5" Isn't What It Used To Be

[woodwardiocom]

There comes a day when you have to admit it's time to throw out your 5" floppies.

(Wing Commander, an old Windows applet called Launch, and a legal copy of AutoCad Release 11, if you were wondering.)

Comments

5-1/4, please!

[patricksmalone.livejournal.com]

Wing Commander used a lot of them, it's true!

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I'm holding off on that until I can get some data off of mine. Same with the 3.5s.
So I figure I'll have 'em forever.

[hammercock.livejournal.com]

5" Isn't What It Used To Be

...that's what SHE said?

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

wow. i've even gotten rid of most of my software cds even, keeping only multi-state-redundant electronic copies.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

So not a good idea... the cloud is not your friend.

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

I never said cloud ;)

I have a couple of dedicated Linux boxes with lots of storage in different datacenters that I back stuff up to, in addition to a couple of drives in my house.

That being said I will use iCloud when it becomes available. It's dirt cheap and being an all Apple all the time sort of household it's going to be in our lives even if we didn't want it.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

So you're using Networked Storage Drives? Cool. I presently use an external HD for my monthly system backups, and Thumb drives for backing up documents that change a lot through the week.

I do worry about backwards compatibility when USB 3.0 becomes the standard... there was a lot of gear that ended up orphaned when USB 1.0 went to 2.0 years ago. (Not to mention the slow demise of Firewire).

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

I'm sort of a gadget junkie so I always migrate to the latest-and-greatest pretty quickly. I don't generally sweat backwards compatibility much since I usually migrate things to the new shiny right away.

I've got a network attached disk at home for manual backups. I use Time Machine (Apples built in backup) to save everything to a 2TB raid mirrored drive in the office, then another of those at home.

My iPhone and iPad each have a pretty good representative sampling of my music library. Not everything, but between the two they've got a solid 1/2 of it.

Really important things get synced out to my web server on top of all that.

Once iCloud goes live everything will end up getting copied there as well, for that extra extra redundancy and the convenience of accessing music and movies from anywhere that I have an iThing.

My goal is to try to limit physical media to just hard drives (eventually solid state when the cost per gig gets less crazy).

They are relatively cheap and easy to replace, and as long as I have a lot of them I feel pretty confident. I've had more cases of CDs getting scratched to the point of unusable than I have data loss due to drive failure, for whatever that's worth.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I wish I had the money to be cutting edge on tech, but I'm not in that tax bracket of life. Same with lots of gear, so DVDs or Cds will remain as part of my gear as long as possible for really long term storage, since they have a longer lifespan that External HDs. The Cloud is not my friend, and never will be. I spend as much time without the net as I do with (and if the damn cable company costs go much higher I may be relegated to Hot Spots in the near future).

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

I think that comment... "I spend as much time without the net as I do with" is the key to those that are cloud happy and those that are not.

My job requires me to be online pretty much always. Because of that, I've got the high speed connection at home with a wireless broadband backup connection and an iPad with 3G enabled. So for me it makes perfect sense... I'm online 24x7 unless I'm in the middle of the woods somewhere on vacation.

It's sort of the same vein as the debates about digital copies killing the print comic book store. I think it all depends on whether or not the observer has an iThing glued to his/her person.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Very true, it is the key comment. Its an unusual day when I'm online even nearing an eight hour day, never mind being in access 24x7.

[tk7602.livejournal.com]

sometimes i wonder what that would be like :)

just shy of 12 years ago now i took my first job that required 'round the clock access to my life. since then i've had some sort of cell phone / pager / on call rotation. i've had maybe 10 weeks total in that period that i've completely unplugged. even on vacation i'm still replying to emails.

Me and Tech

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

We have a land line phone (via the Cable company) and the Internet (Barely Broadband) from the cable company. No tv except for a 1990s one used for playing dvds. Never have had a cell phone. Last Pager I used was in the 80s for a job (I did security work then, had a pager and a radio on the job only.)

Got a Mac laptop and an old Ipod Classic. My wife has a Mac Laptop as well, so she can telecommute to work at times. But I'm not glued to my computer either... it only goes with me when I'm planning to use it for a specific project or need to use it to communicate in email (like on a trip).

I log on and check my email most mornings, and probably will do so another couple of times a day, but not really tied to the internet as my end all and be all.
If I'm out of the house, unless I'm going to spend some time at a Cafe, I'm likely to not have a computer with me never mind need the net.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

I did that a long time ago when I no longer had a drive to read them on any machine....

Soon the 3.5s will all go as well... and one day the Zip disks...