We are not much for New Year’s resolutions because the list grows longer each year and is appears inversely proportional to the number of days that go by before the list disappears in the melee of day-to-day activities.

However, might I suggest three simple things you may wish to do before this year ends …

1. CHANGE ALL OF YOUR PASSWORDS

Take a lesson from the recent hack-attack against the private intelligence agency Stratfor and use strong passwords.

Use a long combination of upper and lower case alphabetic letters, numbers and, if allowed, special characters.

Do not use words found in the dictionary, proper names or easily guessed combinations of words and numbers. Hackers have already compiled such dictionary/common passwords into tables showing the encrypted form of the password – and by comparing your encrypted password with the encrypted portion of their list can break a password in minutes if not seconds.

Want to add additional strength to a password and still keep it memorable, just add a repeating number of special characters at the end of any password. You know the characters and the number of repetitions.

And NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use the same password for multiple accounts.

2. GET FOUR CARDBOARD BOXES

Box 1 -- As you pay your bills or receive other correspondence, drop the item received on the top of the pile; thus creating a chronological list that can be searched in the unlikely change you may need a receipt or document.

Box 2 – Remove all of your desk clutter from your drawers – stuff that you rarely use and place it in Box 2. I find that my Box 2 has a great assortment of office supplies which I rarely use. When the box is near the top, I take those items I do not use and donate them to the local school.

Box 3 – This is my share box. Here I place all of my old electronic items that have outlived their usefulness to me and might be a treasure for some child/experimenter or someone who might regard this as a wondrous find. It can also be used for unused gifts and other items that are no longer necessary to your daily activities.

Box 4 – This is also a share box, but this one is for clothes that I will never wear again. No sentiment allowed; purge your closets a little at a time. When the box is full, there are any number of charities that are willing to accept your gift. If you do not want to claim a tax deduction, give it to the first suitable homeless person you see on the street.

3. BACKUP YOUR COMPUTER

Now is the time to backup your computer on removable media which, if you wish, can be stored securely off-site.

If you choose to use one of those “cloud” backup solutions, be advised that your data is at their mercy and that it may not be available when you need it. Some backup services take days or even weeks to perform a full-backup and by then the files you may need are not available.

After the backup, feel free to delete all those useless e-mails and files you saved for some reason that you can’t quite recall. The beauty of Internet search engines is that you can often find the same data – or even more current and relevant data – in the time you will spend trying to remember the name of the filed item and where it might reside on your computer.

Also backup important numbers and information contained in other electronic devices. You cannot easily change an iPhone battery and data loss is a real possibility.

Bottom Line …

Resolve to live a simpler, cleaner life in 2012 – remembering that your vote can spell the difference between freedom and bureaucratic slavery.

-- steve