Keeping track of my stuff…

Quick note – my MacBook Pro is being repaired, and I had to add this post from the iPad Blogger app. It is my first time using the app, and it has very limited features and is not importing my bold text, links, and it is not letting my reposition images. I will fix this post as soon as I have my Mac back!


If you are anything like my husband and I, you regularly visit numerous website that require a login with a username and password. As it is never a good idea to use the same password for multiple websites, how do you remember all your different passwords? And what about all the other information you need at your finger tips — your spouse’s social security number, medical insurance number, retirement account numbers … well, you get the picture. We are all responsible for too much information!

A few years ago I wrote a column about how difficult it is to keep track of all this information. Back then, my solution was to use a small notebook, divided into sections with write-on tabs. The system worked very well, but the notebook was something else I had to keep track of. If we traveled, I had to be certain that I had my notebook with me. Last summer I resolved to find an electronic version of my notebook for my iPad. I tried several different apps, and I found a solution that I am very happy with — Keeper.

Keeper is a database specifically designed to catalog and protect your passwords and private information. The app is free to download, and initially I entered a few records before taking the plunge and entering all of my information. The app divides your records into categories, or folders, with builtin fields for the name of the record, login name, password, web address, and notes. You can also add custom fields specific to each individual record.

The app itself is password protected, and when you select the app, the first screen that appears looks like a vault with a text box to enter your password. (It is very important to create a Keeper password that is easy for you to remember, but not easy to crack.) The app allows three tries before self-destructing – and erasing all your data (although it remains available for online retrieval).

Once I decided to keep using the app, I installed it on both my iPad and iPhone. While Keeper is free to download, it costs $9.99 per year, per device to sync your information between devices. In addition to syncing devices, the subscription gives you unlimited online backups and storage, web access from anywhere, and 24/7 live support. The best part is that my iPhone and iPad are in sync. Information entered on one device immediately appears on the other.

Keeper is pretty amazing, and I am using it to store all of our important information, not just login information.  My Keeper contains fifteen folders, and each folder stores from three to twelve records, and making edits on already entered information is relatively easy. I can also assess my records online, from any computer, by logging into the Keeper Security website.

Keeper versions are available for Mac, Windows, and LInux computers; Apple iPads, iPhones, and iPods; Android smart phones and tablets; Windows phones; and the Amazon Kindle Fire. For more information on Keeper, visit the website at keepersecurity.com.

Linda's 5-Stage Backup Plan …

What is the best way to backup the important data on your computer? There is no right or wrong answer to this question, only what works best for you. To help you get started on making your own personal backup plan, today’s column is an overview of how my husband and I go about backing up our computer data.

Last week I listed five steps for backing up data, and I mentioned that you can backup to flash drives, external hard drives, or to a cloud (internet) storage service. In the recent past many people also created backups on CD and DVD discs, but these discs are much too small and slow for serious data backup, and I do not recommend using them. What follows is an expanded version of my 5-Step Backup Plan. 

Point 1 – Create a complete backup of your computer's hard drive. 

For my MacBook Pro I use TimeMachine, a native backup utility installed on all Apple computers running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard). If you have a desktop Mac, you can leave an external USB drive plugged in all the time and TimeMachine will make incremental backups every hour. With my laptop, I plug the USB drive in every few days and activate TimeMachine. Eddie's Dell laptop is backed up to a second USB drive using the backup utility built into Windows 7. If you prefer not to use the builtin options, a bit of research will uncover numerous other third party backup solutions. 

Point 2 – Backup your most important files to a flash drive every time you make changes.

Eddie uses Quicken to keep track of our financial records. To insure that he never loses any of this very important data, he keeps an 8 GB flash drive next to his computer, and at least once a day, he creates a file backup on the drive. For my part, my most important files are my photographic images. When I import photos from a camera to my hard drive, I also put copies of the photos on a flash drive as a safety measure. 

Thumb-sized flash drives are very inexpensive, with 8 GB drives selling for under $10, and you should have several in your desk drawer. 

Point 3 – If one backup is good, two is better.

One backup copy of your hard drive is never enough. If the backup data saved in one location is lost, having a second copy can be a life saver. The second copy can be saved on a second external hard drive, or in the "Cloud." Cloud storage services are remote facilities that you connect via the Internet using password protection. A major advantage of Cloud storage is that your data is accessible from any computer, anywhere that has a secure Internet access. 

In addition to our local backups, Eddie and I both store copies of our data in the Cloud. After some extensive research, we purchased a two-year subscription to ZipCloud. Most of the Cloud-based services offer a 30-day free trial, and we tried several plans before settling on ZipCloud. One of the clear advantages of ZipCloud over competing plans was the availability of unlimited storage at a very reasonable price. 

ZipCloud backups are incremental – the initial backup can take a long time, but subsequent backups are much faster. Cloud-based backups need fast, broadband internet connections. At home in New York we have high speed Verizon FIOS and it performs excellently. At TR we have a Centurylink DSL connection which performs reasonably well, although at a significantly slower speed.

Point 4 – Keep one backup of important information in a remote location. 

In the past, good advise was to keep a copy of important files in a safe deposit box. With the advent of cloud storage, it has become much easier to store files remotely. In addition to periodic backups of his complete drive, Eddie creates a daily ZipCloud backup of his financial files. ZipCloud also allows for the backup of external hard drives, and as soon as I put my photo library files in order, I plan to back up all my external USB drives.

Point 5 – Make periodic backups of smart phones and tablet computers.

You might be surprised how much information is stored on your smart phones and tablet computers; information that needs backing up in case something happens to the devices. Apple iPhone and iPad are backed up every time they are connected to the iTunes application on both Macs and PCs. 

Apple iPhone and iPad users, whether you are PC or Mac computers users, should have iTunes application installed on your computer. iTunes was originally developed to download and manage music on the computer, and when the first iPod music player was released iTunes was as a conduit to transfer music from the computer. It has since evolved into the management software for all of the Apple iDevices (iPhone, iPad, or iPod). Apps (small programs that run of the iPhone and IPad), as well as music, can be download into iTunes and then transferred to an iDevice when it is plugged the computer via a USB cord. Additionally, until recently, every time one of these devices are recognized by iTunes all of the information on the device is backed up on the computer. The backups still occur, but you now have a choice as to wether you want to backup to the computer or to Apple’s iCloud service. Everyone who creates an Apple account, which is necessary to utilize the iTunes App Store to download free and purchased apps, is automatically allocated 5 GB of iCloud storage. If you have a lot of information on your iDevice, you would need to purchase additional iCloud space. I choose to backup my devices to my computer.

There is no native method of backing up Android devices, but you can find directions at this online CNet article. 

Not if, but when …

I wrote in last weeks column that my focus for 2013 would be using your computing devices to make life easier — and life isn't easier when you are worried about the safety of information on your computer hard drive. Hard drives fail. There is an adage that it is not "if" a hard drive fails, but "when." Add to that all the information you keep on smartphones and tablets, and we all have a large amount of data to worry about. 

If you have been reading my columns over the past several years, you will know that I am an avid photographer. I take many pictures, and I use my computer for enhancing and editing my work. Often, I will have multiple copies of an edited photo, and many of my images are used in various commercial endeavors. During the summer I began the monumental task of totally reorganizing my digital photo library. Without going into the gory details, the drive I transferred my files to went bad before I could back up the files, and I lost a large volume of work. 

The drive was under warranty, and it was replaced without a problem. I also have backups of some my photo work scattered across my many USB drives, and I keep backup copies almost all of my unedited images. Needless to say, I have a big job of recovery and re-editing to do this winter, as well as making sure that I have one or more backup copies of all my important files. 

I am a strong proponent of making frequent backups, and I practice what I preach, but even when you backup religiously, things can go wrong. If you have a large amount image files, as I do, one backup location is not enough. I have images scattered across many different drives, and each of those drive needs to be backed up. What follows are some practices you might want to consider to avoid having a similar disaster. Next week's column will cover more specifics on backing up your important data. 

1. Perform backups of your computer hard drive on a regular basis — daily, or at least weekly, depending on how often you make changes to important files.
2. If you keep your financial records on your computer, using Quicken or a similar financial record keeping program, consider backing up just those files to a USB flash drive every time you make changes.
3. One backup copy of your hard drive, or important files is never enough. If you back up your internal drive to an external drive, consider subscribing to a cloud (online) backup service as well.
4. Keep backups of important information in more than location (see number 3, above). If you keep all your backups in your house, and there is a disaster of some kind, you lose everything. 
5. Backup tablets and smart phone regularly, either to your computer, the cloud, or both. 

If you are looking for additional information before next week's column, do a Google search of COMPUTER BACKUP. Anything from CNET is a good place to start.

Happy 2013!

As the new year begins I cannot help but think about how my use of computers has evolved since retiring from teaching in 2003. Back then I prided myself on being on the cutting edge of technology. I had a Palm Pilot type PDA  (personal digital assistant) device which held my calendar, address book, and occasional notes. My computer was a top-of-the-line Macintosh laptop with a 17 inch screen, 512 megabytes (MB) of RAM and a whopping 10 gigabytes (GB) hard drive. I kept track of student attendance on my PDA (as a high school teacher I saw multiple classes each day), and my grade book was a spreadsheet I designed to automatically compute averages and final grades. 

Much has changed since then. Teachers in schools all over the country (including my high school) keep attendance records and grades online. PDAs have been replaced by smart phones, and tablet computers have carved out a large portion of the computer marketplace. Personally I use a smartphone, tablet, and a laptop computer. And while many of the functions of these devices are not too different than the functions of their 2003 predecessors, they interact with each other seamlessly. When I make an entry to my calendar, address book or note pad on a single device the information is shared between all three devices. 

When I began writing OnMouseClick, my goal was to help novice computer users navigate the ins and out of working with personal computers. As the years passed readers became more comfortable with computer use and the focus of OnMouseClick shifted to the world of online technology – and in 2012 to social media. This season OnMouseClick will focus on tying everything together. How to setup a smartphone, tablet and personal computer to work in tandem? What accessories are necessary to make devices work smoothly? What applications (or apps as they are called for smartphones and tablets) can be used to connect and communicate with the online world? What apps can be used to make life easier and more fun? What apps keep track of important information? How can online information be kept safe and secure?

An operating system (or OS) is the backbone of any computing device, and determines how the device works. My computer, smartphone and tablet are all Apple devices, using OS X version 10.8 (Mountain Lion), and iOS 6 respectively. However, most of the applications running on the three devices have counterparts that run under Window or Android operating systems, and I will offer relevant information when available.

My 2013 personal hardware lineup includes a MacBook Pro Retina with 8 GB memory and a 250 GB hard drive; a 64 GB iPad 2, and a brand new 32 GB iPhone 5 that replaced my iPhone 4 for Christmas (thanks Santa). My husband uses a Dell laptop running Window 7, a 64 GB iPhone 4, and Santa brought him a 32 GB iPad 3^rd Generation (replacing his original 64 GB iPad).