Uncluttering your machine - Revision history

Lilith2 at 20:09, 8 August 2015

2015-08-08T20:09:57Z

Lilith2 at 19:47, 18 May 2015

2015-05-18T19:47:54Z

Lilith2 at 06:58, 18 May 2015

2015-05-18T06:58:47Z

Lilith2 at 21:56, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T21:56:25Z

Lilith2 at 21:52, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T21:52:15Z

Lilith2 at 19:14, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T19:14:45Z

Lilith2 at 19:02, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T19:02:21Z

Lilith2 at 18:37, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T18:37:30Z

Lilith2 at 18:22, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T18:22:21Z

Lilith2 at 18:11, 17 May 2015

2015-05-17T18:11:12Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:09, 8 August 2015
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	[4] Unison http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/		[4] Unison http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
−
−	~~[[Category:Resources]]~~

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ''Is your desktop a shining example of neatness and cleanliness? Or is it a big heap of icons only fit to be sorted in some manner? How many files are in your Documents folder? What does your directory structure look like? Easy to work with and a natural fit for you and what you do? Can you easily find what you are looking for or does the way you organise suck totally and drain your energy? ''
-Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are helpful for many tasks, but they box you in in the tasks the designer designed the GUI for. M$ systems come with a preset set of directories, and so does Linux (if it isn't stripped). Like beliefs and rules, such predefined organisations can act like post hypnotic suggestions (spell casting) and filter our experience of reality and affect us in undesirable ways. Not only that, standard default folders in tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important.
+Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are helpful for many tasks, but they box you in in the tasks the designer designed the GUI for. M$ systems come with a preset set of directories, and so does Linux (if it isn't stripped). Like beliefs and rules, such predefined organisations can act like post hypnotic suggestions (spell casting) and filter our experience of reality and affect us in undesirable ways. Not only that, standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important.
 '''Case study: Uncluttering your machine'''
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 * '''Step 2 Create your own file system from scratch!'''
-Our personal data (documents, photographs, emails, etc...) is the most valuable component in our interaction with computers, because it can be irreplaceable if lost. The most minimalist and safe implementation is putting all files you wish to keep and all files containing personal data on an external harddrive that you only mount when you need access to it. In a public space put the machine offline before mounting any external disk.
+Our personal data (documents, photographs, emails, etc...) is the most valuable component in our interaction with computers, because it can be irreplaceable if lost. The most minimalist and safe implementation is putting all files you wish to keep and all files containing personal data on an external harddrive that you only mount when you need access to it. In a public space put the machine offline before mounting any external disk (preferably do not connect in public spaces at all).
-You can turn old harddrives into external harddrives by taking them out of an old PC and putting them in portable HDD USB storage kit (alias harddrive enclosures). These "DIY" kits are available for 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch HDD using either IDE or SATA connections and cost way less than a manufactured USB HDD. If on Linux, you may have a permission problem: change the group of /media/disk to storage, change permissions to 775 and add users that need to be able to write to disk to the storage group (you need to log out and log in that users before changes are visible). As root do:
+You can turn old harddrives into external harddrives by taking them out of an old PC and putting them in a portable HDD USB storage kit (alias harddrive enclosure). These "DIY" kits are available for 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch HDD using either IDE or SATA connections and cost way less than a manufactured USB HDD.
 <code># chgrp storage /media/[external_disk]</code>
@@ Line 29: / Line 33: @@
 <code># apt-get install ntfs-3g</code>
-Create your "real" filesystem on the external harddrive and design fake directory structures and files for your multiple, fake, anonymous or pseudonymous identities. It makes little sense to organise files based on the program that created them. Create your sub-folders based on the <em>purpose </em>of the files, and don't worry about depth of your tree.
+Create your "real" filesystem on the external harddrive and design fake directory structures and files for your multiple, fake, anonymous or pseudonymous identities.
 * '''Step 3 Separate application files from data files'''
-On a Linux system this is already the case. Most applications make directories with a dot in front of its name that are default not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu if you are using a GUI).
+On a Linux system this is already the case. Most applications make directories with a dot in front of its name that are default not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu when using a GUI).
-Apparently, in M$ there is no such separation and the My Document directory gets a lot of junk added to it by just about everything. Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” and replace them with links to the folders <em>you</em> created and <em>you </em>care about, fake or not!
+Apparently, in M$ there is no such separation and the My Document directory gets a lot of junk added to it by just about everything. Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” in your menus and desktop (everywhere) and replace them with links to the folders <em>you</em> created and <em>you </em>care about, fake or not!
 * '''Step 4 Customise and accessorise'''

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ''Is your desktop a shining example of neatness and cleanliness? Or is it a big heap of icons only fit to be sorted in some manner? How many files are in your Documents folder? What does your directory structure look like? Easy to work with and a natural fit for you and what you do? Can you easily find what you are looking for or does the way you organise suck totally and drain your energy? ''
-Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are helpful for many tasks, but they box you in in the tasks the designer designed the GUI for. M$ systems come with a preset set of directories, and so does linux (if it isn't stripped). Like beliefs and rules, such predefined organisations can act like post hypnotic suggestions (spell casting) and filter our experience of reality and affect us in undesirable ways.
+Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are helpful for many tasks, but they box you in in the tasks the designer designed the GUI for. M$ systems come with a preset set of directories, and so does Linux (if it isn't stripped). Like beliefs and rules, such predefined organisations can act like post hypnotic suggestions (spell casting) and filter our experience of reality and affect us in undesirable ways. Not only that, standard default folders in tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important.
-−
-Not only that, standard default folders tend to fill up with junk files and folders that are not at all important. For M$ that is in MyDocuments, for Linux that is /home/user and most such application directories have a dot in front and are not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu if you are using a GUI).
 '''Case study: Uncluttering your machine'''
@@ Line 17: / Line 15: @@
 Our personal data (documents, photographs, emails, etc...) is the most valuable component in our interaction with computers, because it can be irreplaceable if lost. The most minimalist and safe implementation is putting all files you wish to keep and all files containing personal data on an external harddrive that you only mount when you need access to it. In a public space put the machine offline before mounting any external disk.
-You can turn old harddrives into external harddrives by taking them out of an old PC and putting them in portable HDD USB storage kit (alias harddrive enclosures). These "DIY" kits are available for 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch HDD using either IDE or SATA connections and cost way less than a manufactured USB HDD. If on linux, you may have a permission problem: change the group of /media/disk to storage, change permissions to 775 and add users that need to be able to write to disk to the storage group (you need to log out and log in that users before changes are visible). As root do:
+You can turn old harddrives into external harddrives by taking them out of an old PC and putting them in portable HDD USB storage kit (alias harddrive enclosures). These "DIY" kits are available for 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch HDD using either IDE or SATA connections and cost way less than a manufactured USB HDD. If on Linux, you may have a permission problem: change the group of /media/disk to storage, change permissions to 775 and add users that need to be able to write to disk to the storage group (you need to log out and log in that users before changes are visible). As root do:
 <code># chgrp storage /media/[external_disk]</code>
@@ Line 35: / Line 33: @@
 * '''Step 3 Separate application files from data files'''
-On a linux system this is already the case. Most applications make directories with a dot in front of its name that are default not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu if you are using a GUI).
+On a Linux system this is already the case. Most applications make directories with a dot in front of its name that are default not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu if you are using a GUI).
 Apparently, in M$ there is no such separation and the My Document directory gets a lot of junk added to it by just about everything. Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” and replace them with links to the folders <em>you</em> created and <em>you </em>care about, fake or not!
@@ Line 43: / Line 41: @@
 Having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files. You can get some beautifying stuff for Linux from [http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=156874 gnome-look], [http://kde-look.org/ kde-look], [http://xfce-look.org/ xfce-look] and many more sites.
-* '''Step 5 Regular maintenance'''
+* '''Step 5 Regular backups'''
 Data backup is something that everybody should do, but unfortunately, few people do it on a regular basis.
@@ Line 53: / Line 51: @@
 The <strong>-a</strong> option is a combination flag. It stands for "archive" and syncs recursively and preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, group, owner, and permissions. Rsync can be used for a lot more in many different ways.
-Unison allows for accessing the same set of files from any computer (running Mac OS X, Windows XP, or UNIX/Linux) and keeps these files up-to-date by always maintaining the most recently-modified version of each file during synchronization. The great benefit of using Unison to replicate files across different computers is that our backups are alive [4].
+Unison allows for accessing the same set of files from any computer (running Mac OS X, M$ Windows XP, or UNIX/Linux) and keeps these files up-to-date by always maintaining the most recently-modified version of each file during synchronization. The great benefit of using Unison to replicate files across different computers is that your backups are alive [4].
 '''Synthesis'''

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:56, 17 May 2015
Line 52:		Line 52:

	The <strong>-a</strong> option is a combination flag. It stands for "archive" and syncs recursively and preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, group, owner, and permissions. Rsync can be used for a lot more in many different ways.		The <strong>-a</strong> option is a combination flag. It stands for "archive" and syncs recursively and preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, group, owner, and permissions. Rsync can be used for a lot more in many different ways.
−
−	~~<code># rsync -a [directory_name]/ /media/[external_disk]/[directory_name]</code>~~

	Unison allows for accessing the same set of files from any computer (running Mac OS X, Windows XP, or UNIX/Linux) and keeps these files up-to-date by always maintaining the most recently-modified version of each file during synchronization. The great benefit of using Unison to replicate files across different computers is that our backups are alive [4].		Unison allows for accessing the same set of files from any computer (running Mac OS X, Windows XP, or UNIX/Linux) and keeps these files up-to-date by always maintaining the most recently-modified version of each file during synchronization. The great benefit of using Unison to replicate files across different computers is that our backups are alive [4].

@@ Line 41: / Line 41: @@
 * '''Step 4 Customise and accessorise'''
-Having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files.
+Having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files. You can get some beautifying stuff for Linux from [http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=156874 gnome-look], [http://kde-look.org/ kde-look], [http://xfce-look.org/ xfce-look] and many more sites.
-−
-Make the place comfortable to the eye. Change the background. Change the icons. You can get some beautifying stuff for linux from [http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=156874 gnome-look], [http://kde-look.org/ kde-look], [http://xfce-look.org/ xfce-look] and many more sites.
 * '''Step 5 Regular maintenance'''

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 If your disk crashes unrepairably (good riddance), or your files in a centralised cloud become inaccessible because the company owning the servers went bankrupt, or the internet (connection) goes the way of the bull (and you have ample time to be with family members and enjoy a campfire), what files on your machine would you probably feel sad about not having access to?
-The most minimalist and safe implementation is putting all files you wish to keep and all files containing personal data on an external harddrive that you only mount when you need access to it. In a public space put the machine offline before mounting any external disk.
+Our personal data (documents, photographs, emails, etc...) is the most valuable component in our interaction with computers, because it can be irreplaceable if lost. The most minimalist and safe implementation is putting all files you wish to keep and all files containing personal data on an external harddrive that you only mount when you need access to it. In a public space put the machine offline before mounting any external disk.
 You can turn old harddrives into external harddrives by taking them out of an old PC and putting them in portable HDD USB storage kit (alias harddrive enclosures). These "DIY" kits are available for 2.5 inch and 3.5 inch HDD using either IDE or SATA connections and cost way less than a manufactured USB HDD. If on linux, you may have a permission problem: change the group of /media/disk to storage, change permissions to 775 and add users that need to be able to write to disk to the storage group (you need to log out and log in that users before changes are visible). As root do:
@@ Line 37: / Line 37: @@
 * '''Step 3 Separate application files from data files'''
-On a linux system this is already the case. Most applications make directories with a dot in front of its name that are default not visible (you have to set "Show Hidden Files" in your "View" menu if you are using a GUI). Apparently, in M$ there is no such separation and the My Document directory gets a lot of junk added to it by just about everything. Remove your icons/links to “My Documents” and replace them with links to the folders <em>you</em> created and <em>you </em>care about, fake or not!
+''''Linux''''
 * '''Step 4 Customise and accessorise'''
-Make the place comfortable to the eye. Change the background. Change the icons. You can get some beautifying stuff for linux from [http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/?content=156874 gnome-look], [http://kde-look.org/ kde-look], [http://xfce-look.org/ xfce-look] and many more locations.
+Having unique icons for each folder does allow you to more quickly visually identify which folder is which, and thus saves you time when you’re finding files.
 * '''Step 5 Regular maintenance'''
-You can make a backup of your entire system with rsync or with unison. <em>Rsync</em>, which stands for "remote sync", is a remote and local file synchronisation tool.  It uses an algorithm that minimises the amount of data copied by only moving the portions of files that have changed. It operates in a way that is similar to ssh, scp, and cp.
+Data backup is something that everybody should do, but unfortunately, few people do it on a regular basis.
-<nowiki>#</nowiki> <code>rsync -a [directory_name]/ /media/[external_disk]/[directory_name]</code>
+''''Windows''''
-The <strong>-a</strong> option is a combination flag. It stands for "archive" and syncs recursively and preserves symbolic links, special and device files, modification times, group, owner, and permissions.
+''''Linux''''
-An additional way of dealing with clutter, attachments to particular installations and the risks of infections, is to reinstall the operating system regularly. I reinstall around every six months and just before and after any event.
+You can make a backup of your entire system with rsync or with unison. <em>Rsync</em>, which stands for "remote sync", is a remote and local file synchronisation tool.  It uses an algorithm that minimises the amount of data copied by only moving the portions of files that have changed. It operates in a way similar to ssh, scp, and cp.
 '''Synthesis'''
@@ Line 62: / Line 83: @@
 [2] Permissions http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_lts0090.php
 [[Category:Resources]]

@@ Line 27: / Line 27: @@
 <code># gpasswd -a user_name storage</code>
-This way everyone will be able to read the disk, but only root and users in storage group will be able to write to it. If you want everyone to be able to read/write, use chmod 777 [2].
+This way everyone will be able to read the disk, but only root and users in storage group will be able to write to it. If you want everyone to be able to read/write, use chmod 777 [2]. If the operation isn't permitted while running it as root you probably need to add support for the NTFS file system first:
 Create your "real" filesystem on the external harddrive and design fake directory structures and files for your multiple, fake, anonymous or pseudonymous identities.