Organizing A Digital Life

I have a netbook that I consider to be my primary computer. If my apartment were burning to the ground, this netbook is one of the few things that I would grab and shove into my backpack as I scramble away from the searing flames. The netbook contains most (if not all) of the silly little writing projects I'm currently juggling. Devoid of music and pictures, I use this mobile writing machine for note-taking, free-writing, and brain-storming. It's also my primary e-reader. Not in the same vein as a nook or a kindle, but if I'm going to read something electronically, I'll probably read it on this little guy. It's great for blogging and surfing; plus, it has Doom and a GBA emulator installed. All the fun I need right there.

Just as dust builds up on forgotten bookshelves, so does crap collect on this computer; it's time to clean it up and clean it out. Messy.

The same could probably be said for my other computers, but right now I'm just worried about this netbook. The horror stories circulate of crashes and data loss; they've finally scared me into backing up my stuff. Now I need to figure out the best way to do the backing. My instincts tell me external harddrive. And if it's just a matter of copy-pasting every month, I'm cool with that. However, in this day and age of "There's an app for that," I feel like I could hunt down, well...an app for that.

For a small amount of back-up and syncing, I already use Dropbox. This little application killed my use of and dependence upon USB flash drives. I still have one floating around here somewhere, but it's contents are just as messy as my netbook's.

Some interesting options that I've found are SugarSync, Amazon CloudDrive, and Crashplan. Now, to be completely honest, I'm a flickr nut. That network is my home for photographs. The problem is that I take way more pictures than the ones that I post to my free flickr account. What do I do with those "B" images? That's where SugarSync comes in. Dropbox has some of the photo sharing functionality that SugarSync features, but it can't beat SugarSync. The five gigs of space that SugarSync provides (for free) are dedicated to all the crazy, weird, crappy shots that don't make the cut for my flickr page. Occationally, I dig into those gigs for photoshop inspirations of the crazy and weird category.

I'm still very much an iTunes dude; my iPod touch still gets around. Amazon's CloudDrive with it's five free gigs was a bit outside my comfort zone. Then I realized I could buy one album and bump those five free gigs to twenty gigs (for a year). So I jumped, signed up, but still haven't purchases the el cheapo album to qualify for the extra free gigs. I'm hoping for something that I like that's also under three dollars. It hasn't happened yet.

Last is Crashplan. I first read about this guy on Lifehacker; they covered the app in detail, but I had to play with it first. The free features sold me initially, but when I grow up and get a job, I'll shell out the jeffersons for the cloud back-up features. I've no momentary shortage of external media; imagine a nifty mosaic made out of SD and pro duo memory cards. Don't tempt me. Seriously though, I have a big external harddrive that I'm using for now.

Because of the no internet thing, I've been spending much more time with my little netbook (as I carry it to coffee shops, the library, and occasionally campus) and I want to make it a more efficient and safe machine. Being outside or sharing a table with a fellow laptoper has been a nice change to my dark, dank bedroom that serves as the center of my computer prowess.