Over the years, our digital life represents more and more of our real life. Whether documents, financials, music or pictures, we have an enormous amount of personal data on our computers that cannot be replaced or lost.

In the last couple weeks, I have first hand experience data loss. I lost my main data hard drive about 700 GB of data (not the system drive). My sister lost her hard drive to our desktop computer. That hard drive contained not only the OS but also all of her documents and pictures. Fortunately, the net result is that we had no data loss. I have lost data before and it made me feel ill. Never again. In the last month, it was a good fire drill on our backup strategy.

Reading a little about my colorblindness, I read a really interesting tidbit on http://vischeck.com/info/wade.php

On the positive side, there is some evidence that colour-blind people are much better than average at certain jobs. They are very good at finding green things hidden against green backgrounds – for example grass or leaves. They tend to find things by shape and get less confused by camouflage. Because of this, colour-blind entomologists still catch lots of bugs and in wartime, armies prize their colour-blind snipers and spotters. So, if you are colour blind and have trouble picking strawberries, why not try your hand at green beans or peas instead? You might be surprised at how well you do!

I personally don’t suffer from this particular version of colorblindness; however, I do fail most of the variations.

I did this colorblindness test. Here are the results:

Estimate of color vision deficiency’s probability:75%

normal answers: 20/30

Your answer is randomly: 0/23

no similar proposal: 1/7

green color deficit (deutéranopia): 1/17

green color deficit (deutéranomaly) simulation wickline: 0/7

red color deficit (protanopia): 8/14

Unclutterer

via Ask Unclutterer: Organizing photographs.

Has a pretty interesting take on photographs, as clutter. However, it has not been my experience that the original owner is not usually the person who wants to scan them. Estates are probably the number one reason why this topic comes up. Family reunions are probably a close second. Right now I am in process of scanning a few thousand pictures.

Here is what I have in the queue:

My brother linked to a great VW commercial

As a father, I can total relate to this commercial. I think you would understand after seeing our Halloween picture from last year:

Yes, that is Yoda on the left!

Today marks Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. Reagan is really my first President of the United States. I was born a few months prior to Nixon resigning. I was potty trained during Ford’s presidency. I really don’t remember anything about Carter…except for waiting in line for gasoline in the backseat of a station wagon.

When he was President, I was between the ages of 6 and 14. Back then, I think we only had 12 possible TV channels (2-13). My first memory of Reagan is when he was on (almost) every TV channel when he spoke. I can even remember him speaking on TV during school when the Challenger exploded. He had a gift of communication. He could make us laugh (“age will not be an issue for this campaign”). He could give us hope (“shining city on the hill”). He could inspire us (“tear down this wall”). Not until later in life, did I truly understand and appreciate his contribution to this country and this world.

Everyone has different ways of organizing their pictures. The really only wrong way is no organization at all; unfortunately, this is the most common. Your mileage may vary but I will try to outline my approach that seems to serve me well. First off, my pictures are family centric. I don’t have clients or jobs that are clear ways of separating your pictures.

Let’s start out with a few rules:

I am in process of scanning a large stack of family photos. I came across a vintage Christmas Card:

I find a couple things very remarkable:

1. It was economical to do photo Christmas cards back in the 1950’s.
2. Things haven’t changed that much as compared to today. The most common photo Christmas cards today are plug in chug. You pick the card and pick the photo.
3. We still just send pictures of our pets and children.

In contrast, here is mine from this year.

Here is a screenshot of AccuWeather’s iPhone app last month during a snow storm that we had in Cincinnati. This storm was very interesting because some weatherman said anywhere from 2" to 6" depending how it tracked. AccuWeather usually is the tabloid weather forecaster and usually predicts gloom; however, this time I think it was just a typo. About a week later, they updated their app. It really lost its feng shui. The pivoted alarms table was awesome…the columns could be ice, snow, wind, rain, etc. It was great summary of what/when.

My eight year old son got a Jedi Force Trainer for Christmas. Here is the marketing literature:

May the Force be with you. The Force Trainer by Uncle Milton actually allows you to control a Jedi Training Remote with your mind, by tapping into cutting-edge brainwave technology. Utilizing dry EEG sensor technology, the headset reads and interprets your brainwaves. The deeper your concentration and mental focus, the greater your ability to move the Training Remote up or down the Training Tower. Progress from Padawan to Jedi Master as you master the use of “The Force” through 15 levels of training. Increasingly challenging sequences are aided by training cues and instruction from the master of all Jedi Masters himself, Yoda. Additional STAR WARS sound effects confirm accomplishment and provide encouragement throughout your training. Advancement and current level of your training is displayed on the Training Tower control panel.