I’m interested in keeping an ongoing journal or blog, and would like to keep it private (I don’t want the world to know that I like Angel Witch). I’m wondering if anyone has suggestions for what would be the best bet? Would it be to go with something online like Penzu, or download the WordPress software and host it on a external drive? Any suggestions welcome!
ATM: Encrypted Journals or Blogs
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If I ever intend to do anything long term, I make sure I use a relatively generic format that I can access from as many platforms as possible.
To that end, if I just wanted text, I’d use a text file. If I wanted to add pictures etc, I’d use Word. Keep the files on an encrypted cloud service such as sync.com and then edit them on any device that happens to be handy at the time. I’m pretty sure that every platform you’re likely to encounter has a free application capable of creating and editing Word files.
If, for some unknown reason, a long way in the future, nobody supports a 2019 Word format (given that you can still open old AmiPro files from the early 90’s that’s very unlikely) you can change horses then. If Sync.com disappears or changes, you can just move the files.
Is there an encrypted folder option on OneDrive? There wasn’t last time I looked which was a while ago.
If I have client confidential stuff I generally just password it.
If I do confidential work stuff on my desktop I store it using Veracrypt, which acts as an encrypted virtual drive – the upside being I need to remember just one password. And it’s free and can be used portably.
The trouble with Veracrypt is that (while portable) it’s not officially multi-platform.
If you can recommend a seamless android app then I’m keen to try it.
That’s the advantage of sync.com. As I understand it, all encrypted and multi platform. Works on a pc just the same as onedrive.
Why on Earth DON’T you want the world to know you like Angelwitch? I’m interested already!
This….. ?
If you want to incorporate photos and particularly if you work on macs or iphones/ipads then can recommend Day One as a journaling app. Mine is entirely private, use it to store photos from my phone as a visual diary with captions and tags.
Mac only though.
…. and I know it’s labouring the point.. very proprietry. What do you do when they either run out of cash or interest? Even worse if it relies on Apple allowing it to stay alive!
Er… why not buy a journal in a stationery store?
Burn the witch!!
I’ve got journals from 30 years ago. They’re almost impossible to read and become more fragile by the year. I’ve scanned them now. Why would anyone write when they could type?
Every time you type you (potentially) share it with anyone who can and/or wants to read it. It’s naiive to think otherwise. Firewall yourself up to the knackers and hope for the best.
You may never ever get found out.
I suggested it largely because Hawk was emphasising security. Literally nobody, unless they are in your house and ransacking your cupboards, can access your written journal. In general, though, I’d say there is more likelihood of a paper source surviving than an electronic one – formats change so rapidly, servers crash, blah blah blah. And yet we can still find papyrus scrolls from thousands of years before Christ. As a biographer/music historian, I’m often surprised and delighted by the paper-based material that can turn up in a project – from the 1940s, 50s, etc. It may look fragile, but it can last.
It’s almost as if some people write on something other than vellum.
Can there be such poverty?
Cough. Vinyl. Cough.
Actually, that’s another example – physical storage mediums for music/film versus digital ones. I’ve known people who have lost near-completed albums because an engineer’s hard drive crashed, and historic footage that’s been lost since transfer to digital (and the loss/corruption of the digital files), let alone Granada losing hours of ‘Lift Off with Ayesha’ from the 70s because some idiot in a digitising business misread a tick for an X. Once a digital file is gone, it’s gone. But if a tape gets mangled, it’s still physically ‘there’ and can be repaired at least up to a point. I did just that with a reel to reel tape recently – it had somehow got twisted in the middle 50 years back, and through a slightly tortuous process I managed to get it all the right way round – making a 50% unplayable reel entirely playable bar 20 seconds of crackle and dropout where the twisting had occurred.
I agree, I have my diaries back to when I was 12 and I still enjoy reading them – sometimes they are proper journals or just my dairy arrangements but you still get what you were doing, who with etc. The picture disappears in 1994 when I got a Palm Pilot – I’ve been digital ever since and have no idea what happened since then.
Dairy arrangements?
“Tuesday April 9th, ordered 2 pints semi-skimmed, two pots yoghurt. Milkman whistling Yours Is No Disgrace”
etc
Had a day off
[obligatory Tull reference, even then]
…shall be transferring my dairy products account soon to Express Dairies, as I heard their milkie whistling “Living In The Past” just now while delivering to next door.
That’s interesting, just shows how different we all are. I started using ‘Organiser’ from the Lotus SmartSuite back in around 1995 and have migrated from that to Palm, Mac, Windows Mobile, OSX and now Android so I now have dates in my Google Calendar going back to Dec 1995 which I would never have if I’d relied on paper.
I think it was incompetence as much as anything – for years I didn’t look after the data and lost it.
It’s a fair point, Colin, one of the reasons why I’m looking at an electronic option is that I’d like to add digital images as well, like I could do in a blog. I just want to record things that have happened, and I like blogging software like WordPress. If there were a way to have a wordpress blog secure then that’s what I’d like.
I guess it depends on how much you want to spend. You could set up a NAS drive (such as Synology) encrypt the drive and install WordPress. Nobody else has access.