[Discuss] Death, and other cheery topics
I'm wondering how other people in our community balance two competing factors: 1. Having a powerful computing environment at home: multiple machines, perhaps some of them hosting VM's, running a variety of operating systems, mounting each other's network drives, etc., plus a backup server, and holding critical information like financial records, tax returns, your family's music collection, etc. 2. The knowledge that when you die, there's no conceivable way your family could understand or operate this system, even if they are smart. For me, I document the system, keep backups and critical documents in a safety deposit box (in case my computers and I perish in a fire) along with a Knoppix CD, and occasionally do a run-through with my non-IT-professional spouse. I suspect it's not enough to ensure she can find the password to our bank account in an emergency. What do you do? Keep important records on non-Linux machines so they're easier to access for non-techies? Arrange with an IT-savvy friend to help out if you die? Put the data in the cloud and hope nobody breaks in? Pretend we'll live forever? :-) Dan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Death, and other cheery topics
On 05/10/2012 05:34 PM, Daniel Barrett wrote: I'm wondering how other people in our community balance two competing factors: 1. Having a powerful computing environment at home: multiple machines, perhaps some of them hosting VM's, running a variety of operating systems, mounting each other's network drives, etc., plus a backup server, and holding critical information like financial records, tax returns, your family's music collection, etc. 2. The knowledge that when you die, there's no conceivable way your family could understand or operate this system, even if they are smart. For me, I document the system, keep backups and critical documents in a safety deposit box (in case my computers and I perish in a fire) along with a Knoppix CD, and occasionally do a run-through with my non-IT-professional spouse. I suspect it's not enough to ensure she can find the password to our bank account in an emergency. What do you do? Keep important records on non-Linux machines so they're easier to access for non-techies? Arrange with an IT-savvy friend to help out if you die? Put the data in the cloud and hope nobody breaks in? Pretend we'll live forever? :-) Dan 1. I don't have a powerful computing environment at home. I'm typing this on a $299 compaq laptop running xubuntu. Now my work computer, wow. A beast by system76. 2. I have an agreement with my family that when I die they have to come with me. Everybody get in the pyramid! Also my hard drive is not encrypted. On purpose. - Eric C ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Death, and other cheery topics
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 7:57 PM, Eric Chadbourne eric.chadbou...@gmail.com wrote: 2. The knowledge that when you die, there's no conceivable way your family could understand or operate this system, even if they are smart. I don't have a complex computing environment either. I just have a Windows laptop with a text file on the desktop titled Open If I Die. Every so often I go through and update it. -Dan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Death, and other cheery topics
From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey@blu.org [mailto:discuss- bounces+blu=nedharvey@blu.org] On Behalf Of Daniel Barrett What do you do? I do all that stuff - solaris ZFS and ESXi in the basement, containing all family photos, etc, with removable disk that I rotate offsite to safe deposit box weekly, etc, encrypt everything, in dropbox, etc, etc... I do a dry run once every month or two with my wife, show her where the notes are that would enable my brother to copy the photos to whatever media of choice, etc,etc... And I don't trust any of it to work in the event of my untimely end. So I also use bitlocker, and sync all that stuff to my local hard drive. Just in case, honey, simply remember to look in My Documents. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Death, and other cheery topics
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 7:57 PM, Eric Chadbourne eric.chadbou...@gmail.com wrote: 2. The knowledge that when you die, there's no conceivable way your family could understand or operate this system, even if they are smart. I don't have a complex computing environment either. I just have a Windows laptop with a text file on the desktop titled Open If I Die. Every so often I go through and update it. Open if I die? Something to think of ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [Discuss] Death, and other cheery topics
On Thu, May 10, 2012 at 10:35 PM, ma...@mohawksoft.com wrote: Open if I die? Something to think of I'm not sure what you mean. -Dan ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@blu.org http://lists.blu.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
