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owlfish at 02:07pm on 07/08/2009
owlfish at 02:07pm on 07/08/2009I'm sorting through my hard drive today. Backing up comes before sorting and deleting, and sorting and deleting becomes slower and slower as the files and folders become smaller and smaller. Folders full of old Desktop contents, stashed away in a hurry when I knew it would be projected before an audience. (I still remember the history conference I went to where one speaker's projected desktop was covered in Neopets files.) Directions to hotels I never booked into, only considered. PDFs of maps and menus I don't need anymore. The schedules for conferences past, whether or not I attended them.
I realized early on that I couldn't use iPhoto: it copies all my files into its own files, and then, unless I'm careful, I have instant hard drive bloat unless I meticulously delete every original photo as soon as it copies it. It's designed to be an all-in-one solution, and doesn't work well with hard drive space unless it is. iTunes, I tolerate, but it did mean I had residual music files to clear out. Papers I actively like since it's willing to go along with *not* renaming my files for me.
Over the past years, I've accrued ebooks, free downloads, giveaways, promotions. Mostly, I was good and filed them in the appropriate folder, but as I sort, I find more of them. Now, recently, I have an ebook reader, a piece of software to manage all those freebies, and use for them. That's why I needed and asked for the ebook reader: not because I have any real intentions of buying ebooks when I could own paper and binding, but because I'd accumulated so many unusable books. I'd rather not read entire books on my laptop screen.
I have plenty of storage space for all this data; but I don't need it all. I never delete email, but other files are so much larger, carelessly downloaded, never wanted again. The problem is that that storage space isn't on my main computer, that its resources are finite, and that if I don't delete a few more files, I won't be able to clear off the photo cards, so that I have the option of taking more pictures and the option of sharing yesterday's photos.
I realized early on that I couldn't use iPhoto: it copies all my files into its own files, and then, unless I'm careful, I have instant hard drive bloat unless I meticulously delete every original photo as soon as it copies it. It's designed to be an all-in-one solution, and doesn't work well with hard drive space unless it is. iTunes, I tolerate, but it did mean I had residual music files to clear out. Papers I actively like since it's willing to go along with *not* renaming my files for me.
Over the past years, I've accrued ebooks, free downloads, giveaways, promotions. Mostly, I was good and filed them in the appropriate folder, but as I sort, I find more of them. Now, recently, I have an ebook reader, a piece of software to manage all those freebies, and use for them. That's why I needed and asked for the ebook reader: not because I have any real intentions of buying ebooks when I could own paper and binding, but because I'd accumulated so many unusable books. I'd rather not read entire books on my laptop screen.
I have plenty of storage space for all this data; but I don't need it all. I never delete email, but other files are so much larger, carelessly downloaded, never wanted again. The problem is that that storage space isn't on my main computer, that its resources are finite, and that if I don't delete a few more files, I won't be able to clear off the photo cards, so that I have the option of taking more pictures and the option of sharing yesterday's photos.
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