It's all good so far

Sunday morning and the password fight is continuing.  Yesterday we had one of the i-Phones die from proximity sensor failure.  This means that the phone does not recognize where it is or what tower it should connect to and drops the call.  Since this was the wife’s phone and principle means for talking to the in-laws, we had a post breakfast visit to the apple store.

The genius was able to provide this diagnosis and assist with options.  We were out of warranty of course so it was to the computer to see if one of the four phones on the account was due for an upgrade.  Yes.

Upgrade policy is simple in our house.  If a phone fails and an upgrade is available, Dad, the payer of the bill, gets the upgrade and the phones trickle down as needed.  

To keep data we decided to be sure that we would use the cloud.  Unfortunately we had one I-Cloud account set up, mine.  Sandra does not want or need the 600 plus contacts I keep on the phone.  So we started the process of setting up individual  I-Cloud accounts to avoid the Itunes match disaster that combined college kids music with mine.

Accounts require passwords.   So the challenge over the last 24 hours was to identify the primary I-cloud account password and set up (and remember) accounts with new passwords that could not be similar to the old ones. We also had to reconnect with apps and remember their specific passwords or email accounts that were used when the apps were set up.  

Now if my readers remember, back in January a website grabbed my email address and address books.  I had to go through and change email data on multiple applications, websites, programs, etc.  This also involved changing passwords.  

Thanks to hackers, a universal password is not acceptable and some programs will not allow any password that has been used in the last year.  Heaven forbid that in all the updating you run through your limit of permutations, get locked out, and have to change passwords for a program – and if you are lucky, remembering which email address you used when you set the thing up and hoping that it was still active/accessible. My memory is pretty good, but this has a tour of purgatory.

I hope I don’t get locked out of the text file that has the list of passwords.  I probably should print it out and tuck it someplace safe. But I would have to remember where that is.

Saturday morning, occupying Black Walnut. Armed with good coffee and the paper, we are defending our spot from newcomers. It is more challenging since most of the regular staff has changed out and we aren’t recognized by the new staff who don’t realize this was the 109th breakfast checkin. (And that is only the documented count!)

Looking at the tasks ahead for the day. Some trivial, some important. Finding recyclable resources in the archives and looking at how they might be implemented. Things ranging from work related strategies to a week long Paris vacation. Data hidden in the electronic nooks and crannies found in flash drives, expansion drives, and cloud storage.

I know that I have the opportunity to clean up and consolidate some of this stuff. I also have the opportunity to use a combination of low and high tech. Data input through fountain pens and wireless solar keyboards. Recorded on paper and one the cloud. Secured with passwords and faulty memory. A time to review and figure out what will work best this time.

The pay it forward scenario continues to work.  I had lunch yesterday with a friend/former co-worker who put me onto a position.  

I interviewed for the position today.  I thought that the interview went well.

We discussed philosophy and approach to the position. I described how I have learned to deal with folks both in work situation and in the volunteer world where I spend my free time.  Life lessons translating both directions.  

I even took a chance and showed the spreadsheet that I had developed outlining the different areas of concern and possible performance indicators that could be tracked.  That was well received – much to relief and rejoicing of my inner geek self that made me get up early to prepare it.  

I will know more next week.