January 9, 2013
Backing Up Your Mac (or Macs)
Ask yourself this: How much effort do you expend protecting your data?
Data – the information stored on your computer – is FAR more valuable than any of the hardware surrounding it. Our hard drives are chock full of irreplaceable stuff – documents, email messages, digital pictures and music – items we could never get back if it somehow got lost. Yet most of us do little to back up or safeguard our valuable data.
As far as backing up goes, there are two ways to protect your information: a local backup (usually a hard drive connected to your computer) and a cloud solution (meaning your stuff is stored on a server located somewhere else). Both have their advantages and disadvantages. When deciding whether to back up locally or to the cloud, it’s best to know the pros and cons of both.
Local backup: The least expensive and most common method. Typically, you connect an external hard drive (USB or FireWire) to your Mac and allow Time Machine (Apple’s backup utility that is built into the Mac OS) to handle the process automatically. And since external hard drives are cheap and easily available, this solution makes sense for everybody.
Requirements:
1. Apple Time Machine software (standard in Mac OS X.5 “Leopard” and later) or a third-party backup software for Macs running OS X.4 “Tiger” or earlier.
2. An external USB or FireWire hard drive, preferably 500GB or larger (available pretty much everywhere).
Pros:
• Extremely easy to configure – a simple plug-and-play connection.
• Hard drives are at an all-time low per gigabyte.
• It backs up your entire computer automatically – a simple set-and-forget process.
Cons:
• Isn’t immune to physical damage (fire, flood, etc.), theft or failure.
• You must physically move the drive between different computers to back up multiple machines.
An alternate method to this scenario is to buy an Apple Time Capsule, a device that is a wireless router and hard drive combo.
Requirements:
1. All Macs backing up to the Time Capsule must be running Mac OS X.5 “Leopard” or later.
2. All Macs must be connected to the local network, either wired or wirelessly.
Pros:
• Time Capsule allows you to back up multiple computers on the network.
• It also functions as a reliable router.
• The USB port on unit permits a printer to be easily shared by all users.
Cons:
• Can be difficult to configure – involves setting it up as a wireless router AND as a backup device.
• It is a much more expensive option than a simple plug-and-play external hard drive.
• Susceptible to the same issues as an external drive (useless if stolen or damaged).
• Requires that you replace your current wireless router.
Cloud backup: Your data is backed up (via the Internet) to an off-site server owned by your cloud hosting company. There are several companies that offer this service, but for the average consumer, the two most popular choices are Carbonite and Mozy. Both require a one-year (or longer) subscription; both have similar pricing and levels of service.
Requirements:
1. You must have broadband (cable or DSL) Internet connectivity.
2. An annual payment.
Pros:
• Protects your data in the event of damage (fire, flood) or theft of both your computer and backup drive.
• You can retrieve your files from anywhere in the world you have an Internet connection.
Cons:
• Requires a paid subscription plan.
• Cloud backup services are sometimes a bit difficult to set up.
• Restoration is often slow and clunky when accessing files.
But the question is: Should you perform local backup or cloud backup? The answer is “Yes.” The optimal solution is to back up to a local drive, but also subscribe to a cloud service for extra protection.
A couple more thoughts:
• Many companies (Optimum, Amazon, Google) offer free cloud storage – but usually small chunks (2-5GB). They also offer larger plans – but at a price. Stick with the dedicated backup companies.
• There are some network storage devices that you can connect to your local network, but these tend to be wonky and should be avoided.
• A USB thumb drive (a.k.a “thumb drive) should NEVER be used for storing valuable data.
October 23, 2012
Ways to Manage Email on Multiple Devices
In the past, maintaining good email hygiene was a pretty straightforward process – you deleted a message from your inbox, it moved into the trash. You emptied the trash, it was gone forever, end of story. But now, since many of us have at least one computer, smartphone and tablet, we constantly find ourselves deleting the same messages on two (or more) devices.
But today, it never seems to work the way we want it to. We delete messages from one device’s inbox, only to have to repeat the process on the second device. And again on the third device. Also, because our messages are “saved on the server,” sometimes our hard work is for naught and a bunch of deleted messages suddenly make a repeat performance in our inbox.
Fortunately, there are a few ways to help lighten the load of managing your email on two (or more) different devices.
First of all, check to see if you have POP or IMAP email: POP and IMAP are email protocols, but only IMAP “syncs” changes on multiple devices. (POP forces you to manually delete the same mails off of each device.) So if your email provider uses IMAP, a message deleted from the inbox on your iPhone will automatically be deleted from the inbox on your computer, and vice versa. Unfortunately, Cablevision’s Optonline email service doesn’t offer the IMAP option, only POP.
If you’re stuck with a provider that only offers POP, there is a workaround. Simply create an iCloud email account (by opening System Preferences, clicking the iCloud icon and selecting Create An Apple ID) and establishing an email account. Then you can create a “rule” with your POP email provider that will forward your current email to your new iCloud email account. The great part is that you can continue to use your original email address, because all messages will still arrive in your inbox.
Bonus Tip – Keep your inbox free from non-vital emails
By creating a secondary email account, you can divert certain emails such as store offers, newsletters (just not mine, of course!) and “opted in” emails from clogging up your inbox. Create a secondary account with your email provider or sign up for a free account, such as Gmail. You can enable Gmail to be delivered to your email client of choice, such as Entourage, Outlook, Apple Mail or Thunderbird.
To summarize: Make your life easier by migrating your email service from POP to IMAP. In addition, establish a secondary email address that will divert non-vital emails from your main inbox on both your computer and your smartphone.
September 12, 2012
How to Untangle Your Browser From the Grips of Facebook
Have you noticed that once you join Facebook, suddenly every other site you visit knows who you are? You surf onto CNN, and not only does the site know you, it tells you which articles your Facebook friends are reading.
Scary, isn’t it?
Welcome to the world of Web personalization, a place where Web marketers know your name. (And your surfing habits, browsing history and more.) Click the “Like” button on any non-Facebook page and suddenly Facebook turns into Big Brother and knows more about you (and your preferences) than just what’s on your profile. And then you see an ad on Facebook, and your first thought is “I was just thinking of something like that!” Really, it’s because you just were LOOKING for something like that online. Truth be told – Facebook is only one of many culprits that compromises your online privacy.
So exactly how do you keep every site from being linked to Facebook? There are a few different ways to keep other sites from accessing your Facebook profile, some more complex than others.
The easiest way is to use a dedicated browser for your Facebook purposes only. Even if you regularly use Safari and Firefox, you still have other browser options, namely Google Chrome and Opera, so it’s possible to keep your Facebook activity restricted to one browser. Cnet.com has a link to all of these browsers (and more) here.
There are more involved ways to disable the social plugins that Facebook integrates with your browser, including this great piece on ThoughtPick. For a more world-weary view, check out LifeHacker’s take on the situation.
Bottom line: Web privacy and tracking is a huge deal on both sides of the fence – both for marketers and privacy advocates, and neither faction has any intention of going away anytime soon.