{"id":13041,"date":"2008-08-10T15:32:45","date_gmt":"2008-08-10T22:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2008\/08\/10\/keeping-all-your-eggs-in-one-virtual-basket.html"},"modified":"2008-08-10T15:32:45","modified_gmt":"2008-08-10T22:32:45","slug":"keeping_all_your_eggs_in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/08\/10\/keeping_all_your_eggs_in.html","title":{"rendered":"Keeping all your eggs in one virtual basket"},"content":{"rendered":"

A cautionary tale about losing access to your Google account<\/a>, and the difficulty in doing anything about it.<\/p>\n

Not that this is a Google-specific thing. Other free email\/web services (Yahoo, MSN Live \/ Hotmail, etc.) can have the same problem. And if you keep everything on your own machine, you not only lose the convenience of global access, but you can get screwed unless you (a) make regular backups (b) stored offsite (c) of applications and data in non-proprietary formats (i.e., not dependent on any particular custom application that may become unsupported at the whim of a publisher).<\/p>\n

This actually occurred to me recently. Life would have been so much easier in rebuilding Jim & Ginger’s computer if their mail, photo albums, etc., were all online (e.g., Gmail and Picassa, etc.). On the other hand, as the linked story shows, there are risks in that approach. <\/p>\n

At any rate, some lessons learned from the story:<\/p>\n

1. Don’t entangle personal and business accounts. If the business side (your job) goes away, you may have problems.<\/p>\n

2. Try and make backups of whatever data you put online. Keep all those photo files you uploaded to Flickr or Picassa. Or have them mirrored somewhere else.<\/p>\n

3. If your “life” depends on it, consider going a pay route rather than a free one, if only because it’s marginally more likely you’ll have a contact number you can go to in case of problems.<\/p>\n

4. There’s no such thing as a free lunch or a trouble-free life. Plan for the worst.<\/p>\n

I think about this a lot, and it is one reason I keep some things local, other things online. But I’m aware in both cases that I’m gambling.<\/p>\n

Heck, even keeping it all on paper isn’t perfect. Flood, fire … nothing lasts forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A cautionary tale about losing access to your Google account, and the difficulty in doing anything about it. Not that this is a Google-specific thing. Other free email\/web services (Yahoo,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[20,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-tech","category-my-computer"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33125,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/11\/the-song-is-ended-but-the-google-lingers-on.html","url_meta":{"origin":13041,"position":0},"title":"The song is ended, but the Google lingers on","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Apr-13 3:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So what happens to your Google data (email, etc.) once you are no longer able to access it due to going to the Giant 404 Page in the Sky? \u00a0Well, now you can set things up so that another trusted user will have access even if you haven't provided them\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30463,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/03\/reach-out-reach-out-and-scam-someone.html","url_meta":{"origin":13041,"position":1},"title":"Reach out, reach out and scam someone","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Oct-12 1:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"General rule: if someone calls you unsolicited, and asks you for information, a credit card number, personal information, access to your computer, etc., politely tell them you'll call them back through the normal business channels. Any such company is going to have a website (or, in the case of credit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136311,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/05\/08\/i-am-both-elated-and-terrified-by-google-assistants-duplex-feature.html","url_meta":{"origin":13041,"position":2},"title":"I am both elated and terrified by Google Assistant’s Duplex feature","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 8-May-18 6:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The computer will call businesses for me to make appointments, discover hours, etc.? As someone who really dislikes using the phone with strangers, this sounds heavenly. Also deeply creepy. Google Duplex will call salons, restaurants, and pretend to be human for you [Updated] Hints to more new voices, \"continued conversation\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/unnamed-3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12545,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/03\/27\/time_sync.html","url_meta":{"origin":13041,"position":3},"title":"Time Sync","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Mar-08 1:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Got an email today that Comcast is now offering (in its never-ending but doomed-to-failure bid to make Comcast Internet subscribers consider the whole Comcast portal to be their \"home\") free...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8346,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/12\/08\/im_mania.html","url_meta":{"origin":13041,"position":4},"title":"IM mania","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Dec-05 9:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"I have really gotten tired of MSN Messenger. 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