It is understandable people want to combine their work and personal lives, it just becomes problematic at times.
What I have noticed is that people especially want to use their computer in a personal way if they have a laptop. Since more people have laptops, the mixture of work and personal files and technology is complicated. Last week I spoke about how someone can manage multiple Apple ID’s. Now we need to discuss how to handle everything else.
The old way to store files was on a local computer. I have discussed that cloud storage is much safer, easier, and more cool. For people who use work computers, setting up a cloud storage is ideal. Then when the employee leaves, no files need to be copied. Of course there is a risk of employees copying company information to their personal accounts, but in many environments this doesn’t seem to be a concern.
However if this can’t be done, then using an external USB drive is another option. Someone can store their personal files on the external drive, and that drive can have cloud storage enabled on it. This is a really nice option as well that bypasses third-party cloud services.
Applications are more difficult. If they are iPhone applications they are linked to the Apple ID. If they are anything else, they tend to be linked to the company/person who bought them. Most people don’t want to keep track of serial numbers and I don’t blame them. I have kept track of my own serial numbers, but unfortunately what happens is that they stop working when newer versions of software appear. So practically speaking, keeping track of software serial numbers is less useful as years go by.
What some people are doing now is using USB applications on a usb drive, and running those applications on whatever computer system they are on. I always thought this was too much of a compromise on program functionality. I have never tried it, but many IT people speak highly of this method. I wonder how careful people would be to keep track of their USB drive. I tend to lose mine by lending them out to clients. So this never was a seriously considered method for me.
I like the Keep it Simple Silly method of life. I just use the applications that are default on a computer, and keep my data in the cloud. Keep the work to a minimum and easy to restore. This works for me, but of course its your life and values.
The post Separating work and personal technology and files appeared first on chimac.net - Stuff worth knowing about.