Encryptying data: a big disappointment

[Stan Brown]

While there appear to be problems attempting to decrypt the contents of
a TrueCrypt-encrypted drive (i.e., whole-drive/partition encryption) by
a backup program, there should be no problem with backing up a Truecrypt
container file. Instead of mounting the container file as a drive, just
backup the container file itself.

I should think the problem with that was obvious: Whe one file on a
5GB volume has changed, you still have to back up 5GB rather than say
80KB.

 

[choro]

I believe you meant to say "2010-06-12"

Otherwise you have Dec 6th of 2010. and the slashes hose some apps as
the read it as parameters or pathing.

The French Canadian system, I believe, yyyy mm dd is the ONLY logical
system if you want alphabetic sorting to also sort files chronologically
simultaneously. The logic is large to smaller and smallest: YYYY>MM>DD
*with or without* any spaces, dashes or slashes etc in between.
-- choro

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

The French Canadian system, I believe, yyyy mm dd is the ONLY logical system
if you want alphabetic sorting to also sort files chronologically
simultaneously. The logic is large to smaller and smallest: YYYY>MM>DD *with
or without* any spaces, dashes or slashes etc in between.
-- choro

But whichever you choose, stick to it, if you're naming files. If you
intermix spaces and no spaces in a single folder, sorting will be out
of sorts...

That's true of directories as well as folders

 

[nothing but net]

... I usually stick to local mean time.

Figuring out local mean time is way more difficult than encrypting
data and backing it up.

I stick to local standard time.

 

[choro]

But whichever you choose, stick to it, if you're naming files. If you
intermix spaces and no spaces in a single folder, sorting will be out of
sorts...

Strange that! I thought it was I who wrote "whichever you choose, stick
to it." I think I had actually written a para to that effect but thought
it so obvious that I deleted the para before hitting the Send button.

But yes, of course, you have to stick to whatever method you opt for.
And come to think of it, I think you were absolutely right in pointing
this out.
-- choro

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Another advantage (I gather, by the way, that it is used naturally in
some countries in the far east) is that it is sufficiently unfamiliar
that it causes the reader to take notice of it, and thus actually think
about it, rather than assuming it's in the European or less logical*
American civilian format. [It's obviously unusual assuming a four-digit
year is used, of course, and I hope we're all past using two-digit years
by now.]

(*Sorry, guys, it _is_ less logical! It makes sense when in words -
"March 10 2012" for example, which I presume is where it comes from -
but not when all in figures. [Though oddly the National Day is usually
expressed the other way!] The assumption that everybody did it that way
caused a lot of confusion over here ten years ago when every American
started talking about "nine eleven"; when I asked what happened on the
ninth of November, one of my correspondents asked if I meant
Kristallnacht, the date of which I hadn't known, so I learnt something!)(Mine would probably be 20120310, probably in a _directory_ whose name
included backup, because I got into the habit of keeping to 8-character
filenames when using ERU/ERD under Windows '9x, since booting into DOS -
which got me out of trouble more than once, using such a backup - the
longer names were not visible. I still stick to it under XP, even though
I _think_ BartPE - which I have in case I ever need to use my ERUNT
backups - _can_ handle long filenames. [I fear BartPE doesn't work under
7, so I'd have to use the recovery console there - ERUNT _does_ work
under 7.]

Nor I, but I wish everybody did. It's the best way.




Yes, I do too, but in my example I forgot to do so.

Does 7 allow colons in filenames then?

I wish we all used 24 hour time and I wish the hour hand on analog
clocks would run at half speed. But because clocks don't work that
way, and the great majority of Americans use 12 hour time, I do too.

I too wish 24h was commoner: for example in TV listings. (I grew up in
Germany where it is used in such listings.) I'm unaware of any TV
recorder, for example, which doesn't use 24h - _are_ there some that use
12, with an AM/PM marker? At least train and 'bus timetables here now
use 24h. (Not sure about the clock: on balance I think you're right, but
it's probably harder to tell the time at a glance with them, as our
brains don't resolve angles that finely well.)

 

[Ken Blake]

In message <[email protected]>, Ken Blake

I too wish 24h was commoner: for example in TV listings. (I grew up in
Germany where it is used in such listings.) I'm unaware of any TV
recorder, for example, which doesn't use 24h - _are_ there some that use
12, with an AM/PM marker? At least train and 'bus timetables here now
use 24h. (Not sure about the clock: on balance I think you're right, but
it's probably harder to tell the time at a glance with them, as our
brains don't resolve angles that finely well.)

What I *really* wish (but didn't mention because it's such an enormous
change that it's highly unlikely ever to happen) is that we would
switch to a decimal clock. Divide a day into ten hours, not 24, an
hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds.

 

[Ken Blake]

I believe you meant to say "2010-06-12"

Sorry, yes that's what I meant.

Otherwise you have Dec 6th of 2010. and the slashes hose some apps as
the read it as parameters or pathing.

Yes, that's why I said "but without the slashes."

 

[DanS]

In message
<[email protected]>, Stan
You may remember that we had a discussion here a month
or so ago about protecting data on a laptop, where
there's a significant possibility that someone else
could get physical possession of the computer. In such
a case, your Windows login password is little
protection, because anyone can boot a live Linux CD and
pull all the files, even off NTFS volumes.
[]
Does anyone know a way to encrypt my drives such that
[] * Backups can be done, both full and incremental
[]
As Paul has said, many (I suspect most) encryption
methods in effect make one big file - or, call it
something else - of the disc (or partition) being
encrypted. As such, incremental isn't going to be
available.

Do you have a current example of the 'one big file'
approach? That doesn't seem like it would be a common
thing at all. In addition, I don't see any reason to do
it that way, and plenty of reasons not to.

I have such a file on the thumb drive I use to back up a
handful of items. It is nowhere near a whole partition
backup, just a copy of a few files that I wish to keep from
prying eyes. It's just under 4GB, since the stick is FAT32.

I stand corrected. It appears that creating an encrypted
container is an option recommended for inexperienced users.

<http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=tutorial>

That's weird.....for "inexperienced" users........

I wouldn't think there's that much to it that there would be "experienced" users and
"inexperienced" users.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, Ken Blake

What I *really* wish (but didn't mention because it's such an enormous
change that it's highly unlikely ever to happen) is that we would
switch to a decimal clock. Divide a day into ten hours, not 24, an
hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds.

I think this was experimented with after the French revolution. They
certainly experimented with ten months.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

"We're plumbing shallows we didn't know existed here" - Jeremy Paxman (as
quizmaster of "University Challenge"), 1998 (when losing team suddenly put on a
spurt by showing knowledge of things like the Eurovision Song Contest ...)

 

[Char Jackson]

I too wish 24h was commoner: for example in TV listings. (I grew up in
Germany where it is used in such listings.) I'm unaware of any TV
recorder, for example, which doesn't use 24h - _are_ there some that use
12, with an AM/PM marker?

Over here on the left side of the pond, I'm not aware of any DVR's
that use 24h by default, although it wouldn't surprise me to see a
switchable display option buried somewhere in the menu. It's not
limited to DVR's, though. It's rare to see a 24h clock anywhere over
here.

 

[Bob I]

What I *really* wish (but didn't mention because it's such an enormous
change that it's highly unlikely ever to happen) is that we would
switch to a decimal clock. Divide a day into ten hours, not 24, an
hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds.

Which in turn, means you divide the world into 10 timezones each being
2.4 times wider than current, sunrise and sunset being 2 hours and 24
minute difference along the borders. The continental US would be 2
timezones so NY and LA would be 1 clock hour apart but lunch time in LA
and the New Yorkers looking for supper. I think pretty disruptive overall.

 

[Ken Blake]

In message <[email protected]>, Ken Blake


I think this was experimented with after the French revolution.

Thanks, I didn't know about that.

They certainly experimented with ten months.

But my choice would be thirteen months, each with exactly four
seven-days weeks. That's a total of 364 days, so one extra day, New
Years Day, would have to be added, not in any month. And in leap
years, there would be a second, not-in-any-month day, Leap Day.

 

[Ken Blake]

Which in turn, means you divide the world into 10 timezones each being
2.4 times wider than current, sunrise and sunset being 2 hours and 24
minute difference along the borders. The continental US would be 2
timezones so NY and LA would be 1 clock hour apart but lunch time in LA
and the New Yorkers looking for supper. I think pretty disruptive overall.

And among the other enormous changes that are highly unlikely to ever
happen that I also wish for is getting rid of time zones entirely.
Have the entire world use the same time. As far as I'm concerned,
there's no reason why a work day couldn't be 9am to 5pm in one part of
the world and 9pm to 5am on the opposite side.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

Thanks, I didn't know about that.




But my choice would be thirteen months, each with exactly four
seven-days weeks. That's a total of 364 days, so one extra day, New
Years Day, would have to be added, not in any month. And in leap
years, there would be a second, not-in-any-month day, Leap Day.

Hmm. I've looked:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Republican_Calendar says they had 12
months, each divided into three ten-day weeks, with an extra either five
or six days at the end of each year. (Oh, the year began on the autumnal
equinox.)
Each day ten hours, each hour 100 minutes, each with 100 seconds. Clocks
were manufactured, but decimal time didn't catch on. (I remember an
attempt a few years ago to have some units of internet time - I think
they were called "beats" and had something to do with the Swatch
company; that doesn't seem to have caught on either.)

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

See my previous post (basically, was done under the French revolution,
but didn't catch on).

And among the other enormous changes that are highly unlikely to ever
happen that I also wish for is getting rid of time zones entirely.
Have the entire world use the same time. As far as I'm concerned,
there's no reason why a work day couldn't be 9am to 5pm in one part of
the world and 9pm to 5am on the opposite side.

Or rather 9 to 17 and 21 to 5.

Unlikely, as you say; I've been (quietly) hoping for a smaller version
every year, the abolition of summer (or daylight saving, or many other
terms) time. I don't mean we should abolish the idea of getting up
earlier in summer, just not mess with the clocks. (And for that matter
you could have more than just two big jerks a year if you wanted: each
employer set times to suit local conditions. OK, cross-"zones" trading
would require some commonality, but we manage with time zones.)

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

(Mine would probably be 20120310, probably in a _directory_ whose name
included backup,

I was hardly recommending how to name your backup files, I was just
writing something that I thought would be intelligible, so as to
illustrate my remark.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:34:59 +0000, "J. P. Gilliver (John)"


What I *really* wish (but didn't mention because it's such an enormous
change that it's highly unlikely ever to happen) is that we would
switch to a decimal clock. Divide a day into ten hours, not 24, an
hour into 100 minutes, and a minute into 100 seconds.

That would certainly mess up the SI (the international system of
physics units).

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Figuring out local mean time is way more difficult than encrypting
data and backing it up.

I stick to local standard time.

Now that you mention it, so do I.

Thanks for the wake-up call

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Unlikely, as you say; I've been (quietly) hoping for a smaller version every
year, the abolition of summer (or daylight saving, or many other terms) time.
I don't mean we should abolish the idea of getting up earlier in summer, just
not mess with the clocks.

Yes - and I can even get noisy about that...

I'd even accept DST/Summertime year-round, rather than messing with it
twice a year. (Tonight, here in California.)

I recently calculated that DST was in effect for 65% of the year (I
think I calculated it for 2011).