Tuesday Sweep: 29 August 2017
Your weekly reminder to back up your data, update software and otherwise pay attention to your digital environment. (Oh, and to go to the CRASH Space meeting…)
Jump in Here
- Welcome. If you haven’t been following along, it’s okay. You’re not behind, you’re just where you are.
- I highly recommend the coach tool at the Crash Override Network has a great step by step break down for many of the same introductory steps we did here.
- Feeling more ambitious? Review the list of OneThing articles and pick one to catch up on.
Sweep
The basics.
- Updated software recently? Pick a new device to check on today.
- Backups still up and running? When was the last time you made a clean disk image? Here’s a new great article on how to design a backup system.
- App and Password Gardening: Delete a low quality app from your phone or delete an account that you don’t need that doesn’t make you happy. Digital cruft builds up. Delete it. If you’re keeping it, can you move the password to your password manager (delete it from everywhere else) and add two factor authentication?
- Move to offline archive & delete your histories where you can find them.
- Double check privacy settings on your phone, social media accounts. The folks running the companies can change the TOS and add “features” before you notice them.
Learn
Where do you scan for news?
- So… Harvey was and continues to be devastating. One of the more interesting articles I read on how flooding got so bad is from last December in the Texas Tribune. To help victims after a disaster, according to ProPublica please focus on sending cash to local groups, recovery will be long and local groups will be there for the duration.
- Net Neutrality comments close tomorrow. Make one.
- DOH. Time to move from CrashPlan to Backblaze if CrashPlan is your current online back up service provider.
- In great news, solar is now the cheapest form of energy in sunnier parts of the world.
- Also super nifty news: Black Girls Code, which I mentioned last sweep, turned down money from Uber and then raised even more… in a WEEKEND! Awesome. Join the band wagon!
- Oh, one MORE good news, India declares privacy a fundamental right!!!
In case y’all didn’t notice, I really needed to focus on good things this week. Stay cool and stay well.
Reflect
Feeling dumb or stupid about how not-l33t you are? Angsting over some silly thing you “know better than to do.” Stop. That isn’t useful. Regret is only of use if it prompts an actual change in behavior. Maybe it’s NOT you that sucks. Could be it’s the technology and you could come up with a fix that would help lots of people. Look forward and make a plan.
Engage
We are a community. You are a welcome part of it.
