attempt to consolidate our affairs and "get on top of it", me and the missus made a spreadsheet containing all of our logins, accounts numbers, etc ... The idea was we'd have a password protected document that we could leave on our PC desktop for easy access. At last check, between me, the missus, Miss10 and Mister9, we have no less than 6 devices to maintain (PC and iPhone/iPad/iPod) and all told there are "77" accounts for bill payments, banking, social media, interwebz, etc to keep track of, all with their individual requirements (must contains minimum of 8 characters, 1x capital letter, 1x special characters, etc). Fast forward three years and both kids with be active on social media and most platforms (budding YouTube types at present). This problem is only going to get bigger, and they will look to me to solve issues as they arise.

Request #2 = What suggestions do you have to manage digital life ? What works for you ? I'm particularly interested to hear from anal-retentive types who go the extra mile to make sure they got this shit locked down.

*****************************************

Problem #3 - We also have an external drive (some may recall my great PC crash problem years ago I furiously panicked about until some mystery IT wizard in Wollongong I'd never met whisked my hard drive away and did some forensic level shit to retrieve the lost data, but I digress) ... on THAT is approx 23,000 images, 200+ videos from family gatherings (some sentimental with now deceased folks on them), and 42hrs of continuous music.

Request 3 = If you systematically had to "sort" your own external drive (with 10years worth of shit in it), how would/do you manage your digital content ? Are your photos meticulously arranged ? IS it important to you that the metadata in your music files complete ? Would you edit / have you edited, your videos into something else to consolidate the footage ?

*****************************************

Thanks in advance for reading.
Thanks in advance for your ideas.
If you can't contribute, that's OK. Keep checking in.
I'll be comforted by the fact my slow descent into Grandpa Simpson senility is giving you reason to laugh.

I'll be checking in throughout the next couple of days, but for now I've got 5x iDevices to update/reset/clean/refresh.

 

[south of heaven]

Problem one buy kids a book , say its worked for hundreds of years without problems and apple shit anyways.
Problem 2 buy them an atari tell them the Internet doesn't exist. It was all a bad dream..
Problem 3
Buy a Polaroid camera , pull the old record player out crank out the metal on wax while reading the cool cover art .

 

[Rodzilla]

either write down all your passwords somewhere safe or just make all your passwords 'incorrect', so you can just type anything and the devise will remind you that the password is incorrect

the thing that pisses me off is the forced number inclusion, if i dont want a number in my password i dont need it, its called passWORD for a reason ffs

as for the ipad touch do they have a phone number for situations like these?

 

[Ahecee]

You could connect the iPod to your computer, do a backup, then you would need to factory reset, but you can then restore all the data back to it anyway so nothing is lost.

You can get programs that remember all your passwords and you just remember the password for that program, but I've never loved them, just recording them somewhere seems to work best.

As for the photos, music, video......... I managed mine by having backup drives break and losing everything every 5 - 10 years, that made it pretty manageable.

 

[Hacky McAxe]

For passcodes/passwords you can get some decent, highly secure password vaults. They basically do the same thing you're doing with the spreadsheet. You can have it on your phone and sync it with secure servers. Of course it loses a little of the security once you put it online but haven't seen any real breaches yet.

For big arse hard drive, gotta be honest... I don't sort mine for anything. They're a complete mess. Don't really care though. My photos are all synced online along with my important docs and if I lose the music or other media based files I can just download them again.

 

[Lov_Dog]

Hmm, not sure I'm much help with #1.
#2; choose from Google/Microsoft Authenticators, maybe even SAASPASS in the 2FA space.
I've used all three and found them to be very beneficial.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-sg/store/p/microsoft-authenticator/9nblgggzmcj6
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/1066447?hl=en
https://saaspass.com/

#3; As @Hacky McAxe - Upload everything to cloud. Amazon unlimited data ~USD$60/year. Music/photos/documents etc accessible anywhere on any device, using #2 security to log me in. Set Amazon 2FA by default.

Good luck, uncle @Captain Kickass

~c.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Hey mate

I recall that crash well!!

#1 - Contact Apple (their tech support is excellent generally). You might be able to use something like BackupTrans to copy the photos off it without syncing it with iTunes.

#2 - I keep all my passwords as draft emails in a PWD folder in my email
You can try to simplify passwords by having a few custom characters, and a few set ones.
E.G for Youtube you might use - YTube@2017!
E.G for Facebook you might use - FB@Home2017!

I find my method is better, because if a spreadsheet corrupts, you're rooted!

#3 - Don't rely on ONE external drive, and if it's your backup NEVER keep it constantly connected. Connect up to backup, then remove.

Ideally you want 2 x eternal hard drives, and never keep them connected.

That strategy will save your arse if someone drops the external and kills the drive, OR if someone infects the machine with crypto (which can travel across onto external drives).

For management of my photos I use: YYYY MM DD and a short description. I've also got a TXT document that describes each folders content.

For Image Management I use Paint Shop Pro.
For tag management on music use Tagscanner.

 

[Wahesh]

We all agree life in 2017 is largely digital, and while we love the convenience, etc, etc, etc ... with it comes the problem of password, logins, usernames, security questions, two-factor authentication, fingerprint ID, software updates and cloud storage.

I'm at a point now where if I don't overhaul what I do and how I do it, data management is likely to give me an aneurysm and I need to prevent my wife or kids from finding find me slumped over at this desk one morning after an all night stint "fixing shit".

SO, I'm reaching out to you numb-nuts ... Help your Uncle CK live sane, and live longer.

Problem #1 - Miss10 has an iPod touch. Changed her 4-digit code today (on a trip to the city, after being told to leave it at home). Somehow, she got it wrong and her intended code of 3553 always fails. Now she's locked out with no idea what code she entered as her new one. On it is six months of photos, videos.

Request #1 = What do you suggest, other than a factory reset, to resolve this ?

*****************************************

Problem #2 - Recognising a year ago that our kids are about to enter the digital/social media age as complete noobs, we saw another looming ongoing drama on the horizon. In an attempt to consolidate our affairs and "get on top of it", me and the missus made a spreadsheet containing all of our logins, accounts numbers, etc ... The idea was we'd have a password protected document that we could leave on our PC desktop for easy access. At last check, between me, the missus, Miss10 and Mister9, we have no less than 6 devices to maintain (PC and iPhone/iPad/iPod) and all told there are "77" accounts for bill payments, banking, social media, interwebz, etc to keep track of, all with their individual requirements (must contains minimum of 8 characters, 1x capital letter, 1x special characters, etc). Fast forward three years and both kids with be active on social media and most platforms (budding YouTube types at present). This problem is only going to get bigger, and they will look to me to solve issues as they arise.

Request #2 = What suggestions do you have to manage digital life ? What works for you ? I'm particularly interested to hear from anal-retentive types who go the extra mile to make sure they got this shit locked down.

*****************************************

Problem #3 - We also have an external drive (some may recall my great PC crash problem years ago I furiously panicked about until some mystery IT wizard in Wollongong I'd never met whisked my hard drive away and did some forensic level shit to retrieve the lost data, but I digress) ... on THAT is approx 23,000 images, 200+ videos from family gatherings (some sentimental with now deceased folks on them), and 42hrs of continuous music.

Request 3 = If you systematically had to "sort" your own external drive (with 10years worth of shit in it), how would/do you manage your digital content ? Are your photos meticulously arranged ? IS it important to you that the metadata in your music files complete ? Would you edit / have you edited, your videos into something else to consolidate the footage ?

*****************************************

Thanks in advance for reading.
Thanks in advance for your ideas.
If you can't contribute, that's OK. Keep checking in.
I'll be comforted by the fact my slow descent into Grandpa Simpson senility is giving you reason to laugh.

I'll be checking in throughout the next couple of days, but for now I've got 5x iDevices to update/reset/clean/refresh.

Request #1 = What do you suggest, other than a factory reset, to resolve this ?

Contact apple Support and get them create an appointment with you in their city store. I did this and they solved the pin code error. They reset it, BUT, you need to know your apple/itunes ID otherwise you'll lose everything. So they can reset the pin for you no problemo.

Request #2 = What suggestions do you have to manage digital life ? What works for you ? I'm particularly interested to hear from anal-retentive types who go the extra mile to make sure they got this shit locked down.

My brain usually serves me well here. I can usually remember all the usernames and passwords for the 10+ amount of sites I visit, however, I always use the same email address just in case I need to reset it, so I guess it depends on brain power in this sense, but if not do what Mr I suggests and note them down somewhere electronically such as email.

Request 3 = If you systematically had to "sort" your own external drive (with 10years worth of shit in it), how would/do you manage your digital content ? Are your photos meticulously arranged ? IS it important to you that the metadata in your music files complete ? Would you edit / have you edited, your videos into something else to consolidate the footage ?

Multiple external hard drives. I have 4. One for things likes photos and tv shows and another for movies - plus a backup of both. You can get them now relatively cheap. Hey, it's a small price to pay for photos of your family etc... they last a lifetime.

 

[Lov_Dog]

Best place in and around SYD for electronics? I'm looking for wireless mouse/keyboard and external drive.
Thanks in advance, folks!

~c.

 

[blueyedsamurai]

Best place in and around SYD for electronics? I'm looking for wireless mouse/keyboard and external drive.
Thanks in advance, folks!

~c.

MSY technology is pretty good for computer stuff but they only have a few shops around the area. You can haggle with the staff at JB-HIFI for a better deal so they're alright as well.

 

[CroydonDog]

MSY technology is pretty good for computer stuff but they only have a few shops around the area. You can haggle with the staff at JB-HIFI for a better deal so they're alright as well.

Last time I got a PC put together a chinese mate took me to a small place in hurstville, and my mate gave them all the instructions in Chinese. An hour later, voila! a new computer loaded with everything i needed. I wouldn't have had a clue how to do it myself though.

I reckon if you just want a general gear from a general brand, JB is fine, and its so easy to get a few $ knocked off just be asking (I am bit biased toward JB as there is one around the corner from my house!).

 

[Mr Invisible]

Best place in and around SYD for electronics? I'm looking for wireless mouse/keyboard and external drive.
Thanks in advance, folks!

~c.

JB are more flexible with pricing.
Else actual computer places depends where you are located (Mwave/ARC Computers/JW Computers) are normally the places I buy from.

 

[Lov_Dog]

Thanks for the advice @CroydonDog and @blueyedsamurai
JB have always been a go-to!
~c.

 

[Lov_Dog]

and @Mr Invisible
~c.

 

[blueyedsamurai]

Last time I got a PC put together a chinese mate took me to a small place in hurstville, and my mate gave them all the instructions in Chinese. An hour later, voila! a new computer loaded with everything i needed. I wouldn't have had a clue how to do it myself though.

I reckon if you just want a general gear from a general brand, JB is fine, and its so easy to get a few $ knocked off just be asking (I am bit biased toward JB as there is one around the corner from my house!).

Yeh JB is pretty good for pricing especially around Christmas time, I had them knock off like $80.00 of an external Hard Drive and got them to throw in some printer ink as well.

 

[CroydonDog]

Yeh JB is pretty good for pricing especially around Christmas time, I had them knock off like $80.00 of an external Hard Drive and got them to throw in some printer ink as well.

Not bad.

CD 's top tip re printer ink: always but online.

The cartridges I buy for my office printer. Officeworks: about $120. Inkstation: $30.

 

[Wahesh]

Best place in and around SYD for electronics? I'm looking for wireless mouse/keyboard and external drive.
Thanks in advance, folks!

~c.

JB will have them for you and a fairly good range too. Easily the go-to for external drives - 2TB USB powered for less than $100. You can pretty much get wireless devices from anywhere these days though - Keyboards and Mouse' - but changing the battery in them every few months can be a real pain in the you-know-where lol.

 

[Mr Invisible]

JB will have them for you and a fairly good range too. Easily the go-to for external drives - 2TB USB powered for less than $100. You can pretty much get wireless devices from anywhere these days though - Keyboards and Mouse' - but changing the battery in them every few months can be a real pain in the you-know-where lol.

2TB USB 3 = $120-$148 from JB ... bought one the other week

 

[Lov_Dog]

Thanks a bunch boys! I usually stick with seagate for external drives. I'll definitely give JB a look this week. Appreciate it!

~c.