The Cloud

I just got a new computer. The super powerful, cutting edge workhorse I bought just a few years ago is now a slow outdated model with something wonky in its motherboard. So now I have a brand new computer. It's a super powerful, cutting edge workhorse.

But the new machine runs Windows7 and the latest version of Word ...so I'm dealing with a learning curve.

The last machine had oodles of gigabytes but the new one has a terabyte of memory. "So", says I to the computer guy "Ï'll have tons of space to save my data."

To which the computer guy asks "Have you considered keeping your data in the cloud?"

Keeping my data in the "cloud" sounds cool. What it really means is keeping my data on somebody else's computer instead of on my own. Which sounds less cool.

While I'm at it, permit me to rant about tablets. Tablets are the latest "cool" device, but I'm haunted by the idea that had tablets been invented first, then everybody would now be rushing to buy the latest cool advance ...the laptop! It's just like a tablet but it has a real keyboard attached!

I write and sketch all my cartoon "roughs" in little spiral-bound notebooks. Over the years I've gone through hundreds of notebooks. All now sitting on shelves and packed into boxes. I often think of scanning them, but the truth is that long after my hard drives have lost their magnetism (and my saved data) those notebooks will remain stable. They'll keep their data for hundreds of years longer than any digital memory will.

Here's a thought, suppose they'd invented the computer first... would we all now be rushing to buy the latest cool advance ...the spiral notebook?!