Paranoid about Google Docs and Dropbox

It's time to call in the techies, because I want to share my family finance worksheets in a secure way.

Google Docs is lovely for collaboration (aside from its inability to convert some file formats). However, I believe that Google employees are waiting for me to choose the wrong setting and publish everything to the web where they can pick it over for data to sell. And no, I don't think that is paranoid, but you can try to convince me otherwise.  This concern has kept me from really getting on with Google+ and similar issues are clouding my relationship with Facebook.

Which takes me to Dropbox, an application with few opportunities to inadvertently share information, as long as I stay away from the pre-installed Photos and Public folders. Dropbox encrypts all files so if strangers bump into your data they won't be able to read it.

But then I found out that  Dropbox has been having issues with privacy. According to this Wired article the company has access to the encryption keys, so the files are potentially open to Dropbox employee viewing. I think Dropbox is good enough for me, but if you want to check out the next level of security the Travelin' Librarian recommends Wuala.

Technical and psychological help will be needed before I go any deeper into Internet privacy and security.

My Secret Mentor, an epitaph

This is a small part of the story of A. She was older than me and had more hairs on her chin then I do. Her eyes were sharp blue and when she focused her attention on a topic she did not let it go until satisfied. Some days we could only find time for a greeting, or her head would be down in concentration and we didn't even say hello. Once a month we would sit down around a table together for hours talking about our projects. A. often found fault and never praised my work without qualification, but her criticisms were valid and she was always interested in what I was doing. I wasn't her only mentee; she taught many people informally and was active in the community.

One day A. wasn't in; she'd been taken to the hospital as the result of a fall. Friends who visited said that when they brought grapes and apples to her bedside she asked "Why not oranges?" She didn't return to the library but died months later.

After A. died, I redefined our relationship. Before she had been a customer, a patron, a library user, but my feelings around her death and the ways in which I missed her made me realize that she had been my secret mentor. The last thing A. taught me was that listening, helping and providing information is never one way - the connections we build through library work flow in both directions. "Customer-based services" is the intellectual concept, but the emotional reality is richer.

cpd23, Thing 11