Cindy – on the cloud, passwords, Digital Lifeboat and other things

Cindy in Wisconsin comments on the cloud, Digital Lifeboat and other things
Hi, guys! I just wanted to give you 2 thumbs up for all your hard work & the info you share with us each week! I, for one, really appreciated the “cloud” issue and intend to follow up on most of the sites you posted about. As a 54 yr old fulltime college student commuting 55 miles one way to school, I can tell you that having access to my files, bookmarks (social bookmarking sites are GREAT!), & various software via the “cloud” is hugely important to me! I have a PC at home but no laptop, netbook, or even cellphone with internet capabilities, so with the “cloud”, I can still access my stuff from the computers on campus or anywhere else I might have access to a computer that isn’t mine. Very helpful! I have taken your advice about passwords, too, and have made mine as strong as I can. I don’t use a password manager, however, to remember them all. I keep a disguised file on my computer to store them in. The ones I use the most often I have memorized. And yes, it can be a challenge to keep all those passwords straight, along with all those pin numbers for the various cards we use, too. Not sure how they expect us mature people whose brains are so full of interesting information to keep squeezing more into it, but somehow I keep managing to get more into the little gray cells. :o)

Anyway, I just wanted to send you a little encouragement for the great job you’re doing and to let you know that I appreciate your efforts. I know you aren’t getting rich off of what you get from me (or from anyone else) and don’t have a “little empire”, either. I’m sorry that folks either misunderstood you or were just outright mean-spirited and unjustly critical.

Oh, and about Digital Lifeboat–it DOES take forever! I signed up right after I got the Info Ave Premium edition telling about it and it is STILL uploading my files, but it’s made it all the way up to 87.3% backed up now! I checked the website and it does tell you that it could take a long time to upload all of your files, depending on how many you have on your computer. And yes, it DOES slow down your computer while it’s uploading, but you CAN pause it, too, which I have done when I really needed things to work faster on my computer. It would be nice if it worked faster, but I figure since it’s free, I’m not complaining. Except for the speed of the backup process and how it slows down the system, it seems to be working just fine, so there’s really nothing I can think of to tell the developer. So I still vote in favor of Digital Lifeboat. Hey, everything in life doesn’t have to be delivered at the speed of light–or at least as fast as a fast-food order. Show some patience!

So hang in there and keep up the good work! I depend on you for sound advice about free programs & such and have appreciated all that I’ve learned from you folks since getting this Gateway computer with Windows XP Home in Jan 2002–and it’s still humming right along as sweet as ever! Your tutorials have been invaluable in learning how to take care of my computer and do many things on the computer. Prior to getting this computer, I had almost no computer experience and now others ask me how to do things on the computer. So thanks! I first discovered you because of your email stationary, which I still have and still use, but now I rely on you more for computer info than anything else. LOVE your start page, too, by the way! It’s my home page! So thanks, TC & EB! You are doing a great job and I appreciate it!

Our answer
We are putting your comments in the question and answer section – well because you raise some good points and we’d like to comment and to give you some new information about some of the comments you made. First of all Cindy, would you like a job writing articles for us? You move from topic to topic with as much aplomb as we do – and your segues are better! (Kidding!)

On Passwords:

First of all it’s darn near impossible to remember passwords if you create strong, complex passwords. That’s why we recommend you use a password manager like LastPass. Not only will LastPass generate complex and strong passwords for you – it will remember them for you – and even fill in the web forms for you. All you need to remember is one password – the master password. EB and I don’t even know what our passwords are – they’re all 12-14 characters with numbers and letters and symbols. We couldn’t begin to tell you even if tied us up and threatened us with Lindsay Lohan trial tapes for hours. So do yourself a favor – download and install LastPass – it’s free, and you can forget about the aging gray matter and rely on LastPass instead. Even if your computer crashes – your passwords are stored on a secure server, encrypted, and only accessible with your master password.

On Digital Lifeboat

We recommended Digital Lifeboat because they’re offering unlimited cloud-based backup space during their trial or Beta phase. I guess we didn’t make it clear enough about why Digital Lifeboat is giving free unlimited hard-drive space to those who sign-up during the test. The idea is to have as many people help them work out the bugs and kinks in the software before they begin selling space. We thought it was a great opportunity for those of you who don’t mind using software with issues – and helping the developer iron them out. We got razzed pretty good for recommending a program with some major flaws. But we still think it’s a great deal for those who can stick it out during the test phase.

Anyway… a couple of days ago one of the developers of Digital Lifeboat left a couple of comments on our Information Avenue Web site. We wanted to share them with you and all of our readers:

“Thanks, Cloudeight, for the sincere review! The power settings problem is a bug that we’ve hopefully (*fingers crossed*) worked out in our latest update.

We’re definitely still in beta and still working out the bugs. If you sign up, and find problems with our service, give us a call or check out our support page. We need people to tell us what works and what doesn’t – that’s the only way we can continue to improve and provide a product that just works.”

Digital Lifeboat is working with users to correct any problems that exist in the software. We recommend Digital Lifeboat and think it’s a great opportunity for you to get free, unlimited backup space for a lifetime – as long as you understand the software is still in beta (testing) phase. But once the kinks are worked out and the software is flawless, you’ll have unlimited space to store whatever you want for as long as you want. Visit Digital Lifeboat at www.digitallifeboat.com for more information.

We want to thank you, Cindy, for your support and your kind remarks. And thank you also for making a couple of points that we felt like we needed to discuss.