Mac Power Users 118: Resolutions

December 30, 2012

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David and Katie talk about some great geek resolutions including a tech security audit, using an electronic diary, geek estate planning, locking down social networks, offsite backup, and creating something amazing with an iLife app. David also gets to use the word Neuroplasticity and explain why that makes him happy.

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19 thoughts on “Mac Power Users 118: Resolutions”

  1. B givens

    I like Katie’s 4 (Fundamental) Rules of Backup. i have a question about that. How can I test whether my backups work? It could put my original data at risk.

    1. Katie

      Run your backup through disk utility to check the integrity of the disk. If it’s a bootable backup, back up from it every now and again to make sure it boots, try to randomly restore files.

  2. Lynda

    David mentioned an app ‘Good Habits’ – but there are more than one with that name in the app store. Could you kindly supply a link to the one that David likes?

    Thanks for all you do, and Happy New Year!!

  4. Tim Stringer

    Happy New Year Mac Power Users!

    I don’t think it’s necessary to store a credit card with Apple. You could instead use gifts cards to pay for apps, music, etc. As an added bonus I often find gift cards on sale (e.g. $40 for a $50 gift card). More info: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

    I’m creating some positive new habits for 2013 and am currently putting an app called Habit List through its paces. The UI is very slick and I like the fact that it goes beyond daily habits and supports activities that are performed, for example, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or three times a week.

  5. Cathy

    David mentioned that he wasn’t sure if you can use itunes / app store etc without handing over credit card details. You can. As all of us know who live in countries where Apple is quite happy to sell hardware but doesn’t allow itunes etc purchases. We set up accounts at itunes stores on other countries and buy using Apple gift cards.

  7. Rogier

    What kickstarter project did you guys mention during the show? It had something to do with a small box which can be conneted through RJ45 and off-site backing up.

  9. Rome

    Re Good Habits App

    Based on how David described it, I thing it is the “Good to Hear: Good Habits” iPhone only app. That one is free, so worst case scenario you just tried something else if it is not.

    Thanks David & Katie for a great podcast.

  10. Rogier

    Why did someone delete my comment? So, once again: what is the name of the little box you guys talked about which can be plugged in into a RJ45 connector and which can help backing up files spanned over two locations?

  14. Pawel

    Just realized that my comment was related to show #117. Sorry for that. Hope the remark is helpful either way.

  15. Tommy Weir

    Two things – One app which does a lot more than Good Habits is Due, and if people find the limits of GH too much they may like to check it out. It has very sophisticated ways of dealing with reminders, more options as regards time and intervals, as well as iPad and OSX versions.

    It really does a good job at those tasks that aren’t tasks but really things you need to push yourself to do.

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/due-super-fast-reminders-reusable/id390017969?mt=8

    The other thing is David quickly said that he wouldn’t bother with any other Diary applications other than the lovely Day One. I’m a big fan of Day One too but people should check out the venerable and very, very full-featured MacJournal. Around since the the early days of the platform, it has many charms, not least it’s multiple views, copy-as-HTML, links to blogging platforms…

    https://www.marinersoftware.com/products/macjournal/

  16. Bart

    I really liked Katie’s suggestion of setting up a special email account as the “recovery” email for resetting passwords. But when I tried to set this up, I found a crucial flaw. As I understood the idea, it was to have a special email account that you don’t normally use that would *only* be for such recovery emails. As near as I could tell, though, virtually every site I’d want to set this up with only allows me to enter a single email address that gets used for everything.

    For example, if I were to give Amazon this special email address, this would also be where they’d send my receipts, notice of delivery, etc., etc., stuff that I would like to get in my regular email account.

    Any suggestions? Thanks!

  17. Randy Fisher

    I think I have the perfect solution for your backup email account. I have a paid yahoo email account that allows me to use disposable email accounts. Since I never give out my real email account I never need to worry about anyone hacking this account. The only time I use my real account is when I log into the account but I never give that address out. It saved me one time when someone had hacked into mt eBay account. Back then I was using the same password for my email as eBay. The hacker was not able to get into my email.

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