So, to preface, this is not to be a discussion about most religious views -- e.g. Let's not talk about operating system or anything like that
( Read more... )
I'm not worried about the laptop being destroyed. I'm worried about the data on it. The value of the hardware is pretty much moot compared to having to rebuild 4+ years of files.
And yes, that's why I have backups -- but that's also why I might want to have a main machine that didn't travel, to reduce the risk of compromise of that data, or the effort of having to rebuild/restore it.
Currently, if I lost any of my laptops, I'd lose some save games, some media, and probably the "latest version" of various documents I'm working on. If I lost my workstation, I'd lose 5+ years of "stuff" (which is all backed up, but it's readily accessible on my workstation with all the associated applications installed to deal with it, not buried in backups that will take a while to parse through). I think it's safe to say that we take all sorts of stuff with us, but you don't always take all the most valuable things you own. Here the value is a combination of data plus time and effort needed to make it available to access again should it disappear.
Also, I think that possibly having a sense of grounding and focus is useful in the current information age. Being too distributed leads to being too unfocused, and it's very easy to get so unfocused that you become unproductive. It's something I struggle with regularly -- in doing too many things, you get none of them done. Same thing with having too many computing resources.
That plus there is the PITA of having to plug/unplug to go. I find it very convenient to just have a laptop secondary and be able to "grab it and go" while leaving things running on my desktop at home. I do that a lot, actually, and now that I think about it, that's something to consider. File downloads, flickr uploads, collecting mail and tweets, etc. That's another thing I have to consider/sacrifice if I went totally portable -- unfortunately, bandwidth still is an issue, and there are times I need to leave something running for hours while I am out and about.
And yes, that's why I have backups -- but that's also why I might want to have a main machine that didn't travel, to reduce the risk of compromise of that data, or the effort of having to rebuild/restore it.
Currently, if I lost any of my laptops, I'd lose some save games, some media, and probably the "latest version" of various documents I'm working on. If I lost my workstation, I'd lose 5+ years of "stuff" (which is all backed up, but it's readily accessible on my workstation with all the associated applications installed to deal with it, not buried in backups that will take a while to parse through). I think it's safe to say that we take all sorts of stuff with us, but you don't always take all the most valuable things you own. Here the value is a combination of data plus time and effort needed to make it available to access again should it disappear.
Also, I think that possibly having a sense of grounding and focus is useful in the current information age. Being too distributed leads to being too unfocused, and it's very easy to get so unfocused that you become unproductive. It's something I struggle with regularly -- in doing too many things, you get none of them done. Same thing with having too many computing resources.
That plus there is the PITA of having to plug/unplug to go. I find it very convenient to just have a laptop secondary and be able to "grab it and go" while leaving things running on my desktop at home. I do that a lot, actually, and now that I think about it, that's something to consider. File downloads, flickr uploads, collecting mail and tweets, etc. That's another thing I have to consider/sacrifice if I went totally portable -- unfortunately, bandwidth still is an issue, and there are times I need to leave something running for hours while I am out and about.
Reply
Leave a comment