The 'NoDelete' lifestyle.

I am not sure when I first came to contemplate what I now refer to as the "no delete" lifestyle. I know this much, that it was chronologically near the time I contemplated the exhaustive algorithm that there is no God. By referring back to my efforts (defined in technical terms as "aplogetics," by Webster's,) we can see that I was also aware that the exhaustive algorithm is one way to refute espionage charges. Another illuminating illustration in email was that in which "the crime committed shall have been committed in Montana, and I have never _been_ to Montana." Montana is the State where the speed limit is "reasonable and prudent." It is not politically possible to speed on the open highway there, without having an accident. Other than that, it is known for its irreverent (if patriotic,) militias. I have never actually been to Big Sky Country, but it ought to give me a good idea of "how to truly _appreciate_ rural Texas:-)" The idea was original with me that long ago. It has curious applications. I am not sure how, but the most recent thing it has taught me is that Sam's gift of Terra byte Hard Drives to Travis was not a waste... he was simply avoiding being a Guinea Pig - if Travis has good success with them, Sam will adopt them later, when the "early adopter tax" (for that article) is revoked. Random bullet points would be: - There is a high qualification of ethics and moral character on all communications if the intention is NEVER to delete. - There is a certainty that the recipient cannot misrepresent my content (potentially not even my intentions) if I keep time and date stamped records. - There is certainty that (if I keep all electronic responses) I will be sure of the context of the conversation. - Snail Mail is easily maintained if Word Processed originals are kept in a marginally organized file system, even when hard copies are printed and mailed. - There is an Open Source application available that makes a printer available that merely converts the potentially printed output to a (link-less and flat) PDF. Saved as a .pdf file, this will do for online receipts, online statements, one-off miscellany etc. - There should be a sanguine acceptance that otherwise "normal" friends can review my intentions as a "Weasel." - Backups on a schedule are an obligation. Media and off site storage can be creatively (safety deposit box for example) maintained, but data sections of HDD become importantly different from program and cache areas. - Open Source makes applications available that capture and index ALL WEB pages viewed by a given _browser._ Different instances of the same browser continue to collect, but necessary privacy can be maintained by using varied browsers. Ex. Security professionals recommend a "prudish" browser for Banking and VPN accesses, where the common browser is reviewed as "promiscuous" by choice.These capture files may be stored in "hidden" files on HDD. Back up these files pre-indexing - They are gold-mines on occasion. - Bookmark files are worth backing up - restoring them is child's play, and bookmark lists are as individually useful as a personal library or a personal list of known local vendors; the yellow pages should be a SECOND choice. - A tour of bookmarks might give you an idea of what your online mall looks like when you are bored. EX; News - Abcnews, BBCnews, CNN might be my news outlets of choice. I should not conclude anything about a reader simply by observing them - intent does not follow observation. However, if the website for Houston ABC affiliate is not on the list, you can reasonably conclude that Mr. X does not go there more often that convenient google search can serve. - Privacy becomes _not_ LESS important, but MORE so - google searches become limited and confined if online preferences are too closely collected, mentally similar to having roadblocks put up at non-arterial roadways in a city, if I do not use them for a year. By having strongly developed identity, I find I want it to leak less, and have well discovered boundaries. - Identities can proliferate. I used to attempt to be rigorous that I did not give out any "valuable" email address from my promiscuous browser - only the "spam" account. Loosely developed, I have an email address for church and close acquaintance, friends and professional obligations. I match this flagship id with name on spam account, differing only by domain. Other ids include - school account, google alert account (these alerts can collect unmonitored for weeks if necessary - I don't want them to confuse my personal stuff.) There is a limited effect of desiring to use my school and flagship interchangeably, commonly answered by forwarding relevant emails from one to the other before proceeding. Separate from google alert account (but possibly _unnecessarily_ so,) I have a subscription account.) Beyond this I maintain some idea of copyright by keeping my (Dallas County registered) "Sole Proprietorship," name as an email address. Gmail provides its service free of charge, but ethics demand that I make responsible use of the ~7 GB of disk space. For my spam account, I employ the Hotmail domain, for the consideration of a fee - this absolves me of guilt for using it solely for spam, and frees me from checking it AT LEAST ONCE every 30 days or it closes by default. Gmail's rule on this is more generous at 90 days, and monthly backups of POP3 files adequately answer this consideration. Gmail provides a blog along with the email - (probably within the same disk space.) Yahoo does not, but offers so-called "throw-away" accounts for paying members. Gmail answers this with "+ operator" accounts. To employ a +-operator accounts, use flasgship+_xyz_@gmail.com as the address you provide. Best applied this might take the form of jack.spratt+amazon_spam@gmail.com when signing up at an amazon.com affiliate. The filter "amazon_spam" sorts all the relevant "incoming" out, and can be told to delete, bypass inbox, forward, mark as read or other creative things. The effect is that I can research at the time of my choosing all vendors to whom amazon.com has passed/sold my email address. In the end, this can be an empty accomplishment - junk mail is junk mail however personalized. Among friends, +-operators are better employed in the capacity of "distinctive ring." Yahoo domain free accounts do not appear to "die" on the schedule of the others. Hotmail does not make itself available for offline backup - possibly by the theory that if I cannot back it up I will use it MORE? They compensate with online storage for paid accounts, if bandwidth considerations are not a problem. - Bandwidth considerations mean that BLOGs will -always- be most recent entry at the top. If they were to be presented like a book, chronologically ascending EVERY request would NECESSITATE exhaustive download - this is possible to a fee based service, but not rational for a free one. - Gmail also provides a service such that emails originating in the flagship account may be arbitrarily portrayed as coming from any email account of my choosing. Since other accounts can be forwarded to this flagship in the first place, this allows me to "dump in," but _NOT_ later "undump" other stuff, if I want to make it searchable by my google online engine - this is their bread and butter, I expect that it is the best there is. Since the other account can have "from" names (both given-name and sir-name) changed upon presentation of password, the other account can be named "noreply," or "other random name." - NOTE: This is not an anonymizer, and should not be confused with one. Anonymizers are a service industry and good ones are available - don't reinvent the wheel. - Mozilla browser has an Open Source facility _plug-in_ called "Enigmail" available. If you have an adventurous friend who consents to do so, encryption is conveniently available; you simply must consent to learn the ropes. I have personally "fubar-ed" mine - oh, well :-| - Apple's "Safari" browser has a Windows version that makes its browser history very searchable, if the "ctrl-L" "wonder-bar" of Firefox is not to your taste. It also has a "privacy" mode that stops collection/recording on demand, temporary to the end-of-session. I am not sure how to force it to make itself available offline for backup. - XP has made th "Outlook Express" email management system available as part of the OS to make backups of POP3 stuff - NOTE: It's practically a HACK to find the Outlook Express file for backups. I personally have never used Open Source "Thunderbird," but I hear good things. Some day maybe I'll be between streams for that one :-) I think both "email CLIENTS" (as they are called,) make alternate "profiles" available. I usually use this to keep separate accounts separate - OS _profiles_ are sufficient to keep users from getting mixed up. - Data wrangling is not a wasted skill - 2GB of data (even at 100Mbps - the common HDD data transfer rate,) is nothing to sneeze at. Duplicate email attachments and non-ascii data can build up faster than you might prefer. A DVD burner is a good thing to have around, keeping in mind that you don't "zip" more than 2GB at a time, or it won't address correctly. MP3s don't zip worth cussing about, neither do .jpgs. Other things vary for mathematical reasons - zip many files together anyway, if its merely an organizational thing. - For encryption if it is available (I use all open source.) AES is slow, but Govt standard. Blowfish is fast, but nobody uses it - it and Twofish are used by applications more than individuals. 1024 RSA is no longer for a war - short term it's as good as any, and worth polluting keyspace by my estimation. As Jesus said - he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. - For Word Processing, Open Office (GL) is available and works with most formats. It provides for free PDF generation, including "padlock" capability, on the "security" tab. Any convention will work - a "cheap" one is "filename sans extension=password." - Passwords are worth proliferating - a "green install" of "Password Safe" on a thumb drive makes the program available on ANY Windows platform - I use it easily at FedEx-Kinkos. Others are available Open Source is platform independence is an issue - perforce database becomes independent of application. Online IF you use grouped passwords THEN these groups compartmentalize. Like the Titanic, compartments must be kept intact, but if Human Memory must be relied upon, total fragmentation is not a requirement. The principle applied by the interloper is to "try" each successfully compromised password on all uncompromised accounts, in efforts to identify patterns and redundancies. NOTE: Thumb drives have taken the place of Floppies - sneaker net still works, and keeping empty thumb drives around could be electronic paper clips. 2GB are 4 for $25 at Fry's very recently. Liquid Paper is as good as Sharpie if black will not mark one - the oldest economy for floppies was blank labels. ----------------Brain dump = too tired to taz-------------------------

Note: sincere practitioners will understand a different value of flash media.