Digital Balance

Finding balance in the digital world

Over the last couple of months I’ve had to reload my personal laptop, replace my personal desktop, and rebuild the home server. This doesn’t count the kids computer, or my wife’s computer(s), or all the people that call for computer help. This also doesn’t count the new laptop at work, or the new desktop that just came in, or the forth coming iPad that I’m being issued. Oh ya, and don’t forget my Android phone.

So just for me, I have to balance 2 laptops, 2 desktops, a smartphone, and a forth coming iPad. That’s just hardware. Now, I know technically that the work stuff is for work, and no I don’t do major personal stuff on any of it but that doesn’t mean there isn’t some bleed over. Now, the hardware really isn’t the focus of this post, it’s just an example. I was hoping to illustrate how hard it can be to keep track of 6 pieces of equipment that I use every day. Like I said, this post isn’t about the hardware but it is an important aspect.

Another issue I noticed when I was the crap that was on these machines, and I don’t mean porn or viruses. I’m talking about files. My desktop was a digital wasteland of files. I had stuff on the hard drive from 10 years ago. Some of this stuff dated back to my first pc. I bet I hadn’t looked at in 9.5 years. Across my work laptop, work desktop, personal laptop, and personal desktop I found a vast waste land of homework. This was recent work. The problem with that? Different versions across all those machines. It’s freakin insane that I am so disorganized when one of the purposes of the modern info age, is to help you get organized. Blah.

So that’s the hardware side, the software side, but the real horror was uncovered when I stopped for a moment to setup my logins. You would think I’m talking about the logins to servers at work, or my bank accounts, or credit cards, or seemingly really important stuff like that. Nope, not talking about that. I’m talking about all the logins to all of the dozens different tech sites I use, visit, or linger at in the shadows. I’m talking about all of the personal websites that I have a login to. I’m talking about the social media sites like facebook, twitter, picasso, and I forget what else.

See where I’m coming from here? It’s a failure….it warrants the facepalm x 3. It really does.

 Between the computers, the lack of versioning control in my life (not to mention I’m an apparent digital hoarder), and the chaos that is my online life, I decided I needed to find some kind of balance. There has got to be a better way to manage this digital nightmare. Remember, I’m also a married grad student. There are two things I don’t have a lot of, money and time.

Here’s some tools that I have found that help immensely, and most of them are free:

• LastPass – Online password management tool. Now, before you go lecturing me about compromising security, no one said put your sensitive passwords into it. But to manage online accounts like ITWorld, forums, etc. Lastpass will also auto fill credentials for you. Less typing.

• SugarSync – SugarSync is cloud storage. You get 5GB’s worth of room for free. The beautiful apart, is multiple pc’s can sync files/folders. This works great to keep my homework assignments sync’ed up. There’s a pc utility and a web interface. Whatever you’re comfortable with.

• OpenID – A recent trend in managing your online credentials. A single signon to rule them all, so to speak. The OpenID concept is that you have one master login for all the sites you go to. The catch? Well, not all sites support OpenID and when they do….there’s 5 or 6 major OpenID players such as Yahoo, Google, and Facebook off the top of my head. For example, you can use your Twitter account to login to Joe’s Coffee shop to setup your account at Joe’s Coffee shop.

With social media becoming a part of our everyday lives, the digital world is becoming as important as the real world (insert visions or comments about The Matrix here). It stands to reason that everyone will have to address my issues at some point. I mean, it’s already important that you protect your identity, employers are looking at your online presence as part of the screening process, email and online postings can be admissible in court. The time of being able to remain anonymous online is quickly coming to a close.

In short, computers are no longer just a tool. The digital life is becoming a part of who we are as a person, as a culture, as part of life on earth. At some point, the point where a person’s digital identity and real life identity will become so blurred it will be difficult to separate. Perhaps for some of us, that point has already been reached. We need to, at least I know I do, do a better job of keeping up with this data/information.