11-6-2025 November Technology Class: Digital Organization and Personal Updates

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Class Overview

  • This November class focused on digital organization of files, emails, photos, and messages across devices.
  • The topic was chosen from curriculum created with residents at the beginning of the year.
  • Next month's December class will review the year's learning and gather topics for next year's curriculum.

Instructor's Personal Updates

  • Jason Dare will be traveling to China to visit his ancestral family village.
  • The trip includes 31 extended family members (originally 41, but 10 dropped out).
  • They plan to visit five different villages to accommodate everyone's family connections.
  • Jason launched "TravelReadyChinese.com," a company teaching scenario-based language lessons to prepare travelers.
  • The platform uses AI-powered "DingTalk" which transcribes conversations and displays both languages simultaneously.

Email Organization

  • Synchronization means your devices update from one central location (like email servers).
  • IMAP is the protocol that enables email synchronization across devices.
  • Gmail trash automatically deletes emails after 30 days (cannot be changed in free version).
  • "Archive" in Gmail stores emails without deleting them but counts toward storage limit.
  • Gmail provides 15GB of free storage before requiring payment for additional space.
  • Search for large emails using Gmail filters - click Search Mail > has:attachment > size greater than 5MB or 10MB.
  • When searching, type less text to get more results that can then be narrowed down.
  • Email search checks across all folders including trash and archives by default.

File Organization and Search

  • Spotlight (Mac) and Windows Search have improved to search not just filenames but also content within files.
  • Both systems can even recognize text within images.
  • Each platform has separate trash locations - email trash is different from file system trash or photos trash.
  • Photos in "Recently Deleted" show countdown of days until permanent deletion (typically 30 days).

Storage Management

  • Synchronization is not the same as backup - if you delete a file, it deletes from all synchronized devices.
  • Check trash immediately if you accidentally delete something - after 14-30 days it's permanently removed.
  • Deleting emails rarely helps with phone storage since emails are stored in the cloud, not on your device.
  • To free up phone storage, focus on deleting unused apps, downloaded podcasts, or books.
  • For photo storage alternatives, services like Flickr Pro offer unlimited storage (for a fee).
  • Modern search capabilities mean organizing into folders is less necessary if files are named well.

Action Items

  • [ ] Jason to demonstrate the translation feature on the third Thursday of November.
  • [ ] Jason to show how to download documents to devices for offline access on the third Thursday.
  • [ ] Class to review the year's learning and suggest topics for next year's curriculum in December.
  • [ ] Consider creating a class about making physical photo albums next year.

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