I just realized that I have 648,967 files on my computer, according to my online back up service.

[NNadir]

That works out to one file per second over seven and a half days, or 177 files per day for ten years, 89 per day for 20 years.

I guess I'm not as lazy as I think I am.

[shraby]

1. What online backup service do you use?

[NNadir]

3. Carbonite; they have unlimited storage space. n/t

[hunter]

2. Hoarding documents, photos, music, and other files on computers is so damned easy.

I've got files I first saved in the 'seventies. Whenever I build a new computer I simply transfer ALL the files from the old computer to the new one. I also install whatever emulators or virtual machines I might need to run my old software or open my old files.

I have an Atari 800 icon on my desktop. I can click it, load a Pengo cartridge, and play like it's 1984. I have my actual Atari hardware and cartridges stored away in my garage, but why bother? I've also got our old family DRDOS/Geoworks machines emulated. That's the machine our children first used, for schoolwork and games. I've still got their old Sim Towns and digital "refrigerator" art.

My favorite thing about Linux (which I started using after a brief spell with Windows) was that it was so much like BSD. BSD was the first modern operating system I ever used. Most of my BSD documents were written in vi, a few in TeX. Linux opened those files without any fuss. It was like coming home.

[NNadir]

4. I only started seriously using a computer in 1992. I only began seriously downloading...

...scientific papers at academic libraries around 2006 or 2007. I'm sure this is the bulk of the files I own.

I don't think I have any movies; my sons have some music I guess.

I'm kind of a pig for scientific papers. I can't say that I've actually read all of them in full, but I do read a significant portion, and scan a larger portion for interesting nuggests.

Many of these files are files from jobs I've held though.

The point is that I guess I'm not as lazy as I think I am.