An Existence of One is an Existence of None

Remember when a data crash meant that the letter that we were just typing on our computer was gone and we needed to start over? Remember when data was just numbers 'n stuff and not photos, letters, videos, movies, our personal taxes, bank account passwords, all of our personal contacts, chicken soup? OK, chicken soup probably isn't considered data, but our grandma's recipe that we digitized along with all of our other family memories probably is. Remember when we used to store this precious flotsam of life like God intended us to- in shoe boxes and paper sacks?

OK, so now we've moved way beyond shoe boxes and paper sacks. Our precious data is nicely organized, categorized, digitized and packaged away in little pretty metal boxes and silicon wafers that live in our computers. Hey, nothing could go wrong with that, right? You thinking about that statement right now? Go ahead, I'll give you time................. now are you frightened?

Thus we have the saying that goes "our precious data doesn't exist at all until it exists in two places." What this means is that when the storage in our computer goes poof (which could happen at any moment), or our laptop is stolen, all of this stuff is gone- perhaps forever. This is a good time of year to think about backing up our precious digital memories since we'll probably accumulate a wad of them in during the next couple of weeks. External hard drives for storage are plentiful and inexpensive. You'll alway find at least one or two on sale, and they have so much capacity that perhaps your entire digital life would fit on one. It's time to do this.

Ok you're way ahead of me now thinking "well if I backup my entire life on one external drive what happens if that goes poof?" Thus the NEW saying that goes "data doesn't exist until it exists in four places." Those four places would be the computer, the backup drive, a second backup drive kept at work or the neighbor's house, and a backup done in another format like dvd's. The technology has given us the chance to keep and share an abundance of words, sounds and images like never before. It also means that we can lose those memories even quicker than before. Now's the time to expand our existence.