From Hardbacks to Hard Drives

Once upon time, I had book cases crammed with paperback novels, Bible-sized tomes instructing me how to use computer hardware and software, and biographies of celebrities and historical figures it turned out I hated after reading about them. Now all that stuff is on my Kindle and the old bookcase shelves are full of removable drives containing a copy of media files from last year’s projects.

I wonder when IKEA will make a bookcase especially designed for stockpiling hard drives, featuring easily accessible compartments for their power cables and USBs and all the other associated data storage and transfer nonsense. Perhaps they already do? Although I think my wife my prefer to get the Indonesian theme version from World Market. It’s fine with me as long as as the color doesn’t clash with the protective orange exterior of a Lacie 4TB drive.

I’ve often thought about investing in some massive network RAID instead of accumulating hard drives. But since I work at home I don’t want the corner of my dining room to look like the NASA nerve center, all racks of sleek looking black boxes and flashing lights. Although the flat top of a large enough RAID might be a good place to keep extra plates and cutlery and so on. Maybe even a few favorite condiments. But that wouldn’t be very professional. “Sorry, I wasn’t able to load your Quicktime files because my high-speed data connection is covered in ketchup.”

So an old-fashioned bookcase filled with removable hard drives it will be, color-coded by client. Maybe I could even conceal the hard drives inside the dust jackets of appropriate literary works. So there are one or two difficult clients who’ll find themselves wrapped in Charles Dickens. That guy who always gives me baffling creative notes will be a Sherlock Holmes. And, of course, I’ll cover your project hard drive with a revered and much-loved Penguin Classic: Jane Austen or Mark Twain. My own personal archives will be slipped into something by George Orwell, but that’s another story.