Upload Your Life

As bandwidth continues to increase in every aspect of our lives, the issue of home network storage is becoming more and more urgent. It has become clear that the optical disc is a dead format. Every day that I store data on discs, I am increasing the likelihood that it will become corrupted in the future; already, I have thrown away more scratched and broken CD's than I will ever buy--and most of my current collection has also accreted scratches that carry over to any mp3 copies, so they must be thrown away as well. My DVD and game collection is not large, but it has already overflowed its alloted space in my apartment.

That's why Cory Doctorow's proposed solution appeals so strongly to me: a networked storage box with 3 TB of space, that allows him to store every DVD, .mp3 and .rom in his collection, accessible over home network and stuck in the bottom of the closet so you can't hear it. It would be accesible by remote anywhere in the world. In addition, a second unit would sit at his office and provide total redundancy. Now, I'm not sure keeping a third copy of every single DVD you own is an essential use of that second server, but there's no denying that 3 TB will allow you to do that for some time.

[Image by Craig LaRotonda via nikkisioux]