The End of Privacy

The End of Privacy

I am beginning with three assumptions:

1. That anything that has been digitized on any network that is not encrypted is accessible by government investigators.

2. That anything that has been digitized on any network that is not encrypted can be accessed and or sold to any corporation in order to sell you things.

3. That anything that has been digitized on any network that is not encrypted can be stolen by criminals for various malicious ends.

Basically, what is happening is an assault is your privacy.  There are various dangers these assumptions imply, and I think that you will fear one over the other depending on your own individual makeup.  Over the next few days, I am going to explain what i feel are the three best strategies for dealing with the current reality.
 

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Stuff I Use: Keybreeze

Download Keybreeze

Keybreeze is an incredibly useful, tiny little application.  Let me explain how it could make your life better.

I think that windows has been busily conditioning us to do everything via the mouse.  For instance, say you want to open the novel you're writing.  Say it's in documents, in the subfolder novel.  First you click on the start menu, then documents, then novel.

Contrast this with what would happen with keybreeze.  You teach the program where the file is (you can manually type the location, browse, or right click the file).  Then you would activate keybreeze (my hot key is 'end') and type novel or no or whatever you want to open the file.

Key breeze can also fetch definitions, tv schedules or just about any other task you can automate.

You can also use keybreeze to create 'macros.'  Macros are recorded strings of mouse movements/keystrokes you can use to automate just about anything (like logging into a forum).

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Stuff I Use: Gizmo Project

I just started using the Gizmo Project. I am definately going to continue. Two product summaries are in order to explain gizmo project.

Skype is free internet telephony. You can call or have voice chats with other skype users for free. You can also make calls to cell phone numbers fairly cheap. skype also offers voicemail (free) a call in number (fee) etc.

Then you have pidgin (which does the same thing trillian does, but is open source. You have friends that only use aol instant messenger, some friends that use yahoo messenger and of course your buddies in gmail. You can chat with any of these people over their own clients, but wouldn't it be nice not to have to use four different clients? Pidgin is one program from which you can use multiple chat programs/accounts.

Which brings us nicely to Gizmo Project. Previously I had been using skype for free voice over internet and pidgin for instant messenger. Gizmo serves both functions, free voice chat/calls and a meta instant messenger. Nice bonus is they offer the same features to your phone.

Summary: Think skype + pidgin/trillian with open protocols.

Advantage: All your chats in one place, on the pc or on the phone.

Disadvantage: Not as big of user base as skype, I prefer pidgin's interface/setup.

Edit: Currently gizmo is unable to handle jabber, ichat etc. For this reason, I use skype and pidgin. Pidgin can handle all of the chat services I use, and skype has more stable free telephony plus a larger user base. I still would like a meta system, but until one is developed I am going to use the best/most popular services. Although, I still use Gizmo on my phone.

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Passwords and Pass Phrases: Take 3

In case you needed any more motivation to start using more secure passwords/pass phrases, this post on one man's blog talks about how shockingly easy it would be to break through most passwords.

My Set up Part 5: Writing, Projects and Todos

There is absolutely nothing wrong with using office or similar software (like the open source and free openoffice) on your home pc. However, in order to access my documents anywhere and in order to colaborate in real(ish) time I decided to start using an online service.

I used to use zohowriter -which is actually reviewed higher then google docs and whose format I prefered- but switched because google docs is more convient (not as much sign in sign out, being able to see access content from a centralized location ect). I use google docs and google notebook to keep track of the projects I am working on and my next actions/todos respectively (For instance, I use a couple of Master Google Documents to coordinate wedding planning with my fiance). Google docs can't handle heavy formatting, like exporting to pdf. For such I use openoffice at home. Google documents does load really quickly (much faster then office) and can usually get the job done.

My Set Up Part 4: Calander

Everybody needs a calander right? Right.

I use google calender.

My Setup Part 3: Bookmarks

To make a bookmark is to simply make a note of any site you find useful/interesting/entertaining and want to find later. The function of making and saving bookmarks is standard for browsers. I had two problems however with the built in bookmarking feature. One was that I wanted access to my bookmarks wherever I happened to be (so a browser installed on my pc wouldn't work) and two, I was generating way too many bookmarks (in the hundreds) and had trouble finding what I was looking for.

The way that I solved these problems was to begin using http://del.icio.us/ Del.icio.us at its most basic level is a website that allows you to save your bookmarks online. I use it because I can access (and make) bookmarks anywhere. Beyond that, del.icio.us give you space to summarize and title the bookmarks however you want (while a bookmark in ie would be the title of the website, I can use whatever title strikes my fancy like 'paper to read'). Del.icio.us then gives you space to write a explanation of the site in as many words as you want. Del.icio.us allows the user (you or me) to better organize and retrieve bookmarks through making these subscriptions fully searchable and also taggable. (Tags are small words or phrases used to describe the content of something.) Some of the tags I use commonly range from 'reference' 'aggregator' 'to-do' and 'cool.' But I have definitely abused the cool tag, though that is more of a personal problem then a flaw of del.icio.us. ;p These are all the personal advantages of using del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is made better by the fact that -in addition to the personal advantages mentioned above- it also has social advantages. Del.icio.us has an dedicated search function, which searches the content the thousands of other users are marking, describing and tagging. Google and yahoo are still my search preferences, but Del.icio.us is pretty dang useful too (note: del.icio.us is owned by yahoo). Del.icio.us also has tools to help you find people who have similar tastes (and going and finding more sites through this) subscribing to other people's bookmarks. For instance, I like sci-fi and I find that mark40xv6 is good at finding and tagging sci fi resources. I can subscribe (ie be alerted to) all mark's new book marks or just his sci-fi tagged book marks. Del.icio.us tells you how common your bookmarks are, and can use your bookmarks to find other users like you.

If you and I wished to share bookmarks -and we were both del.icio.us users- we could tag things 'share' for stuff we wanted each other to see like for: john michael.

I use del.icio.us primarily for the personal/solitary advantages. It's nice to be able to access my bookmarks everywhere, and I for one would be overwhelmed trying to record all the sites of interest without the ability to organize my bookmarks through tags and search through them. The downside is, like most of the web apps, you are making more information about yourself readily available. Bad guys of any shade and stripe could learn a lot about a person just by going through their bookmarks... where one lives, what ones interests are ect. This is potentially averted by making ones bookmarks private.

When everything is said and done, Del.icio.us has become essential for me. It is a service I use everyday. If you want to start using del.icio.us I would reccomend getting the extension for firefox or ie.