Semi-OT: Keep your computer stuff secret

[HeyBub]

Here's a new way to do it - use the Cloud.

The Cloud is the name of a new technique wherein your stuff is housed on some giant server in the sky.

Here's a couple:

Amazon Cloud Drive (5 Gigabytes of free storage)

ADrive (50 Gigabytes of free storage) Here's the way they work:

1. Go to the provider's web page, login with your name and password.
2. Now you can upload your junk or download some previously stored stuff.

Subject to the size limitations above, your junk is NOT on your computer and there is no indication it ever was. If you keep the fact that you have stuff stored on one of these "cloud" sites confidential, you're golden. It's not like the authorities don't know the password - they have no way of knowing your collection of raccoon p*rn even exists!

I've signed up for both the above (keep this information just between you and me) and experimentation so far shows they work as claimed and are dirt simple to use.

Of course there are other uses, chief among them is backup. A backup stored on the "cloud" is immune to hardware failure, acts of God such as fire or flood, burglary, malice by a family member or co-worker, ghastly mistake (DEL *.*), or even prying eyes of an ungrateful spouse.

Amazon has just released an app wherein your music stored on their cloud can be streamed to your computer (or maybe 'phone).

I plan to store my somewhat extensive collection of squirrel head photos.

Then I can get rid of the actual heads. Maybe donate them to the Smithsonian?

[Metspitzer]

I don't judge you Bub, but that is a pretty odd hobby.

[HeyBub]

I tried collecting vintage Plymouth automobiles, but it took up so much room!

[notbob]

I can't tell if you jes fun'n us or delusional. Either way, it's bad advice.

nb

[RicodJour]

With Bub they're interchangeable. This might help explain things - pay particular attention to the mischief part, as that's Bub's specialty.

"I divide my officers into four groups. There are clever, diligent, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and diligent -- their place is the General Staff. The next lot are stupid and lazy -- they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is stupid and diligent -- he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always cause only mischief."

- Kurt Gebhard Adolf Philipp Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord

R

[Metspitzer]

[Metspitzer]

Ignore This was a miscue

[HeyBub]

I can multi-task, so why can't it be both?

And why is it, in your opinion, poor advice to get your hard-to-replace - and possibly incriminating - material off your computer?

[chaniarts]

what makes you think the authorities can't get to it if it's in the cloud, just as easily as if it was in your personal computer?

[HeyBub]

I think that mainly because the authorities won't know it's there.

Yeah, I know. They can check your browsing history and so forth, but seeing an odd web site is not the same as actually seeing a video of you biting the heads off chickens. Even so, there are browsing anonymizers. . .

[Robert Green]

I was told by a source that I consider credible that several years ago the FBI seized a number of US-based "nym" sites and instead of shutting them down, turned them into an anti-terrorist resource which they are running even today. Think about it - what better way to keep tabs on the lunatics of the world than by controlling an anonymizer source? Who uses nyms other than people with something to hide? Who wants to know what people with something to hide are hiding more than the FBI?

From what I was told, they even MAKE MONEY doing it, charging fees to n*****ts in exchange for IP addresses, message content and much more.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

[HeyBub]

That's the problem: the lunatics.

I'll bet that 99% of the people who diligently use obfuscating techniques have never done anything more outrageous than planting tomatoes out of season.