Encrypt Your Dropbox Files with VeraCrypt

Tags

backup, linux, mac, organization, osx, tech, yosemite

UPDATE 2017-09-21: What follows is my workable but convoluted system for securing sensitive files in Dropbox. As an alternative, you may instead consider a zero-knowledge, encrypted backup service like SpiderOak. Easier. -JMT

There comes a time in every man’s life when he realizes that it’s totally not smart to keep sensitive personal documents in plain text on Dropbox.

VeraCrypt Mounting a Volume

For me, that time was last Monday. I spent this week searching for and experimenting with possible solutions, and I’ve now got a system in place that I’m pretty happy with, so I thought I’d share.
The problem, as I see it, is that the important stuff needs off-site backup — but the important stuff tends to be the same as the sensitive stuff, so it’s exactly the stuff that shouldn’t just be sitting on Dropbox. (Yes, I know Dropbox encrypts your data already. If that’s enough for you, more power to you.)

The system I’ve set up on my OS X Yosemite machine is this:

1. Create a folder in ~/Documents called Encrypted. Collect all my important stuff there.
2. Use VeraCrypt (free) to create an encrypted volume; we’ll call it EncryptedVolume.
3. Use Carbon Copy Cloner ($40; worth it) to clone ~/Documents/Encrypted to EncryptedVolume.
4. Place EncryptedVolume in ~/Dropbox.

Now you can just use your ~/Documents/Encrypted folder on an ongoing basis, and you don’t have to fool with opening encrypted volumes or anything else when you’re in a rush. Just use the folder as normal. And when you do have time, and/or you make important updates, use Carbon Copy Cloner to re-sync the folder to EncryptedVolume. CCC will only copy the updates, Dropbox will only upload the file difference, and nothing will be uploaded until the drive is encrypted and unmounted again. So everything is both efficient and secure during each step.

That’s the best compromise I could find between convenience and security. I chose VeraCrypt both because it’s open source and because it’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux. So if my computing situation changes and I’m ever in a pinch, I can open my encrypted documents on any computer* (I also chose to format EncryptedVolume as FAT for the same reason).

Of course, you can do this without CCC, as long as you don’t mind a little manual housekeeping. But CCC is already the bedrock of my backup solution, so it made sense to leverage it here, too.

*I had one hiccup on Linux — after Dropbox syncs EncryptedVolume to your Linux box, you need to give yourself write permission to the file, or the drive will be mounted read-only. You only need to do this once, the first time it downloads.

 

Stay Focused with These OS X Productivity Apps

Tags

Apple, freelance, internet, mac, organization, osx, tech, yosemite

Hellscape.

Your computer desktop is a hellscape of distraction. And so is mine. But mine is slightly less so, because of a number of strategies and utilities that I employ to keep it as clean as possible.

The basic idea here is to stop keeping so many browser tabs open – email, Facebook, calendar, your to-do list, articles to read, videos to watch – it never ends. And the result is that every time you glance at your browser’s title bar, you’re bombarded with the distraction of all these open circuits and loose ends. It is absolutely counter-productive to a focused workflow, whatever you’re working on. Below are some strategies and utilities that I use to tame the Beast.

First, the Big 4 \m/

Better.

MailTab Pro for Gmail

Do you keep your email open in a browser tab at all times? Of course you do – what do I think you are, some kind of Luddite? Well, stop it. It’s distracting. MailTab Pro for Gmail is a menu bar app that alerts you when email arrives and gives you quick, browser-less access to read and compose. It looks and behaves exactly like gmail in your browser, but tucked neatly into your menu bar. $1.99 for the pro version; there is also a free version available.

Similar competing apps exist, as do menu bar apps for Yahoo Mail and other services, but I can’t vouch for those.

MenuTab Pro for Google Calendar

Think you see a pattern? You’re right. Get all of those pinned tabs out of the way and up into the menu bar, where you can access them when you need them without the psychological overhead of a browser.

MenuTab Pro for Google Calendar is a simple app that keeps your Google calendar in your menu bar, out of sight and out of mind – until you need it. $1.99.

Wunderlist

Wunderbar.

This one’s sort of a twofer. I’m assuming you already use a to-do list like Wunderlist or Toodledo. If you don’t, proceed immediately to wunderlist.com and sign up for an account. There is nothing quite so liberating as a to-do list that follows you everywhere you go, from desktop to laptop to phone to tablet. Well, that or maybe representative government. But you already have that. Sort of.

Anyhoo, once you have your to-do list set up, you will want 24/7 access to it, and you will begin keeping a tab open in your browser for it. Have you learned nothing from me, padawan? Ditch the tab, and install the free menu bar app. (Or, if you prefer, Toodledo.)

MenuTab for Facebook

And finally, if you’re like me, you enjoy Neil Diamond and are jealous of your wife’s relationship with your cat. Also, you have infrequent interactions on Facebook, but are compelled to constantly check to see if you have any alerts, despite all good sense. MenuTab for Facebook will fix that nonsense. Just stick it up in your menu bar and it will tell you when it’s time to check; in the meantime, those pictures of your cousin’s dinner won’t miss you one bit. Free, or $1.99 for extra features.

Next, Clean up Those Loose Ends

Evernote

Hopefully by now you have installed and are faithfully using your to-do list. That’s great, but what about when you need to make a note longer than a few words? Stop opening TextEdit, and start using Evernote.

Evernote allows you to create notes, sort them into notebooks, and sync them across multiple devices. It’s like Apple Notes, but with greater portability. You can use Evernote natively to sync your thoughts across OS X, Windows, iOS and Android, and there are several options for using it with Linux.

YouTube ‘Watch Later’

If you’re a YouTube power user (does that sound as ridiculous as I think it does?) you already know about the Watch Later playlist. But if you’re a casual user, you may not be aware. The Watch Later playlist is created in your account by default. Whenever you come across a video that you want to watch – but not right now – hover over the thumbnail and you’ll see a little clock icon in the lower right corner. Click that to add the video to your Watch Later list. When you have a few minutes for a break, check out the playlist (in the upper left of your screen) and see what you’ve queued up for yourself.

It’s a thousand times better than keeping twenty YouTube tabs open for stuff you’re totally going to watch, like, whenever you get a sec. For realz, yo.

Ok, so by now you ought to have your email, calendar, to-do list and Facebook apps running out of sight in your menu bar, and you’re tracking your projects with your to-do list and keeping notes with Evernote and sticking all those cat videos into your Watch Later list. If we’ve done this right, you might be able to – gasp – close your browser! And not even with tabs open so they all come back when you relaunch, but actually close it all so it opens cleanly the next time you actually need it. And as long as you don’t need it, it can stay closed, and your desktop is now free of distraction! Huzzah!

Honorable Mention

TotalFinder

I’m not sure TotalFinder is a productivity app per se, but it goes a long way to cleaning up your desktop, and I sure couldn’t live without it, so here it goes.

TotalFinder is the Finder replacement that ought to come stock with OS X. It maintains a single window with tabs for multiple directories, and keeps that window hidden when you don’t need it. A hotkey brings it up when you need it, and hides it when you don’t.

It also has a whole host of other options, so you can have granular control over your Finder experience, if you’re into that kind of thing. $18 and worth every penny.

Clean a White Mac Keyboard with a Tide Pen

Tags

Apple, clean, keyboard, mac

Halfway Done

Need to clean one of those white, Apple keyboards that get obnoxiously, embarrassingly dirty? I found a great technique at ManOfGreatHeight’s youtube channel.

Just use a Tide Pen and a paper towel to clean the keys. It still took about an hour to get the entire keyboard done, but it was an easy hour.

Setting up Boost C++ Libraries for Large Integers in Code::Blocks on OS X

Tags

BigInts, boost, c++, code::blocks, mac, programming, projecteuler

Having trouble getting integers larger than 64 bits to work in C++? So was I. Here’s how I fixed it:

1. You’ll want to use the data type cpp_int provided by Boost C++ Libraries.
   1. Go here and download the zip: http://sourceforge.net/projects/boost/files/boost/1.56.0/
   2. Unzip into a forever home. (You’ll probably want this again sometime, so don’t just stick it in your project folder and forget about it.)
2. Code::Blocks needs some priming before you can use Boost:
   1. With your project open, choose: Project->Build Options….
   2. Select the Search Directories tab.
   3. Use the Add button at the bottom to add the path to your new Boost directory. This needs to be the directory that was created when you extracted the zip file. (In my case, I added /Users/jmatthewturner/C++/Boost/boost_1_56_0.)
3. And your project file needs some special code:
   1. Add an #include for the cpp_int.hpp file that is inside boost/multiprecision/. Mine looks like this:

      #include "/Users/jmatthewturner/C++/Boost/boost_1_56_0/boost/multiprecision/cpp_int.hpp"

Now you can use the data type cpp_int, which is an arbitrarily large integer, limited only by the memory available on your machine. It is part of the namespace boost::multiprecision, so always refer to it like this:

boost::multiprecision::cpp_int myBigInteger;

or define a namespace to make your life a little easier:

using namespace std;
namespace mp = boost::multiprecision;
mp::cpp_int myBigInteger;
mp::cpp_int myFunction(mp::cpp_int x);

…etc, etc. And that should do it. I used cpp_int to help solve Project Euler #20; I’ll post the source code when I get around to writing up the problem.

Simple, Efficient Backup for Creatives

Tags

backup, editing, freelance, mac, organization, tech

NOTE: This article was originally posted 8/11/2013.

Backing up our data is important. We all know that. But particularly for creative professionals, our data is our livelihood. Lose one project due to hard drive failure, and your reputation is ruined with that client forever. And yet, so frequently I find that freelancers and even small companies don’t maintain adequate (if any) backups. Why?

Expense is always an issue, but with today’s hard drive prices, it’s no excuse for risking your client’s work and your reputation. If the confusion inherent in the backup landscape is your excuse, then I’m here to help. You don’t need a RAID array or a NAS or a SAN or a data locker to take basic precautions for data redundancy. Below is a simple, effective backup strategy I developed for a small production company I used to work for, and which I implement now in my own freelance practice.

Step 1 – The Archive
This is where your projects go to die. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. Let’s say they “retire.” Because you never know when a client will want an update to something you produced for them two years ago, or if you’ll want to go back and grab an old After Effects animation to use as a template in a new project. The Archive is where projects live after you think you’re done with them.

The Archive is simple. For every hard drive you need to keep archived material, you buy two. So if you have 1 TB worth of old projects, you buy two 2 TB drives. You put all your projects on one of them (leaving room to grow), and then you mirror it to the second. Whether you need one, two, or twenty drives, you keep them all mirrored, all the time. There’s no mismatching – each hard drive has an exact mirror. There’s no throwing projects just anywhere and then trying to remember to back them up somewhere else later, when you get a chance, and THEN trying to remember where on Earth either of those copies went. Projects enter The Archive chronologically, so when you need something you just need to remember approximately when you finished it, and then find that drive.

Step 2 – The Working Drive
Next, for active projects, you get a portable drive and a place to back it up, and do the same thing. If you’re a freelancer, that’s pretty much it. If you’re a company with multiple editors, you give each editor a personal portable Working Drive and a place to back it up. They keep all their active projects on that drive, and they keep it with them for those inevitable times when a client needs something unexpected over the weekend.

If you’re a freelancer, it works in the other direction – your Working Drive is always available to bring to a client’s location when necessary, and always has your current work on it. You can just buy two identical portable drives, but a cheaper solution is to back it up to another desktop drive. I use Time Machine to back up my portable to my Time Machine backup drive along with all my system files.

Step 3 – The System
Now we have a simple, elegant backup solution. Keep all current work on your portable Working Drive, and keep that drive either mirrored or backed up to a desktop drive. When you close the books on a given project, move that project to The Archive, make sure that it’s mirrored, then remove it from your Working Drive to reclaim the space for your next project.

You can perform the mirror backups manually, or you can use software to automate the process. If you’re on a Mac, Carbon Copy Cloner is a free program that will keep two drives matched, always updating one to match the other whenever changes are made. (If you’re using a PC, then you probably have 20 different options, none of which actually work any better than CCC.)

Bonus Level – Off-site Backup
If you’re serious about backup, you need to also think about off-site backup. Keeping all your drives mirrored protects you in case of hard drive failure, but in case of fire/flood/theft/volcano, you’re still hosed. So if you want to take that extra step, it’s built into the system: just take those mirrors and keep them somewhere else. If you’re a freelancer, keep them at a friend’s or family member’s house, or store them in a bank safe deposit box. If you’re a small company, send the mirrors home with some trusted employees. You’ll need to retrieve them when it’s time to update the mirror, but c’est la vie, amirite?

Agitator Level – But what about the cloud?
If you’ve got Verizon FiOS or an OC-3 connection, by all means, just dump it all to the cloud and forget everything I said. Crashplan has some reasonably priced plans and comes highly recommended by the interwebs. But for the rest of us, HD video is far too massive to realistically back up to the cloud. It would take days of a constant streaming upload to backup just a few hours of footage. So please stop showing off; if we had FiOS in our area, we wouldn’t rub your nose in it.