"It has always been a custom to duplicate every bit and part of me in a medium other than the hard disk. In a time when floppy drives were used to store data, I had three crates of diskettes whose sole purpose was to serve as repositories for DOS Games I copied from the computer shops in Recto."
- Stirrings of a Techno Revolution
Ten years ago, I wrote about this need to back up my files in a redundant fashion after a system error almost wiped out the digital contents of my desktop's hard drive.
It was a different time. I still use dial-up for my internet connection. I play alternative rock and dance songs on cheap mp3 players. I still get my music from Limewire, or sometimes, from pirated CDs purchased in Greenhills or some other places in the city.
In those early years, having a laptop - after giving away my first one to my ex - was still a distant dream and having an external hard drive was merely wishful thinking.
It was insanely expensive and I could not afford such luxuries.
But in the fullness of time, I was able to subscribe to a broadband connection. I waited, patiently, for Skycable to be available in the neighborhood and when their service was finally offered, I was among their first subscribers. At around the same year, the desktop computer was replaced by a laptop, which I was able to buy with my savings.
A few years later, the broadband connection was upgraded to WiFi. Wireless connection finally found its way and after having to endure living in antiquity for ages, our house became at par with homes connected to a wireless network.
However, the mp3s in my compact discs and hard drives were made obsolete after subscribing to Spotify. The app allowed me to stream every song I have in my music library. The service also lets me listen to virtually any artist from genres I barely heard before. For the first time, I was able to discover and listen to artists I barely know; my musical knowledge has expanded beyond my imagination.
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Technology has immensely changed everything and looking back from where we started, the sea change afforded us barely enough time to see the value, of the unimaginable leaps we made to get to this point - where we spend each day trying to make better use of Netflix, or how not to forget to turn off Globe's data internet when the broadband's connection works fine, or just like today, take appreciation knowing that I was able to buy an external hard drive four years ago. I still use it for storing the films and TV series I dug on PirateBay.
Some things never change.
Some things never change.
I would have let this rumination come to pass if not for the urgent need to back up the files of my second laptop. Not only is the machine ripe for a reformat, but I also thought of upgrading to SSD drive so that the Weatherman and I can play Cities Skylines without crashing the game.
