Memory Sticks

If you are a writer, or even if you are just writing your memoirs or collecting letters or assignments you have written on your computer, you might 1) not want to fill up your hard drive (the space for saving directly onto your computer); 2) have a concern about preserving text; and/or 3) have issues with organization. Here is what I do, thanks to my genius techno-geek friends, who introduced me to memory sticks and who bought me memory sticks the size of two hundred copies of Don Quixote:

IF YOU USE MORE THAN ONE COMPUTER TO ARCHIVE

If you use two or more different pc’s (personal computers), such as a PowerBook when you travel and a Pentium desktop computer at home or work—and, further, if you use each for different
functions, as well, how about using miniature USB drives, what are informally referred to as memory sticks?

They are portable storage units (the latest answer to floppy discs, but more capacious and smaller, if you can believe that!), as small as 3” long X 1/2” wide and 1/8” thick (ahhh, technology!) and hold anywhere from 32MB to 256 MB (a whole book and more) worth of
files.

My colleagues swore by them before I could wrap my brain around changing methods yet again, but then a student gave me one as a gift and I went absolutely nuts with appreciation: I could now save to the memory stick (a.k.a. USB), toss the stick in a watch fob pocket,
even, or attach it to the lanyard most come with, and plug the stick into any computer at home or anywhere else—plugging the memory sticks into the port that the printer plugs into on your PowerBook, for instance.

[Again, they usually come with a groovy lanyard-type things/ eyeglasses cord things, but I haven’t gone as far as to wear them around my neck…yet.]

I then bought a second one, and just a couple of months ago, my
roommate gave me a third one. I tell you the history to rationalize my giving you brand names, for I cannot endorse any particular brand as superior, but do want to give you links to the company websites, so you can see what I am describing:

Kingston [USB Data Traveler]:
http://www.kingston.com/products/datatraveler_hs.asp

PNY Attaché [USB Flash Drive]:

http://www.netaffilia.com/ad/electronics/frys/i/2005/06/24/11093.html

http://www.pny.com/products/flash/attache.asp

IF YOU FIND ORGANIZATION IMPERATIVE

Do you have the time, inclination (which I suspect you do if you are reading this), and/or desire to cross reference? If so, you can have two or three memory sticks—one for each of the following “systematic” [I also call them obsessive] methods, for, for example, writings:

ONE memory stick—
Status -- draft, edited, revised, finalized, and...published!

ONE memory stick—
by either a date, a range, a topic, etc..

ONE memory stick—

Timeframe or content covered over time-- identifying it as

a. Class assignment, whatever
teach has assigned, vs [your] chosen topics
b. Class work vs random detailing of stories

ONE memory stick—

a. Restricted category -- most private; family only;
b. post to Internet
1. Published chronologically
2. Published as Hypertext (same as links? =
simultaneous with chronological, yes)
3. Published as you finalize the individual
written piece
4. Replace draft of writing with revised version, and
so forth Yes, archiving the replaced pieces,
linking them.

OTHER MEMORY STICKS and SYSTEMS

I could also recommend a system for you writers, for tracking drafts as you submit them, as you get a response, and as you rewrite and re-submit. For instance, there are many programs such as “Write Again!”, which is a data collector program for writers who submit a lot and often…. And there are just as many more for compartmentalizing non-creative works.

I do both, as a writer as one who is adamant about saving, organizing, and cross-referencing…with color-coded, cross-referenced, anally-retentive specifically placed on the screen files within files within files. May be overkill for you, but I can tell you where the hair across my butt article that I wrote three years ago is!

THE DON QUIXOTE of MEMORY STICKS

As for the preservation of the work, of a huge amount of work, there is a memory stick that is a full external drive. It is the mini stick blown up 300 times or so. It holds 8 to 16 megabytes of data, and is one of the absolutely greatest devices invented for us hyper-organizers since the stapler and the manila file folder. Even better.

Some leading brands—according to the pros—include CMS, Fastor, Iomega, La Cie, and Smartdisk. I’d like one of each, please.