Comments on: Organizing Files?

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 06:06:36 +0000

I've been using PersonalBrain for a year. It has become the central organizing tool for any files, ideas, and thoughts on my computer. However, I've discovered that discipline is required to throw away as much as possible. PersonalBrain makes it too easy to collect and organize massive amounts of information and I want to save everything. I find so many interesting topics I'm not able to spread myself thin enough. Ruthless purging of anything not useful in six months is my rule of thumb, exceptions for reference items but error in favor of deleting. -Harry

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:55:04 +0000

I realize this is an old thread, but I’ll add a comment.
Probably, you mostly want to manage documents.
Document management software aims to improve on
Windows Explorer or Mac Finder by allowing you to add
meta-tags in an effort to assist you to figure out what
they are long after you’ve recorded them.
If you use a Mac (like that shiny airbook you use in one of
your videos) you might want to check out something
like “yep” (free trail period) or the whole package at
http://www.ironicsoftware.com/ .
I have no affiliation with those folks — I stumbled on their
software at Apple’s downloads while I was searching for
my own answer to my own version of your problem.
-Bob

By: Colin

Colin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 14:41:00 +0000

Hi Jerry,

Pa55wordz sure can be a pain! It depends how secure you want them to be though. You could use a piece of software to store all your different passwords encrypted on your machine, but then you have to look it up each time.
The method I use is to create one strong easy to remember password generated from my families initials, nicknames, dates of birth, or other memorable things, plus one non alphanumeric, and then to add a prefix or suffix related to the website or software I am using, or even the current year/month. So my main strong password could be cr312EF?G which is initials, date of birth (12th March, or 3rd Dec, or 31stFeb!), family initials plus one non alphanumeric placed anywhere.
An example prefix or suffix could be ‘a’ for the Amazon website.
So I would end up with cr312EF?Ga or acr312EF?G.
If using this method, then make up your own personal variation on the above as this is being posted on the web on your blog. I’m sure you would have anyway!

The key thing is never to write it down anywhere on paper or computer, or tell anyone. If you sometimes have to give others access to your account or have shared accounts, then use a different password, or change it before you give them access. Using it for everything will make sure you remember it, whilst making it different for each logon in case your password is intercepted/key logged. The downside is if someone gets 2 of your passwords then they can guess the rest. However it is fairly easy to remember 2 or 3 different base passwords depending upon how likely you are to need someone else to login using your account. So maybe you could have a super secure random generated one for financial websites for yourself only.

I now find I have a harder time remembering all of my user logon names, because I don’t usually get free choice of those!

Colin