Newbie of sorts: Photoshop Now?

[bob carnie]

Randy, it's wise to be paranoid... It will be a battleground. It already has been, behind the scenes.
My choice is to be wise about it's misuse at the same time take advantage of it's abilities for my own use. Our digital infrastructure has never been sufficient yet it has thrived.

I lost my internet for three days, this week due to the storm.. not only was I out of sorts, there were implications financially and my ability to work was greatly impacted. There was a prosperous time 90's that I did not use this technology and after this last week I am beginning to think a bit like Randy Moe.

Though I pride myself on my ability to keep on wanting to learn and PS , Lightroom and Capture One are important to my day to day, the other issues with the internet are making me re think my retirement years that are coming at me. Do I still want to be in the rat race, if so how do I simply reduce my relieance/need on the network put out there by the financial institutions , and my ability to talk with people like you .

[consummate_fritterer]

My use case is changing. Basically, after 21 years of computer and Internet usage, I have become disenchanted.

Only yesterday the IRS could not accept online payment. Our digital infrastructure is insufficient on a worldwide, national, local and personal basis. I don't envision improvement in my lifetime.

Net War is the reality. I have long suspected airplane crashes, mysterious training accidents, and computers full of things we did not put there.

For my own peace of mind, I am closing down Net access to me. A quiet retirement using film and wet printing is a goal. Slow food. Slow imaging. Sit on the veranda.

Even our cars track our every move. I have always been paranoid and now I know why I was not wrong. Stingrays will be getting better and I don't mean fish.

THEM

Since we're sideways anyway...

It won't be cyber attacks that kill high-tech. It will be a massive EMP from a solar flare and/or global economic collapse.

[Corran]

I’ve already had to replace two drives in the backup system and one in a workstation with no data loss and minimal downtime.

Rick,

Of course your Unraid system is doing its job, with the drive failure and corresponding backup. However, I thought I'd ask what drives you were using...

I built my Unraid server a few years ago now, and recently upgraded my Parity drive to a 4TB model. I have 6 2TB drives now in there. I only use Western Digital RED drives, and have had no failures. I also do a thorough preclear of the drives before installing to check for errors.

What version of Unraid are you using? The newest version (6) supports SMART drive monitoring. I have been super pleased with Unraid, and it works great. It took some tinkering to upgrade and migrate my data onto Unraid 6 (I was on 4 until this year) but the web interface is way better, and it automatically preclears now w/o having to run a script. I plan on buying 4TB drives here or there to upgrade my 2TB drives and refresh them, and then drop the 2TB drives into the bottom of the array to keep building it up. I need to get a new case though because currently my case is slammed full - the new parity drive is not even really in a proper HD bay. My server is 12TB total - I needed the new parity disk because I was at capacity.

[Tin Can]

Rick,

Of course your Unraid system is doing its job, with the drive failure and corresponding backup. However, I thought I'd ask what drives you were using...

I built my Unraid server a few years ago now, and recently upgraded my Parity drive to a 4TB model. I have 6 2TB drives now in there. I only use Western Digital RED drives, and have had no failures. I also do a thorough preclear of the drives before installing to check for errors.

What version of Unraid are you using? The newest version (6) supports SMART drive monitoring. I have been super pleased with Unraid, and it works great. It took some tinkering to upgrade and migrate my data onto Unraid 6 (I was on 4 until this year) but the web interface is way better, and it automatically preclears now w/o having to run a script. I plan on buying 4TB drives here or there to upgrade my 2TB drives and refresh them, and then drop the 2TB drives into the bottom of the array to keep building it up. I need to get a new case though because currently my case is slammed full - the new parity drive is not even really in a proper HD bay. My server is 12TB total - I needed the new parity disk because I was at capacity.

Bryon, I actually understand all that tech. You are far younger than I and you will have to power through the problems. No choice for the young.

I'm relaxing. I beleive a mind/brain/universe can only do a finite set of calculations. I'm using what's left for what's important to me.

[Corran]

I grew up learning DOS commands and programming in BASIC while still in elementary school (not as curricula, but on my own). I am lucky to have had such an experience, before "smart devices" and everything else. You are probably more computer literate than the youngest generation, because they didn't have to know any of that gobbledygook. Last week I bricked my computer when an errant piece of software installed a .sys file it shouldn't have. I fixed it by going into the command prompt in the recovery environment and using those erstwhile DOS commands to dig around and delete the problem file. I'm glad I know how. Meanwhile, my last batch of students had a lot of trouble figuring out how to burn a CD (huh? people still use those?).

[Tin Can]

I grew up learning DOS commands and programming in BASIC while still in elementary school (not as curricula, but on my own). I am lucky to have had such an experience, before "smart devices" and everything else. You are probably more computer literate than the youngest generation, because they didn't have to know any of that gobbledygook. Last week I bricked my computer when an errant piece of software installed a .sys file it shouldn't have. I fixed it by going into the command prompt in the recovery environment and using those erstwhile DOS commands to dig around and delete the problem file. I'm glad I know how. Meanwhile, my last batch of students had a lot of trouble figuring out how to burn a CD (huh? people still use those?).

I have noticed the native Internet generation, now 21, are not very adept on the whole.

We need more STEAM. Rather my grandchildren will. My generation got only STEM.

[faberryman]

And I have to pay for the bandwidth I use, or suffer slowdowns if I use too much. No wired internet service where I live, and that’s a lot more common than Silicon Valley decision makers realize.

PS/LR CC does not require bandwidth. It works offline. Every couple of months you have to log in to confirm that your paid subscription is current. Otherwise, no internet connection required.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

A science fiction remake of Battlestar Galactica reveals why we should all be isolated from the externally plugged in world. I don't remember the episode, but it is where Adam and explains why his was the only ship to survive the attack. He would not allow any computer on the ship to be connected to any other computer nor to the outside world. All communications inside ship were analog like the old ship phones from WWI and WWI. Any incoming or outgoing message was scrubbed before being allowed into any computer.

If the US govt did this our secrets would be much harder to steal.

I think I will be an external server in a fireproof enclosure and back up there. Basically double my storage capacity and number of individual and separate backups. I have had 1, 2 and 3 failures at once or in succession, but never 4, let alone 8 or 16. I will get a second 8 bay burley from MacGurus (can use for pc too) and set it up. My house is pre-war red with cat5 (should have got cat6) so I can have a hard connection at a gigabit speed. Of system drives will limit this speed. It will also be isolated from outside world. In fact I may isolate my whole system and use a laptop for my internet use. Keep absolutely nothing on it of import whatsoever. And only connect the machine up to do an upgrade. Keep that machine completely devoid of any PII information, etc. In other words do my taxes offline store information on server in fireproof cabinet with no internet connection, scrub main device if this info before I hook it up to internet for an update for PS as an example.

The last couple years should be a wakeup call on the use of cloud and internet willy nilly.

Paranoid no, cautious yes. Trust big brother, nope.

[Jac@stafford.net]

[... snip ..]
If the US govt did this our secrets would be much harder to steal.

I think I will be an external server in a fireproof enclosure and back up there.

Computers with no network connection, so-called air-gaped systems are snooped in real-time from a distance. Seriously. It's about unstructured RF. Your home grown setup is trivial to defeat. Never underestimate the NSA.
.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

I don't use wireless at home for anything. All wired. Even going to get an old school house phone from the 1800's. In the end, the gov't can get anything they want from us, but why make it easier for them to steal.

You can't snoop what isn't transmitting. That takes someone to get inside and plant a device to do what you can't. Like planting a virus in person.