Don’t regret later

Here’s how you can hit back at Murphy’s Law: be prepared

If anything can go wrong, it will. That’s the Fourth Law of Thermodynamics — more infamously known as Murphy’s Law. And when it comes to men, machines and computing devices, this is by far the most commonly occurring phenomenon. Feeling ecstatic about how nicely your presentation is shaping up? Boom! Your hard disk crashes... Thrilled with all the pictures of your glorious Leh trek and dying to get back put them up on Facebook? Hell! You lose your phone at the airport… Just waiting to put the final touches to the 25-page report for the boss? Oh no! The file is corrupted and won’t open… Sounds familiar, eh?

Such appalling scenarios are typically played out in most people’s lives at some point or the other. And they always happen without the slightest whiff of a warning, at the least opportune moment. Moral of the story: if everything is going too well, you’ve obviously overlooked something. So why be complacent and wait for disaster to strike? Instead of fretting and fuming and then flapping around for divine intervention in the form of some Great Indian Jugaad, how about building in a few basic prudent safeguards. These precautions will help you circumvent standard pitfalls, thus saving a lot of time, effort, and money — along with heartache and hypertension — in the long run.

Safety first

Smartphones today are not just repositories of personal data they are often custodians of our private, digital and fiscal lives. Till as few years ago, losing your phone meant possible misuse of your contact list by a devious stranger. Today, with all the banking, mobile wallet, credit card and shopping apps stuffed into the phone — and maybe PIN and TPIN codes too, in some cases — the repercussions of a lost handset can be ominous. Plus, don’t forget the open email, Facebook, Twitter or other social networking site access that will be available on the device for malicious intent.

Therefore, it is very important to always--repeat, always — secure your phone with a password. If your device offers fingerprint locking, nothing like it. Else, use a PIN code to lock it.

You can use a patterns lock too. But please be aware that repeated finger swipe patterns often leave a smudge trail that can be easy to spot and trace. If you don’t agree with this and insist on deploying a pattern lock, at least make the zigzag is more intricate than simplistic V, U, or 7.

If you want to store personal and sensitive data you save on your phone, hide it behind a password-protected app like LastPass, Keeper, Somnote or Flava. Last but not the least, spend a few moments to learn how to remote lock, locate and erase a wayward smartphone. This critical security feature is built into all smartphone operating systems today and can prove invaluable if your phone is stolen or misplaced. The same holds true for tablets as well.

Then Backup

The First Amendment to Murphy’s Law states that, if there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that causes maximum damage will be the one to go wrong. You may feel mighty complacent and invincible about the safety of your precious files and data ensconced in a new PC. But you never know. You could still suffer a crippling disk crash, or a villainous virus attack, or criminal theft. Nay, you could even forgetfully hit the delete. So, it’s always advisable to back up important data. And on separate mediums, ranging from inexpensive DVDs to now-affordable external hard disks to the umpteen cloud backup services.

External hard disks and DVDs are wonderful and fairly failsafe devices, but between office and home, there are not too many places you can snuck them away out of harm’s way. Forget coffee/paani-spills, office/home shifting accidents, careless-colleague-caused-calamities, absent-minded-encounters-with-a-dustbin-during-a-spring-cleaning-bout… However minimal the chances, be warned that you can’t forestall mechanical failures, misplacement, accidents, natural calamities, or burglaries, etc.

To redeem this situation, off-site data backups are the best protection against almost everything. And perhaps the most convenient and safest off-site location for backups is the Internet. Or the cloud, as it is popularly called today. There are a number of easy-to-use, fairly automated cloud-based online backup services to get you started. Beyond Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and Apple’s iCloud, there’s Mozy, Carbonite, iDrive and OpenDrive etc. Not only do such services provide a secure facility for storing your documents and data, you can also park your music and photos here. Instant access, sharing and collaboration options are part of the deal. Besides, it’s not just what’s on your PC or Mac that’s backed up. Many online services also backup data from your smartphone, tablet, web browser or API-enabled devices as well.

Don’t be daunted by the thought of treading such uncharted tech territory. Rest assured, online backup services are usually user-friendly and uncomplicated. Besides, you can start with a free limited space or time trial offer before spending any moolah. At the very least, use gratis services of iCloud, Drive, or OneDrive. For images alone, there’s nothing to beat Google Photos right now.

Source | http://www.mydigitalfc.com/knowledge/don%E2%80%99t-regret-later-006

Regards

Pralhad Jadhav

Senior Manager @ Library

Khaitan & Co

Best Paper Award | Received the Best Paper Award at TIFR-BOSLA National Conference on Future Librarianship: Innovation for Excellence (NCFL 2016) on April 23, 2016.  The title of the paper is “Removing Barriers to Literacy: Marrakesh VIP Treaty”

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