Major Announcement
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Re: Major Announcement
When I worked in an assembly line (what we call maquila), we were assembling some "Realtec/Lorain" products under the wing of Marconi conglomerate. Particularly their T9-X and T9-SX lines. Everything had engraved "Made in the USA" on them, yet we were assembling them in a production line in the municipality of Naucalpan, State of México, Mexican United States... I then learned that if there was the need, assembly facilities could be tracked to the real assembly point.
Re: Major Announcement
I've got my CC set so I cannot get more than 300 dollars from an ATM.
In fact, for certain ATMs I have it set to 280 dollars.
For a long time, I had it set so that the only amount I could take from an ATM was 280 dollars.
That way if anyone got my card and tried a different amount they wouldn't get it, hi hi.
But times change and all the ATMs work a little differently now.
I never understood how or why so many people bought the VW Beetle?
They were only the bare minimum of everything, and cost more than many other cars.
Heck, look at a Fiat, even with its 100% import tax, it was still much cheaper than a VW.
It also had a Tach, and both gauges and idiot lights, plus the engine was water cooled.
It used a centrifugal oil filter system, so no filters to replace, and got better gas mileage.
Plus they looked a lot neater, and came as a convertible or hard top. Most got the convertible though.
And the best part, they were super easy to work on if you wanted to modify them in any way.
If I recall, the FIAT 850 was 200 bucks cheaper than a VW Beetle, 400 bucks cheaper than KarmanGhia.
And the Fiat Sedan, I forget the model number for it, was the same price as a VW Beetle.
Bigger classier looking car! The next size up was about the same price as a VW KarmanGhia, but was a full-sized car.
I liked the Fiat 850s so well, I bought three of them, each one a year apart from the first.
In fact, for certain ATMs I have it set to 280 dollars.
For a long time, I had it set so that the only amount I could take from an ATM was 280 dollars.
That way if anyone got my card and tried a different amount they wouldn't get it, hi hi.
But times change and all the ATMs work a little differently now.
I never understood how or why so many people bought the VW Beetle?
They were only the bare minimum of everything, and cost more than many other cars.
Heck, look at a Fiat, even with its 100% import tax, it was still much cheaper than a VW.
It also had a Tach, and both gauges and idiot lights, plus the engine was water cooled.
It used a centrifugal oil filter system, so no filters to replace, and got better gas mileage.
Plus they looked a lot neater, and came as a convertible or hard top. Most got the convertible though.
And the best part, they were super easy to work on if you wanted to modify them in any way.
If I recall, the FIAT 850 was 200 bucks cheaper than a VW Beetle, 400 bucks cheaper than KarmanGhia.
And the Fiat Sedan, I forget the model number for it, was the same price as a VW Beetle.
Bigger classier looking car! The next size up was about the same price as a VW KarmanGhia, but was a full-sized car.
I liked the Fiat 850s so well, I bought three of them, each one a year apart from the first.
Re: Major Announcement
There are a few reasons why the Beetle was as popular as it was. First of all it didn't look like the kind of cars made in America some 65 years ago. It look like, well, a beetle. Being German made it was expected to be of higher quality and the price was right. i can understand why you liked the gauges, idiot lights, and styling of the Fiat 850 being traditional with a taste for racing machines . I don't think many Fiats were converted to racing machines, but the VW Beetle could be if you were into dune buggies. LOL The combination of quality, price, adaptability, and it's weirdness appeal all contributed to make the Beetle a desirable little car. Desirable, that is, if you were into little cars back in the 50's and 60's.
As luck would have it, my ATM card never gave me a problem. There was a time when ATM machines were targeted for skimming and other attempts to get free money from them. As you point out they have improved a bit so that it's not as easy anymore. The credit card I have is an entirely different card and you don't need the physical card to use it online. Over the years several of my credit cards were compromised, or more correctly, the card information was stolen and used by some nefarious characters. My Credit Card people are pretty familiar with my buying habits and will send em a security alert when a purchase does not fit the profile. In some cases a purchase was completed, and in other cases they held up the processing pending my authorization. I'm sure they lose a ton of money given how good hackers are now and days. ATM cards seem to be less prone to such tactics.
As luck would have it, my ATM card never gave me a problem. There was a time when ATM machines were targeted for skimming and other attempts to get free money from them. As you point out they have improved a bit so that it's not as easy anymore. The credit card I have is an entirely different card and you don't need the physical card to use it online. Over the years several of my credit cards were compromised, or more correctly, the card information was stolen and used by some nefarious characters. My Credit Card people are pretty familiar with my buying habits and will send em a security alert when a purchase does not fit the profile. In some cases a purchase was completed, and in other cases they held up the processing pending my authorization. I'm sure they lose a ton of money given how good hackers are now and days. ATM cards seem to be less prone to such tactics.
Re: Major Announcement
I guess you never heard of the many Abarth sanctioned Racing Teams? The only used Fiats!
There were several Kit Cars which were made to fit on a VW frame, and a few for the Fiat frames of 3 models of Fiat's.
So, if you wanted a Dune Buggy, you could buy a kit to make one from a Fiat if you chose to go that route.
I was just sent a new ATM card. On some of the newest ATM machines, it only needs to see the card within about 2 feet for it to work. But it does have to see the card and your face too I think.
Also, my Debit Card from the same bank, all I have to do is touch the card to the button on top of the terminal.
Depending on where I go to use it, sometimes I still have to stick it in a slot for it to be read.
For a while, I was getting e-mails saying my card was used somewhere and declined and I needed to go reset my card.
I check the URL of the link the e-mail wants me to go to, and it is bogus as usual.
I guess the banks and CC companies need to cover their arses quite heavily these days!
There were several Kit Cars which were made to fit on a VW frame, and a few for the Fiat frames of 3 models of Fiat's.
So, if you wanted a Dune Buggy, you could buy a kit to make one from a Fiat if you chose to go that route.
I was just sent a new ATM card. On some of the newest ATM machines, it only needs to see the card within about 2 feet for it to work. But it does have to see the card and your face too I think.
Also, my Debit Card from the same bank, all I have to do is touch the card to the button on top of the terminal.
Depending on where I go to use it, sometimes I still have to stick it in a slot for it to be read.
For a while, I was getting e-mails saying my card was used somewhere and declined and I needed to go reset my card.
I check the URL of the link the e-mail wants me to go to, and it is bogus as usual.
I guess the banks and CC companies need to cover their arses quite heavily these days!
Re: Major Announcement
You are correct. I never heard of Abarth, but my friend Google has ...
My ATM card has a chip embedded and all I need to is wave it above the card reader. Some card readers still do not have this touchless option, but most of the shops I visit do. I've not seen any of those face recognition systems around here, but I have heard a arguments about how they are invasive of our privacy and can be used to track other activities. While that is true, I believe a lot of folks are just plain paranoid when it comes to biomentrics. Those are the same folks who post their life's history on Facedbook, pictures and location data et. al..
I'm glad that you are familiar with phishing techniques. They are getting pretty clever and the fear is that they will soon be using Artificial Intelligence to prey upon the public. Apparently those machine learning devices are coming down in price and easy to teach with readily available databases. It's getting scary out there, for sure. The good news is that the guys in white hats also have AI at their disposal.
- "Abarth & C. S.p.A. is an Italian racing- and road-car maker and performance division founded by Italo-Austrian Carlo Abarth in 1949 "
My ATM card has a chip embedded and all I need to is wave it above the card reader. Some card readers still do not have this touchless option, but most of the shops I visit do. I've not seen any of those face recognition systems around here, but I have heard a arguments about how they are invasive of our privacy and can be used to track other activities. While that is true, I believe a lot of folks are just plain paranoid when it comes to biomentrics. Those are the same folks who post their life's history on Facedbook, pictures and location data et. al..
I'm glad that you are familiar with phishing techniques. They are getting pretty clever and the fear is that they will soon be using Artificial Intelligence to prey upon the public. Apparently those machine learning devices are coming down in price and easy to teach with readily available databases. It's getting scary out there, for sure. The good news is that the guys in white hats also have AI at their disposal.
Re: Major Announcement
Gas mileage was great in my Fiat's, and after I added the Abarth exhaust system to them, gas mileage got even better.
But I never did get into modifying the engines themselves. Other than my last one, which had a head gasket leak. Although I fixed it right away, I still had the heads milled down a bit more than needed. This one small thing gave the car more horsepower, enough that it was noticeable.
Both of my old cards had the chips for the slot readers, not the slide-scan magnetic readers.
But the newest one has something embedded in it, so all I have to do is hold it up in front of the machine.
I've studied it to see if there was some hidden image on the card, like those new square ID things on many things now.
I've seen thousands of different scams in my day, and some of them are quite elusive, and even have what looks like official URLS for the websites. If you look close, there is always something different about them from the real ones.
One thing I rarely do is click on a link, especially from a website or from an e-mail.
If I think it may be legit, I will still go directly to the website using my log-in info there, and see if they messaged me.
Better to be safe than sorry!
But I never did get into modifying the engines themselves. Other than my last one, which had a head gasket leak. Although I fixed it right away, I still had the heads milled down a bit more than needed. This one small thing gave the car more horsepower, enough that it was noticeable.
Both of my old cards had the chips for the slot readers, not the slide-scan magnetic readers.
But the newest one has something embedded in it, so all I have to do is hold it up in front of the machine.
I've studied it to see if there was some hidden image on the card, like those new square ID things on many things now.
I've seen thousands of different scams in my day, and some of them are quite elusive, and even have what looks like official URLS for the websites. If you look close, there is always something different about them from the real ones.
One thing I rarely do is click on a link, especially from a website or from an e-mail.
If I think it may be legit, I will still go directly to the website using my log-in info there, and see if they messaged me.
Better to be safe than sorry!
Re: Major Announcement
Windows has a sandbox function. Essentially it's a virtual box inside the operating system. You can click all the phishing links you can find inside that box and nothing will happen to the host machine. You still don't want to give them any personal information, but you can rest assured they are not dropping any trojans or viruses that can damage your host. Check out downloads the same way. Once the sandbox is closed, however, everything is lost so that there is no trace of anything malicious inside that container. The container is destroyed.
While that is awful nice of Microsoft to supply such a feature, I use VirtualBox for exactly the same reason. It's a virtual sandbox just like the Windows one, but also has persistence. Any programs I install inside a virtual box stay installed, unlike the Windows sandbox blows it all away when you close the session. To be honest I'm not sure the virtual box is as well protected as the sandbox. It is Linux after all, and in spite of claims to the contrary it's not a lot less vulnerable to bad actors. Plus, in my VM systems I often have a virtual share configured so that I can easily transfer files from the VM to the host. In any case those virtual machines are fairly robust and I have no fears about contamination from anything that happens inside them. Most of the security software used by financial institutions see VM's and a new machine and always want me to authenticate myself two or three different ways. Sounds like a hassle, but it is in reality protection against anyone that would be spoofing me.
One of the weird things I've not figured out yet is the Tor browser. That's the one with the Onion network of servers you go through before you reach your destination URL. As you must know it's meant to be a very secure and untraceable browser. And, it is. My bank never would recognize it and sometimes told me why. It didn't recognize the user agent of something. About six months ago my bank decided to rebrand itself. It used to be called BMO Harris (a bank physically in downtown Chicago but owned by a Montreal company) and is now simply called BMO.com. Nothing else changed as afar as I can tell except that I can now use the Tor browser to log into my bank account. They send me the usual 2FA requests because it's a machine not associated with my account, but they no longer reject my requests simply because I'm on Tor. I can't think of a more secure browser than Tor, but a lot of places don't allow it to access their websites. I guess it's so secure that they don't really know who I am anymore, which is why I always get the 2FA challenge. And why I like to use it.
While that is awful nice of Microsoft to supply such a feature, I use VirtualBox for exactly the same reason. It's a virtual sandbox just like the Windows one, but also has persistence. Any programs I install inside a virtual box stay installed, unlike the Windows sandbox blows it all away when you close the session. To be honest I'm not sure the virtual box is as well protected as the sandbox. It is Linux after all, and in spite of claims to the contrary it's not a lot less vulnerable to bad actors. Plus, in my VM systems I often have a virtual share configured so that I can easily transfer files from the VM to the host. In any case those virtual machines are fairly robust and I have no fears about contamination from anything that happens inside them. Most of the security software used by financial institutions see VM's and a new machine and always want me to authenticate myself two or three different ways. Sounds like a hassle, but it is in reality protection against anyone that would be spoofing me.
One of the weird things I've not figured out yet is the Tor browser. That's the one with the Onion network of servers you go through before you reach your destination URL. As you must know it's meant to be a very secure and untraceable browser. And, it is. My bank never would recognize it and sometimes told me why. It didn't recognize the user agent of something. About six months ago my bank decided to rebrand itself. It used to be called BMO Harris (a bank physically in downtown Chicago but owned by a Montreal company) and is now simply called BMO.com. Nothing else changed as afar as I can tell except that I can now use the Tor browser to log into my bank account. They send me the usual 2FA requests because it's a machine not associated with my account, but they no longer reject my requests simply because I'm on Tor. I can't think of a more secure browser than Tor, but a lot of places don't allow it to access their websites. I guess it's so secure that they don't really know who I am anymore, which is why I always get the 2FA challenge. And why I like to use it.
Last edited by yogi on 15 May 2023, 13:15, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Major Announcement
I've only used VB or VM a few times, on my older machines with only 2 gigs of memory, maybe 4 gigs, I don't recall. But it slowed down my computer to a dead crawl, so I've not tried using them anymore after that.
Also, a number of years ago, I could go to a website and copy a link and paste it there for it to check if it caused any virus or malware. You could open it there too, and use the program, but you couldn't save anything to your own computer from there.
Turned out, that site added its own malware to your computer, so I quit using it.
Don't think I ever used the TOR Browser before.
Also, a number of years ago, I could go to a website and copy a link and paste it there for it to check if it caused any virus or malware. You could open it there too, and use the program, but you couldn't save anything to your own computer from there.
Turned out, that site added its own malware to your computer, so I quit using it.
Don't think I ever used the TOR Browser before.
Re: Major Announcement
The TOR browser is very popular in places that restrict their citizens' use of the Internet. Most of those restrictions are simple bans placed on specific domains or groups of IP addresses. Sometimes the bans target specific organizations or individuals too. TOR literally means "The Onion Router" which is a network that is layered like an onion. Being layered and traversing several domains the TOR network makes it impossible to trace the data back to the source. That's why it is favored in places that ban the Internet. Also, TOR is famous for it's true end-to-end encryption. There is a Linux operating system called Tails which goes several steps beyond what TOR does, and for the same reasons. Tails strives to hide your identity at the source and does a very good job of it. My bank STILL won't let me in via Tails. LOL Naturally TOR is the default browser for Tails. If you are interested in high security connections you might want to look up Tails. It's Debian based and can be run from a USB memory stick.
Virtual Machines have come a long way even in the short time that I have been using them. I have been warned by many folks not to go that route because it slows down the hosting machine, but I seldom saw any performance issues in the VM's that I created. They can be resource intensive and you do need a lot of RAM to overcome that. But, you have all you need in that Silver Yogi. The only thing that will slow it down is the transfer rate of the memory stick you are using. Some sticks are faster than others, obviously.
Virtual Machines have come a long way even in the short time that I have been using them. I have been warned by many folks not to go that route because it slows down the hosting machine, but I seldom saw any performance issues in the VM's that I created. They can be resource intensive and you do need a lot of RAM to overcome that. But, you have all you need in that Silver Yogi. The only thing that will slow it down is the transfer rate of the memory stick you are using. Some sticks are faster than others, obviously.
Re: Major Announcement
I've heard of The Onion Router, but didn't associate it with the TOR Browser, hi hi.
I think I mentioned once a long time ago, I had tried Edubuntu. At that time, I had to allocate at least 400k (not much by today's standards of course), but the idea was so you could have more than one workstation connected. In my case, and on my old computers, it bogged it down like a time warp in reverse, hi hi. Took 20 minutes to move 1 minute.
Since I'm near the end of my life, I don't want to make my computer any more complicated than what it already is, just so Debi might be able to find things in it. Although I do have every file backed up to an External formatted as NTFS so it can be read on Windows computers.
I had Debi backing up to the NAS, which she only did after she copied pictures from her phone to her computer, then would copy that new folder to the NAS. Now suddenly she can't get in, and neither could I. I won't accept my name or password I had set for it. It also did not accept the admin password either. I think it is about to die anyhow. Every once in a while it will make some noises, which were from the old hard drive, but I replaced it with the one you sent to me and all was good.
It will sometimes make a loud hum, but not like a fan bearing going bad, more like a 60 cycle hum.
She also has backups on backup drives she bought herself, so at least she is backing up.
I think I mentioned once a long time ago, I had tried Edubuntu. At that time, I had to allocate at least 400k (not much by today's standards of course), but the idea was so you could have more than one workstation connected. In my case, and on my old computers, it bogged it down like a time warp in reverse, hi hi. Took 20 minutes to move 1 minute.
Since I'm near the end of my life, I don't want to make my computer any more complicated than what it already is, just so Debi might be able to find things in it. Although I do have every file backed up to an External formatted as NTFS so it can be read on Windows computers.
I had Debi backing up to the NAS, which she only did after she copied pictures from her phone to her computer, then would copy that new folder to the NAS. Now suddenly she can't get in, and neither could I. I won't accept my name or password I had set for it. It also did not accept the admin password either. I think it is about to die anyhow. Every once in a while it will make some noises, which were from the old hard drive, but I replaced it with the one you sent to me and all was good.
It will sometimes make a loud hum, but not like a fan bearing going bad, more like a 60 cycle hum.
She also has backups on backup drives she bought herself, so at least she is backing up.
Re: Major Announcement
I understand your feelings about keeping things simple for your survivors. While that's a great idea, what are the chances that anyone would be able to log into your computer and extract anything important? In my case the odds are somewhere between nil and zero.
Backups are probably the best way to preserve any digital information for future generations. The NAS is a server that does a lot more than just store your (or Deb's) backup files. In other words you probably don't need to use the NAS to preserve what you want to pass on. In Deb's case I would highly recommend a backup program I've been using for many years: Cobian Reflector It's pretty straight forward and I'm guessing Deb may be able to set up the backup routines she desires without any assistance. It's just a matter of filling in a form telling the software what you want to back up and where to put it. The beauty of Cobian is that it does a direct copy and makes retrieval of single files extremely easy. You can also .zip them instead but I only did that when I was running out of storage space. The Cobian backups can be sent to an internal or external drive, an NAS, a USB memory stick, or any other memory device you happen to have handy. If you can copy to that storage manually, Cobian Reflector can do it automatically.
I've seen Edubuntu mentioned, but I never tinkered with it. My answer to operating systems' multiple instances is Virtual Machines, or in the case of Windows it's kind of built in for Linux. One of the nice things about running virtually is that a KVM box is not needed. It's all done through the same front end.
Backups are probably the best way to preserve any digital information for future generations. The NAS is a server that does a lot more than just store your (or Deb's) backup files. In other words you probably don't need to use the NAS to preserve what you want to pass on. In Deb's case I would highly recommend a backup program I've been using for many years: Cobian Reflector It's pretty straight forward and I'm guessing Deb may be able to set up the backup routines she desires without any assistance. It's just a matter of filling in a form telling the software what you want to back up and where to put it. The beauty of Cobian is that it does a direct copy and makes retrieval of single files extremely easy. You can also .zip them instead but I only did that when I was running out of storage space. The Cobian backups can be sent to an internal or external drive, an NAS, a USB memory stick, or any other memory device you happen to have handy. If you can copy to that storage manually, Cobian Reflector can do it automatically.
I've seen Edubuntu mentioned, but I never tinkered with it. My answer to operating systems' multiple instances is Virtual Machines, or in the case of Windows it's kind of built in for Linux. One of the nice things about running virtually is that a KVM box is not needed. It's all done through the same front end.
Re: Major Announcement
What I need to do is get my redundant and off-site backups redone and updated to current.
My last off-site backup was way back in 2015, mainly because I had no place to do an off-site backup that Debi would be able to get to. That is why I used external drives formatted as NTFS so she could plug them into her computer.
I'm finding out now that Windows 10 and 11 have safeguards I'm not familiar with that may prevent her from reading an external NTFS drive not originating on that system.
I've been making notes and putting them into a desktop folder so Debi can figure out how to get to things using this computer.
Including how to switch the KVM and what to do when it needs reset.
But before I get done with all of that, I need to make a redundant backup on an older external drive and try it on her computer. Which right now is only a Win7.
My last off-site backup was way back in 2015, mainly because I had no place to do an off-site backup that Debi would be able to get to. That is why I used external drives formatted as NTFS so she could plug them into her computer.
I'm finding out now that Windows 10 and 11 have safeguards I'm not familiar with that may prevent her from reading an external NTFS drive not originating on that system.
I've been making notes and putting them into a desktop folder so Debi can figure out how to get to things using this computer.
Including how to switch the KVM and what to do when it needs reset.
But before I get done with all of that, I need to make a redundant backup on an older external drive and try it on her computer. Which right now is only a Win7.
Re: Major Announcement
I have what may be some good news for you regarding archived files and Windows Operating Systems.
First of all NTFS is the preferred file system under Windows, but it can also read FAT32 and exFAT. This ability is present in Windws 7, 8, 10, and 11. It would surprise me greatly if all those were not readable in the next generation, Windwos 12, as well.
Windows has gone nuts with security, but most of the secure boot and file protection can only be had in Winows 10 and 11. Secure boot and file protection can be disabled in BIOS, which is exactly what I did here. As you well know I did A LOT of experimenting with Linux On A Stick, both in Windows 10 and 11, and had no issues accessing those memories as long as the memory stick was formatted properly for Windows. I do air gap backups which involves swapping in/out external SSD drives. I have done system image backups to external HDD as well on both Windows 10 AND 11. Plus, I have backups and Windows shares on a Linux server (NAS) that both Windows 10 and 11 freely access - Windows 7 didn't have any problems with those devices either.
Thus there is a lot of high powered protection in the newer versions of Windows, but it can all be disabled or ignored without too much trouble. Since Linux can r/w ALL versions of FAT, there should be no trouble moving files from Linux to Windows. Then, again, FAT32 is pretty much not used anymore in Windows. And, of course, Linux being as omnipotent as it is, it can mount and r/w NTFS. Doing that may take some expertise on the part of the Linux user so that it may not be a good way to go.
My choice would be to do none of the above. By far the easiest and most universally accessible method of accessing archives of data is via the cloud. Windows uses One Drive, Google uses Google Drive, and Apple uses iCloud. And there are quite a few others (such as DropBox) to choose from. They all can be accessed from their relevant device, but there is also web page access to those cloud drives, meaning you can get to all of them by using a browser. Yes, you will need the proper login credentials to do that, but that's a no-brainer. It's also true that there is a limited amount of free storage in all those cloud storage systems, but that is a per account limit. If you need more than the 5 Gb Microsoft and iCloud provide (it's 15 Gb for Google/Android), all you need to do is create separate accounts to get more free storage. Then, too, you can pay for extra storage, but why do that when you can hack the system and get all the free space you want?
Any computer can access the cloud via it's webpage interface, but those cloud storage areas can also be accessed on the device itself by installing the appropriate app. That app is installed by default in Windows. You actually get more editing and storage features when you log in via a hard device as opposed to webpage access, but doing it that way would require the viewer to have access to the device and have the login credentials for all those curator accounts you might have made. It's not that complicated and cloud storage sure beats the heck out of trying to figure out hardware that may or may not be compatible. I know you have issues with using the cloud, but the truth is that it is the easiest and safest way to save your archives. More than that, cloud storage is accessible no matter what kind of OS you are using anywhere on earth.
I'd be glad to assist and advise if you think that would be helpful.
First of all NTFS is the preferred file system under Windows, but it can also read FAT32 and exFAT. This ability is present in Windws 7, 8, 10, and 11. It would surprise me greatly if all those were not readable in the next generation, Windwos 12, as well.
Windows has gone nuts with security, but most of the secure boot and file protection can only be had in Winows 10 and 11. Secure boot and file protection can be disabled in BIOS, which is exactly what I did here. As you well know I did A LOT of experimenting with Linux On A Stick, both in Windows 10 and 11, and had no issues accessing those memories as long as the memory stick was formatted properly for Windows. I do air gap backups which involves swapping in/out external SSD drives. I have done system image backups to external HDD as well on both Windows 10 AND 11. Plus, I have backups and Windows shares on a Linux server (NAS) that both Windows 10 and 11 freely access - Windows 7 didn't have any problems with those devices either.
Thus there is a lot of high powered protection in the newer versions of Windows, but it can all be disabled or ignored without too much trouble. Since Linux can r/w ALL versions of FAT, there should be no trouble moving files from Linux to Windows. Then, again, FAT32 is pretty much not used anymore in Windows. And, of course, Linux being as omnipotent as it is, it can mount and r/w NTFS. Doing that may take some expertise on the part of the Linux user so that it may not be a good way to go.
My choice would be to do none of the above. By far the easiest and most universally accessible method of accessing archives of data is via the cloud. Windows uses One Drive, Google uses Google Drive, and Apple uses iCloud. And there are quite a few others (such as DropBox) to choose from. They all can be accessed from their relevant device, but there is also web page access to those cloud drives, meaning you can get to all of them by using a browser. Yes, you will need the proper login credentials to do that, but that's a no-brainer. It's also true that there is a limited amount of free storage in all those cloud storage systems, but that is a per account limit. If you need more than the 5 Gb Microsoft and iCloud provide (it's 15 Gb for Google/Android), all you need to do is create separate accounts to get more free storage. Then, too, you can pay for extra storage, but why do that when you can hack the system and get all the free space you want?
Any computer can access the cloud via it's webpage interface, but those cloud storage areas can also be accessed on the device itself by installing the appropriate app. That app is installed by default in Windows. You actually get more editing and storage features when you log in via a hard device as opposed to webpage access, but doing it that way would require the viewer to have access to the device and have the login credentials for all those curator accounts you might have made. It's not that complicated and cloud storage sure beats the heck out of trying to figure out hardware that may or may not be compatible. I know you have issues with using the cloud, but the truth is that it is the easiest and safest way to save your archives. More than that, cloud storage is accessible no matter what kind of OS you are using anywhere on earth.
I'd be glad to assist and advise if you think that would be helpful.
Re: Major Announcement
I have DropBox, but rarely use it except to transfer larger files that cannot be e-mailed to someone.
I've never had a problem on Linux keeping one drive as NTFS, or even an NTFS partition along with ext3 and ext4 partitions.
One of the reasons I liked having so many computers is, I could set up accounts on the same services, and then later access them all from a single computer as an invited guest if need be.
Even Yahoo gave me fits trying to use more than one account from the same computer for years, but now we can fairly easily.
Even so, there are a lot of things you cannot do from the same computer, even with different accounts.
Like Farcebook for example: You cannot open person A and person B on Farcebook from the same computer at the same time.
It might be possible is it were done using a VM since those are separate installs of the OS in use.
Because I know I am not long for this earth, I'm trying to make things as simple as possible, so my son and Debi can easily access my data records. Many of them she will need to handle taxes and the like.
I've never had a problem on Linux keeping one drive as NTFS, or even an NTFS partition along with ext3 and ext4 partitions.
One of the reasons I liked having so many computers is, I could set up accounts on the same services, and then later access them all from a single computer as an invited guest if need be.
Even Yahoo gave me fits trying to use more than one account from the same computer for years, but now we can fairly easily.
Even so, there are a lot of things you cannot do from the same computer, even with different accounts.
Like Farcebook for example: You cannot open person A and person B on Farcebook from the same computer at the same time.
It might be possible is it were done using a VM since those are separate installs of the OS in use.
Because I know I am not long for this earth, I'm trying to make things as simple as possible, so my son and Debi can easily access my data records. Many of them she will need to handle taxes and the like.
Re: Major Announcement
I can't think of anything more simple than putting all your data in one place that is accessible by anyone on any computer. To be honest I don't know if there is a problem with multiple logins to the cloud storage offered by the major vendors. I doubt that they limit you that way, but if all your data is in one place there would be no need for multiple logins. And, even if you could not fit all your data in one free account, I doubt that anyone in your family would consider logging into several accounts simultaneously. But, of course, all this "simple" cloud storage is something I would feel comfortable doing. I realize you have other needs and considerations. All I can add is that regardless of how you set it up, or don't set it up, the family will deal with it in their own terms. That's one reason I'm not all that concerned about my own estate. My kids are clever enough to figure it all out.
If you don't mind I'll bring into this thread another topic we have discussed in the past, i.e. CD/DVD storage devices. I stopped using optical storage several years ago when I discovered the advantages of USB memory sticks. Up to that point, however, I accumulated in my archive dozens of CDs/DVDs I collected or composed over the years. I have Ubuntu OS's going back to 2011 for example.
One of the CD's dates back to 2006, and this one is precious if not valuable. I still have reels of 8mm movies that I took when I was a teenager (1950's) and some of them are real gems. Not too long after I shot the last reel, the bulb in my movie projector burned out and could not be replaced. I could have purchased a new projector I suppose, but didn't do that. I just kept the film in storage. About ten or fifteen years later, long after I was married, the content of those old movies became important. Some of the oldest films were of my dad and his dad, both of which have been gone for more than fifty years now. I was talking about them one time when I went to the ACE hardware store and the clerk said he knew somebody who did conversions of film to CD. I picked out three or four of the most precious reels and sent them to be transferred. It wasn't cheap as I recall, but it was done successfully. I didn't think movie film would last that long, but it did.
So ... then I had all those films on CD. Several copies were made and passed out to the appropriate relatives. Back then CD players were connected to televisions and easy to view those old time movies therein. Recently I've been picking around the Ancestry/Family Search sites and found out people have been modifying that world tree. These people had some interesting information and modified some of my attachments. I have no idea who they are but they seem to be legitimate parts of the family and some of them added pictures. That's when it struck me that I have those old time CDs with some long gone family members on it. The question quickly became, "Could I read a CD that was made in 2006?" The answer is yes. I could not read the CD on the optical drive in the ASUS tower. I think it has not been used in such a long time that dust is covering the laser. Fortunately I have an external optical drive with a USB port. That one had no problems reading the CD. I was overjoyed, of course.
You have told me of your experiences with CD's that literally got flaky, and that is what I expected from this 17 year old disk. Now that I was able to read it, I wanted to convert it to some other format that is more modern, such as mp4 which can be viewed on smartphones. I found a place online that would do the conversion for free. They did all 1.2GB in less than 10 minutes. The only issue I have now is how to edit this huge file into smaller pieces and more germane videos so that I can play them on my smartphone and perhaps pass the files onto other interested parties with their own smartphones. I have a buddy who is good at such things, but he is in NYC. Then there is software I can buy or test, which involves a learning curve. I'll figure something out but for now I am ecstatic that I have digital versions of that old CD. I don't know why it still works, but it does after 17 years of dormancy.
If you don't mind I'll bring into this thread another topic we have discussed in the past, i.e. CD/DVD storage devices. I stopped using optical storage several years ago when I discovered the advantages of USB memory sticks. Up to that point, however, I accumulated in my archive dozens of CDs/DVDs I collected or composed over the years. I have Ubuntu OS's going back to 2011 for example.
One of the CD's dates back to 2006, and this one is precious if not valuable. I still have reels of 8mm movies that I took when I was a teenager (1950's) and some of them are real gems. Not too long after I shot the last reel, the bulb in my movie projector burned out and could not be replaced. I could have purchased a new projector I suppose, but didn't do that. I just kept the film in storage. About ten or fifteen years later, long after I was married, the content of those old movies became important. Some of the oldest films were of my dad and his dad, both of which have been gone for more than fifty years now. I was talking about them one time when I went to the ACE hardware store and the clerk said he knew somebody who did conversions of film to CD. I picked out three or four of the most precious reels and sent them to be transferred. It wasn't cheap as I recall, but it was done successfully. I didn't think movie film would last that long, but it did.
So ... then I had all those films on CD. Several copies were made and passed out to the appropriate relatives. Back then CD players were connected to televisions and easy to view those old time movies therein. Recently I've been picking around the Ancestry/Family Search sites and found out people have been modifying that world tree. These people had some interesting information and modified some of my attachments. I have no idea who they are but they seem to be legitimate parts of the family and some of them added pictures. That's when it struck me that I have those old time CDs with some long gone family members on it. The question quickly became, "Could I read a CD that was made in 2006?" The answer is yes. I could not read the CD on the optical drive in the ASUS tower. I think it has not been used in such a long time that dust is covering the laser. Fortunately I have an external optical drive with a USB port. That one had no problems reading the CD. I was overjoyed, of course.
You have told me of your experiences with CD's that literally got flaky, and that is what I expected from this 17 year old disk. Now that I was able to read it, I wanted to convert it to some other format that is more modern, such as mp4 which can be viewed on smartphones. I found a place online that would do the conversion for free. They did all 1.2GB in less than 10 minutes. The only issue I have now is how to edit this huge file into smaller pieces and more germane videos so that I can play them on my smartphone and perhaps pass the files onto other interested parties with their own smartphones. I have a buddy who is good at such things, but he is in NYC. Then there is software I can buy or test, which involves a learning curve. I'll figure something out but for now I am ecstatic that I have digital versions of that old CD. I don't know why it still works, but it does after 17 years of dormancy.
Re: Major Announcement
Cloud Storage, if that annual fee is not kept paid up after I go to the grave. All would be lost then too.
I did buy a box of USB sticks to add some important data for my son, only to find, the size of them as advertised is not the size they really are. What they sold as 320 gig sticks were only 320 meg sticks. Still a lot, but it was false advertising.
Some of the old data I kept on CDs are technically worthless, because there are no programs that can read some of the data created with proprietary programs that exist no longer in any form. Almost lost my genealogy files for the same reason, almost. Their new programs could not read the original nor later programs which were not upgraded every couple of years.
And that is another reason I prefer Linux and open source software that can save in a myriad of formats.
Interestingly enough, I've had a lot of 3-1/2" floppies go bad, or could not be read.
But the old 5-1/4" floppies live on and one, even those single sided ones I punched a hole in so they could be used on both sides.
So in some ways, that old stuff was better, but no machines can hold the old 5-1/4 floppy drives now.
I did buy a box of USB sticks to add some important data for my son, only to find, the size of them as advertised is not the size they really are. What they sold as 320 gig sticks were only 320 meg sticks. Still a lot, but it was false advertising.
Some of the old data I kept on CDs are technically worthless, because there are no programs that can read some of the data created with proprietary programs that exist no longer in any form. Almost lost my genealogy files for the same reason, almost. Their new programs could not read the original nor later programs which were not upgraded every couple of years.
And that is another reason I prefer Linux and open source software that can save in a myriad of formats.
Interestingly enough, I've had a lot of 3-1/2" floppies go bad, or could not be read.
But the old 5-1/4" floppies live on and one, even those single sided ones I punched a hole in so they could be used on both sides.
So in some ways, that old stuff was better, but no machines can hold the old 5-1/4 floppy drives now.
Re: Major Announcement
You are right about paid cloud storage. If you stop paying for the subscription, you forfeit the account and its data. Free accounts do not work that way, but you do have to maintain the account. Google, for example, just started to purge accounts that have been inactive for two years or longer. I don't know what policy Microsoft and Apple go by. In any case the prudent thing to do would be to have multiple copies of any archive. You can continue doing whatever you are doing now, for example, and still put it all onto cloud storage too. It's not just a matter of being redundant. As I pointed out earlier ease of access is the big advantage of cloud storage. Plus they also back up your data so that it is unlikely to be lost.
Storage media is one thing, but the format used to store the data is a whole new can of worms. Even the FOSS people change things to keep up with technology. The only good solution is to reformat in keeping with changes in technology. If you use a program with proprietary storage, you are doing so at your own risk. The exception would be to use software from companies like Oracle and IBM. They go out of their way to preserve your data. Then again, for tens of thousands of dollars in licensing fees, you should get some good protection. LOL
In situations such as your own the use of floppy disks is not that outlandish if you have the equipment to do it. For business purposes they are useless due to their small capacity for storage and their painfully long retrieval time. I don't know what the shelf life of floppy disks is supposed to be, but it's got to be a lot less than flash memory. Most of today's flash memory is good for 5000 r/w operations. I don't think floppy disks come close to that.
Storage media is one thing, but the format used to store the data is a whole new can of worms. Even the FOSS people change things to keep up with technology. The only good solution is to reformat in keeping with changes in technology. If you use a program with proprietary storage, you are doing so at your own risk. The exception would be to use software from companies like Oracle and IBM. They go out of their way to preserve your data. Then again, for tens of thousands of dollars in licensing fees, you should get some good protection. LOL
In situations such as your own the use of floppy disks is not that outlandish if you have the equipment to do it. For business purposes they are useless due to their small capacity for storage and their painfully long retrieval time. I don't know what the shelf life of floppy disks is supposed to be, but it's got to be a lot less than flash memory. Most of today's flash memory is good for 5000 r/w operations. I don't think floppy disks come close to that.
Re: Major Announcement
I've had a bad day trying to breathe.
I used to have to mail, via USPS, my work to the boss in another state.
All the time we used 5-1/4 floppies, we only needed to send one back and forth.
But when they switched to 3-1/2 floppies, they lost so much data, we had to make 3 copies to send each time, which also made the postage higher as well.
None of my machines can hold a 5-1/4 drive anymore, which is no big deal really, I have everything on the hard drives now anyhow.
I used to have to mail, via USPS, my work to the boss in another state.
All the time we used 5-1/4 floppies, we only needed to send one back and forth.
But when they switched to 3-1/2 floppies, they lost so much data, we had to make 3 copies to send each time, which also made the postage higher as well.
None of my machines can hold a 5-1/4 drive anymore, which is no big deal really, I have everything on the hard drives now anyhow.
Re: Major Announcement
I don't know if it's related to what you are experiencing in Tennessee, but my wife has had a lot of trouble with what seems to be her allergies. My eyes and sinuses are bothering me too so that I am sure the quality of the air has degraded. I also read a short item telling how the allergy season has increased in length by about 15 days over the past 20 years. It all adds up to breathing problems even for us more healthy folks. Fortunately the hurricane season begins in about ten days. A few good storms out of the Atlantic should help clear the air for us land lubbers.
Apparently some people are still using floppy disks because they are readily available online. That's an interesting phenomena because that old technology can't have the cost advantage today that it once had.
Apparently some people are still using floppy disks because they are readily available online. That's an interesting phenomena because that old technology can't have the cost advantage today that it once had.
Re: Major Announcement
I'm beginning to think it is my heart again. I can have my O2 at 97 and pulse at 79. Get up and walk only as far as the door in my office, my O2 drops to 92, and my pulse jumps up to 105 that quick. Even if I turn my O2 up to 4 lpm or even 5 lmpm. It still drops like a rock and my heart starts racing.
I used to keep all of my fonts on 5-1/4 floppies, one font set per floppy, but most of those were proprietary and came that way. I just added to the collection is all.
I used to keep all of my fonts on 5-1/4 floppies, one font set per floppy, but most of those were proprietary and came that way. I just added to the collection is all.