I have a secret passion. I love USB thumb drives. They are
so handy and so much easier to use or carry than the old 3.5 floppies. We
aren't even going to mention the ancient 5.0 floppies.
I know it’s peculiar, but the main reason I love USBs is not
primarily for their practical use, but because they are so much fun. You see,
my passion for USB drives isn't really for the humdrum if not downright boring
oblong ones that come in a variety of distressing colors, though I have
several. They are great in their own rather pedestrian way, but I have fallen
in love with the 'specialty' USB drives that come in shapes! There is such a
variety of images out there now! They are available as jewelry (one of my faves
is a sparkly rose pendant that is really a USB) and coins and cars and guns and
just about anything else that you can think of.
My favorite ones, though, are the cartoons. There are both
the famous ones and the generic images. Pull off their head and there is a USB!
I have a Sylvester the Cat – or it might be the baby cat whose name I can't
remember from the Animaniacs – and a snake and a couple of monkeys (both brown
and pink) and a Tom (am still looking for a Jerry) and a Tasmanian Devil and a
Marvin the Martian and... well, just take my word for it that I have a lot of
them. I've also seen others that I want but just couldn't afford at the time
(and of course have never seen them again!) and an impressive assortment of
superheroes, who don't do anything for me (I'm married to the only superhero
who interests me) and some things that are vaguely anthropomorphic, but I can't
even hazard a guess as to what they are.
Believe it or not, there's also a practical side to this
variety. I switch a lot from one machine to another, some mine, some not, and
having the different characters makes it easy to remember where what project
is. 'Oh, such-and-such is on Sylvester'
or 'Thus-and-so is in the snake.'
But, you say, what about the cloud? Put something in cloud
storage and it's there whenever you want it.
Humph. Admittedly I am a Luddite slow to embrace new
technologies, but I really hate the idea of the cloud. I truly dislike control
of my work being in anyone's hands but mine. Then there's the whole idea of
piracy in all its ugly manifestations – I don't care how safe they say it is,
it was made by someone which means it can be cracked by someone. Not that I am
so big or so famous that anyone might want to pirate my works in process, but I
might be someday so why tempt Fate?
Not that we will have much choice. My new tablet (an Asus)
was chosen not only for the fact it had a keyboard with it and a deliciously
affordable price, but primarily because it had a USB port. It was the only affordable
one I could find that did. I can foresee a day when the cloud (or whatever they
call it) will be the only storage available to us, and that will mean that our
work will be held at the whim of others. Already you can’t simply buy an Office
suite – no, you have to buy a one year’s license. Every year. To me that smacks
of extortion. Just imagine what it will be like when the only storage is in the
cloud, and you can access your work only when and if the cloud’s controllers
permit. That’s when I will dig out my antique typewriter and buy a supply of
typing paper. Worked like that once, and I can do it again.
In the meantime, though, I have a wonderful word processing
program for which I don’t have to pay a yearly fee (Open Office) and a tidy
little zoo of cartoon thumb drives. What does it say about me, though, that I
love to go to work each morning, even if it means yanking the head off of
Sylvester the Cat?
