Mac Roundtable 217 is hosted by:
Chuck Joiner – MacVoices Twitter, App.net
Allison Sheridan NosillaCast @podfeet on Twitter
Bart Busschots www.bartb.ie @bbusschots on Twitter
Adam Christianson Maccast @maccast on Twitter, App.net

In this more serious episode of the Mac Roundtable we talk about what kinds of things we, as geeks, can do to help our friends and families in case something ever happens to us.

Making Arrangements
– Not just “final arrangements” but in event of emergencies, natural disasters, accidents
– Hurricanes, tornados, floods, fires make houses and offices disappear
– Does your partner/family/trusted freind know where the keys to your digital kingdom are?
– Do they know what it is you care about and would like to see preserved?
– Have you spoken with them about how they could do that?
– Have you told them what’s valuable and what’s junk in your nerd cave?

Backup Backup Backup
– Because something as simple as thurough burglary or a house fire could easily lose you both your computer and your backup disk(s), it really is vital to get at least one copy off-site.
– If you have the luxury of a fast internet connection, cloud-based backups are a great option – particularly those that run in the background without you having to remember to do anything
– If you don’t have the luxury of a fast internet conneciton, keeping an ENCRYPTED disk in your parents house or your office drawer in work is a great option.
– Backups come in two versions – clones, and versioned backups – they solve very different problems, so you really should have at least one of each
– Bart’s setup is an encrypted TimeMachine disk which never leaves the house (a versioned backup for those ‘oops I guess I deleted that 6 months ago by mistake’ moments), and a pair of identical encrypted clone backups which I rotate between home an a trusted off-site location. The reason to have a pair is that if you only have one, the night you bring it home to do a backup, you have all your eggs in one basket – if you do that multiple times a week, you are un-protected much too often. By having two there will be times when both are away from the house (where the Time Machine still is in case the safe location is destroyed), but never times when all my eggs are in one basket. He rotates his clones 3 to 4 times a week depending on how creative I’m being that week.

Passwords
– Password managers – 1Password, LastPass
LastPass allows you to share passwords – you can share your master password between accounts so your partner has the keys to your kingdom
– Printed copies in safe-deposit box
– Be sure you can give someone access to master password for your password manager
– Be sure you supply the master password for your Mac and/or iDevices.
– What about 2-factor authentication?
– Have you added someone else’s nunber as an alternate ID
– Do they have access to your backup 2-fact keys?

Services
– What services are used for what and why? What would someone need to know about these services if something happened to you?
– Dropbox – shared files? Synced files?
– Flickr – photo storage/backup? (not a viable backup for serious photographers, only stores JPEGs, not RAWs, so equivalent to a film shooter backing up prints but not negatives)
– CrashPlan – online backup, versioned backup
– Other off-site backup options – where are they, how to get to them?
– Social media services

Credit Card-funded services
– Cards get cut off…does that mean your service will too? – eventually, yes!
– Beware of PayPal-based subscriptions – they can get cut off instantly when your card goes – I’ve repeatedly lost partial months of subscriptions to Mac OS Ken Day 6 because I had to change the credit card on file for various reasons (card expiry, new card issued by bank out of an abundance of caution etc.).

Hardware
– Label your power adapters with Sharpies!
or get a label maker
– What do you have, what is it worth?
– Organize your cables into big ziplocs and write “micro USB” for example and put them in drawers. You’ll be happier and more efficient and so will your survivors
– Bart has a secure note in 1Password for every major item he buys including what he paid and warranty expiration

Trusted Geek Friends
– Who can and will help with critical data
– This is the best thing you can do. Someone you trust AND who’s knowledgeable

What do you want to survive you? And what will your family want to survive you?
– web site?
– social media presence(s)?
– photo collection?
– how to fund those, who is caretaker (if one is needed)
– Google recently made the first move towards making this kind of thing easy with their “Inactive Account Manager” – http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.ie/2013/04/plan-your-digital-afterlife-with.html
– Hopefully other service follow Google’s lead soon

Geek syndrome
– We have this need to be “that guy” who has the right cable, that piece of old memory, but that crap ends up someone else’s problem if something happens to us. Maybe label boxes of crap as “crap”? (becuase we know we’r enot going to change our behaviors

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