After all the hullaballoo about armed robberies, thefts, etc… Well, it’s all pretty depressing but you can’t dwell on it if you are going to live here. Like you can’t dwell on loss of civil liberties and working the first six months of your year to pay your share of taxes if you are going to live in the U.S. For now, we prefer here, guns ‘n all.
I also saw three movies recently that make my little problems seem insignificant. About a month ago, I watched Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
Last weekend, I saw Why We Fight
On top of that, I now have bullet-proof laptop security… for after it’s been stolen, but still better than nothing! Now I can keep my data secure, thwart any future users and then find the darn thing! We use all these products:
1. Carbonite is an online backup service that works in the background, continuously. $50 a year. Well worth it. The first big back-up takes a few days and does not interfere with your connection speed. After that, it backs up all the time. Music, photos, documents… my hard drive is 80 gigs and FULL. Carbonite has it all!
2. There is a free program called The Laptop Lock. If your laptop is stolen, this freezes the data, can erase it securely, can find it by recording the IP address… AND IT’S FREE!
3. PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is an excellent encryption software so if it’s stolen, you will have double protection to either erase your data or encrypt it so NO ONE can get into it.
Note: Please use the links here to investigate the products I promote – they are affiliate links and I will make a commission if you buy something. It doesn’t cost you a penny more to buy through the link. I use every product I promote. Except the google ads… I have little control over those. If I could eliminate the real estate ads, I would… Be nice to see something interesting for sale on there!!!
*Truck-drivers is a reference to all the mindless order-followers who drove fellow human beings to the gas chambers. Just doing their jobs. No questions asked. Like they were taught to do.
Your “Laptop Lock” link is faulty. Looks like to me like your href is missing the “http://” in front of the “www” so it refers to a local doc.
Good article.
Arrrgh what a bummer. My wife and I had our laptops stolen (house break-in) about 6 months ago. They caught the thieves but not the laptops. Hindsight is definitely 20/20 – now we have everything super backed up and lock the laptops up before we go anywhere. Many thanks for the info on laptop lock!
Speaking of things that put our own lives/situations in perspective, have you ever read City of Joy, by Dominique LaPierre?
I just re-read it this last week, on my quick visit to Manuel Antonio last week.
I’m the last one to say that all “pain” is relative. If I’m feeling shitty, someone else’s problems don’t make me feel better.
BUT, this “story” about the poorest of the poor in Calcutta, and their Joy in life, almost makes you want to join them.
If you haven’t already, give it a read.
BTW, Patrick Swazey (sp?) was in the movie depiction of the book, haven’t seen it, heard it sucked.
There’s my two colones.
Mark.
Phil – thank you, I fixed the link! It was exactly that: missing the http://.
Hi Dave – sorry to hear it! But glad you caught the thieves – that’s unusual. I noticed that your link wasn’t showing up under my Costa Rica Info sites (look down to your left) and I fixed that. I had the list limited to 30 sites… Good site, lots of good info.
Hey, Mark, I haven’t read that book, but I’ve heard of it. I did see the movie and it did suck. But I will get the book, sounds like something I could get into! Some of the bestsellers these days, while beautifully written, tell of horrible life circumstances with no redeeming features… life is hard enough. I want to read about people overcoming adversity, making lemonade out of lemons. Thanks!
Well I didn’t think City of Joy, celluloid, sucked. Mind you, Patrick Swayze was on my laminated freebie list for a while. http://www.friends-dvd.com/episode305.html.
On another note, yeah, Sally, I went through a season of perspective granting documentary viewings recently. Darwin’s Nightmare is another one I recommend … all of the vaccuum sealed salmon in my freezer warranted a reading of the fine print after that … and ’twas to my dismay to read from whence waters my bargain priced catch were fished. We’re so bloody spoiled for choice in North America, we have *no idea* the price others pay for our indulgence.
Viva la local.
I should give City of Joy another shot I guess… after I read the book. My mom says I am THE most critical movie goer she’s ever known! After Dirty Dancin’ Patrick Swayze was on my list, too!!! (Very funny, that freebie list episode!)
Looking forward to Darwin’s Nightmare – what a great title. Also just found out about another one: Trading Democracy which reveals the details of Chapter 11 of NAFTA… The transcript is online at:
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/tradingdemocracy.html
Governments do particularly unpleasant things in secret. I’m practically rabid about Ron Paul’s run for the White House. Very very exciting… See you soon!
I would mention one last bit of security for anyone using wifi at a public hotspot: get a personal VPN (Virtual Private Network). It would encrypt (scramble & protect) your wireless communications. If someone were to intercept the connection, all they’d see is gobbledygook. I use one provided by my job atm, but I’ll get a personal VPN as soon as I move to CR. You can find some companies offering it by googling ‘personal VPN.’
Also, I read last week that Adsense will be offering the ability to hide certain ads. No more wondering what Balinese Villas have to do with CR 😛
Our wireless in our house is secure – we use the WEP code with our wireless router… but i will look into it for wireless other places.
You know, I’m torn on the balinese thing… I clicked on it and filled out the form and I got paid like $3 for that one ad. So if everyone could click on the balinese villa thing and ask for more info… I’D REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!! See you….