Technology: Keep it Together

Admit it. You computer desk looks like this. Wires everywhere, CD and DVD media spread about... some valuable, some not. And the USB devices. You have cameras, and mp3 players, and drives, and "peripherals"... dongles, chargers, adapters, converters, docks, modules, components, batteries, cradles... aaahahahhahhhh! And then there's the software. "What happened the license key?" is among the most pitiful of a computer user's cries (second only to "I didn't have a baaaaaaackuuuuup!")

Three words shall be your guide to the technology age: "Keep it together". Literally and figuratively. It sounds overly simplistic for the complex age we live in, but it's your only hope for survival in the future. As a software developer, I sometimes use affinity diagrams to help us group functionality or user behaviors. This is where you group like things together and assign them a category. Sometimes there are sub-groups within these groups. Do this with your techno-stuff. Seriously. You'll thank me later.

A very real example of why you want to do this is the story behind the original video recordings of the NASA moon landing. In this case, some ultra-smart NASA engineers developed a very specialized high-tech video camera and recording system (which quickly became obsolete). They used it to broadcast live to the world this historic moment, and then quickly forgot about it in their rush to get on with the space exploration business. Because the tape recordings and the machine which could read them weren't kept together, the world is relegated to watch short clips of very grainy footage of a world-changing event, witnessed live by and estimated a half a billion people.

Finally, as this example illustrates, the "keep it together" rule becomes increasingly important as time passes. Generations of computers change. Hardware changes, operating system changes, digital media changes can all render your technology unusable. You can keep migrating your important information to new media, but at some point programs and hardware which used to work just fine stop working. Be sure to include generations of working technology as you make your groups of stuff, if you intend on keeping it around.

Someday, I'm hoping to dig down into my basement and find my old Apple II+ and fire it up. And when I do, I'll find all the manuals, cables, and floppy (yes, truly "floppy") disks all in the same box. Then I'll fire it up, marvel at the green screen of the monitor ///, take a picture and sell it on eBay for thousands of bucks.

By the way... if all this fails, and you are unable to track down some very crucial piece of technology always remember to check under your seat.