Many people have gone bald, thanks to not having a collection of USB flash drives at their disposal. This is because any time you store information somewhere, that 'somewhere' is eventually going to crash.

Murphy's Corollary for Journalists states that the 'somewhere', usually some emphysematic newsroom computer, is going to start emitting smoke from every port 15 minutes before the Big Story is due. It will be the Big Story that no one else covered. It will be the Big Story that the editor and the publisher are anxiously awaiting and have probably been calling you about every half hour or so. 

Somehow, computers know when you most need the document or file you are working on. They then proceed to eat it. If you have a copy on a USB flash drive, however, you can thwart Fate, at least until Murphy figures out that you have only one backup of your Very Important Document.

That's when Murphy will make sure statistical probability takes a nosedive, and your flash drive melts the very same day your computer catches fire. Murphy can do that sort of thing, you know. 

But even Murphy has a hard time with people who have a three-backup system. Back in the day of 5-inch floppy disks and Brontosauri, such a backup system involved carrying around silly-looking plastic boxes full of unwieldy things. Nowadays, however, you can keep all of your backups in your pocket and no one will ever know.

However, you do have to change out the drives with new one every six months to a year or so, just to be on the safe side. That's because the flash drives, as lovely as they are, die just like floppy disks do.

Or at least they did. The Aigo USB flash drive is reported to have a 10-year lifespan. Cool, huh?

Aigo USB Flash Drive

Posted by Rhonda.

Rhonda also writes for Funny, Useful, Interesting Or Beautiful.