After so many computer problems last year and my recent computer failure, I am trying to get to the point where I can work off of a USB thumb drive and online services. Eventually, I'd like to get to the point where I can do 90% of what I need to online. For a few things, I think I will always have to carry a USB drive. (For example, I love being able to use Portable Firefox and Portable Thunderbird with all my settings and extensions installed on any PC I plug my drive into. I've also discovered that programs such as NetLogo (agent-based modeling software) and Windows Live Writer (blogging software) will run off of a USB drive if you copy all the files onto it after installing the programs on a PC. I haven't tried it with Stata yet.)
Apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks this is a good idea. Read Gina Trapani's tips for carrying your life on a thumb drive and and Leo Babuta's ideas for how to work entirely within a browser. Both posts have given me some excellent ideas, some of which I've already implemented.
Since adopting these strategies and after my last computer crash, I've only had to reinstall Microsoft Office and copy over a handful of files from my external hard drive to get back to full productivity. I was also able to use the laptop my parents lent me for a couple weeks with minimum interruption in downtime. It also will make migration to a new computer that much easier the next time I make a change. On top of that, any emails, photos, etc. I store in online services such as GMail and Flickr are backed-up automatically by the providers. Not only that, but I can access them from any computer that has an Internet connection.
These technologies were mostly unavailable a few years ago. They have gone a long way to simplify my computer management and I can't wait to see what's next. If Babuta is right, innovations like these may eventually render our hard drives and software obsolete.
P.S. -- I currently use a 2 GB USB drive that you can get for less than $30. Prices on these continue to fall as capacity continues to increase.
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