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My 10 tech resolutions for 2012
Consolidating digital photos and videos spread across memory cards and devices: just one thing to do in 2012. Photo by Laura Skelding / AMERiCAN-STATESMAN
Last year, I wrote a series of pieces designed to help you get a handle on 2011 to clear out digital clutter and to get yourself organized. The Digital Savant column, which started appearing in print in August, is also in part an effort to offer how-to help on the tech front.
But in some areas, I’m pretty helpless myself (especially in the areas of keeping organized) and I have to work really hard to stay on track.
Here’s 10 resolutions I hope to keep improve my digital lifestyle in 2012.
1. Get the photo libraries consolidated — Every year, I plan to get all of our photos and home videos into one archive and it never works out, mostly because I’m intimidated by so many thousands of files. We have all our main photos/videos on one Windows machine, but we also have lots of photos and videos on devices like my wife’s phone and on an old Mac laptop where we used to import everything to iPhone. This is the year I plan to copy everything into one place and make it accessible via a cloud service that can be shared with other family members.
2. Transition off the Windows 7 desktop to Mac — Our Windows PC was last upgraded about five years ago and what seemed speedy then — an overclocked Core 2 Duo machine with 4 gigabytes of RAM, is starting to feel sluggish and loaded down with old software. I have Windows on my MacBook Pro as a Boot Camp partition and it runs much faster; there’s no real reason to keep the Windows box and I’m going to start the process of migrating off of it. I don’t plan to upgrade that computer again and if we buy a new desktop computer this year, it’ll probably be an iMac.
3. Find a fitness gadget that works — I liked the time I spent with the Striiv device I reviewed. I’m not sure if that’s the perfect gadget for me, but I’d like to find something — either a piece of hardware or a good app for my iPhone, that’ll help me keep better track of my eating habits and exercise.
4. Physical tech decluttering — There’s lots of stuff I could be doing to consolidate and delete old data files, but I need to do more about old boxes for devices we bought ages ago and don’t even use anymore. Our attic is full of boxes for printers, “Rock Band” video game instruments and other stuff we no longer use or need. I’ve been making regular trips to Goodwill, but it needs to happen more often.
5. Start using Pinterest — I’m not quite sure I get it yet, but people who love Pinterest really love it. I plan to check it out and see if I find it useful.
6. Less time skimming social media, more time actually reading — I don’t plan to disconnect completely from social media, but I did find myself using it less over the holidays and feeling much more relaxed. One habit I have is to read about articles without actually taking the time to dig into them (especially long-form pieces). I plan to read more books and longer pieces of journalism this year.
7. Find some good beginning reader apps — My daughter is starting to learn to read and, while we’ve found lots of great storybook apps for the iPad, we haven’t seen a lot geared toward beginning readers. In addition to the physical books and flash cards we’re already using, I hope to find some good apps that will supplement her learning.
8. Keep the DVR at 20 percent empty or more at all times — The holidays were a glorious time of catching up on TV shows I’d missed and deleting lots of old stuff I probably will never see (Smell ya later, “Mildred Pierce”). I get really stressed out when my DVR is close to being full, scrambling to delete shows or to rush threw viewings. I plan to be more realistic about stuff I’ll never actually watch and to stop recording whole seasons of shows, especially ones readily available on Netflix, Video On Demand or on DVD.
9. Culling the social media herd — I follow too many people on Twitter and I have too many Facebook friends. I plan to trim those numbers down and focus on friends, family and people I admire and actually want to hear from more often.
10. Finish the great VHS digitization project of early 2011 — I was pretty proud of myself when I started clearing out ancient VHS tapes from our library and digitizing stuff we wanted to keep.. until the project stalled completely. I successfully went through and scanned several thousand business cards over time. It’s time to eliminate every VHS tape in the house we still have.
What are your resolutions for tech in 2012? Share them with us in the comments.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Internet
Comments
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By Omar Gallaga
January 5, 2012 2:09 PM | Link to this
James -- a high-end Mac runs games just as well under Boot Camp. I'm playing Star Wars; Old Republic on my MacBook Pro at the highest settings and it's running super-smooth. The days of me buying a $500-$600 video card are over.
By James
January 5, 2012 9:36 AM | Link to this
While Macs may work great for some things, I think you will come to miss WIndows if you play computer games. It is THE platform for high-end gaming.
By Wolf Metzner
January 4, 2012 6:53 PM | Link to this
These are all good ideas, Omar.
While I have been quite religious about keeping my PHOTOS, MUSIC, and MOVIE folder lean and mean, i have not found yet the ideal cloud solution. Most of them are too expensive to allow 200-300GB on-line, so the best I found is Pogoplug, however I have had some reliability issues with that too.
Looking forward to your review of personal cloud solutions.
Wolf Metzner
Austin TX
By Lorie Marrero
January 3, 2012 9:14 PM | Link to this
Great post, Omar! Thanks for donating to Goodwill! :)