I still keep a fax machine around. I don’t need it much but there’s something nice about the whole lower-tech “paper-to-paper” teleporter-feeling going from a piece of paper to a piece of paper.
And… after my mother’s computer was hit by that nasty Random encrypter trojan (that encrypted all of her files – I got rid of the trojan yesterday but have to work on the decryption) it was a reminder of something:
Overdependance on All Things Digital without paper backup can lead to much lost work. Spreading your stuff out far and wide on the Internet utilizing all of their backup systems is the best way; depending too much on “one place” for everything can be dangerous.
That being said, I was raised on the ‘net since 1988; (when I first got a modem) and never left it. I’d never want to go back; but I’ve learned the importance of printing out what’s REALLY important; hard drives die, websites go down, and sometimes you have to recreate after a major failure.
I still want something behind my laptop that types out my every character as I type it; I dunno why but that’d be cool. Sorry trees.