[OT] unhosing .rev and .livecode files

[Kay C Lan]

On Sun, Dec 4, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Jerry Jensen <jerry at jhjensen.com> wrote:
> Just one additional level of warning - if you keep Dropbox or Google Drive online,
> malware can get there too. Usually the baddies just trash your directory, but if
> they encrypt everything you have accessible online, Dropbox and Google Drive
>won’t help you. Offline backup is essential, offsite is even better.

Whilst your overall comment is extremely valid, that everyone should
have some sort of offline back-up, the sentiment about Google Drive I
think is false and probably driven by articles such as this:

http://blog.teklinks.com/ask-the-engineer-why-dropbox-wont-help-if-youre-the-victim-of-cryptowall

The statement that versioning is just a few hours or a couple of days
at most is just wrong; certainly in the case of Google Drive, and is
just a perfect example of how so many of us do not really understand
the programs and services we use and the options available to us:

http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/keep-older-versions-of-your-documents-on-google-drive-f-1671188573

If Richmond had Google Drive synced to his stacks (which I appreciate
he doesn't), then even at the default setting, if there was some
crypto attack on his computer I would NOT discount the effort of going
to your Google Drive and looking at the old versions kept - there is a
little clock icon against any file that has multiple versions.

Not only that, Google Drive has a menubar icon which becomes active
only when it's syncing, ie I've just saved a stack. It spends most of
it's time as a static Icon, so if it starts up at a random time and
doesn't stop it's a clear indication to pull the ethernet, USB,
Thunderbolt and FireWire cables and shut the computer down immediately
- especially if I were to click on the menubar Google Drive Icon and
the files it listed as being synced are ones that I haven't worked on
for ages. Had to pull cables a couple of times over the years,
although not for uncommanded Google Drive activity but for network
traffic that didn't seem right.

Cloud based sync is not THE answer, it's just one of many cheap and
easy options that should be ADDED to our stash of computer
prophylactics. Only if your network bandwidth is thin and/or expensive
would you not avail yourself of the side benefits of free Google
Drive/Dropbox.