Out of Date Technology

I was straightening up some in my office today when I ran across a box of 3.5 disks that I used to back up my financial software before I got a flash drive. I need to get rid of them, but just throwing them away is out of the question. They have several years worth of contribution records for our church members. My shredder won't shred them. It's made for paper and CD/DVDs. I thought about just reformatting them before I trashed them, then I realized that my computer doesn't even have a drive that will accept them anymore.

I've been through a lot of technology changes. When I was in college, desktop PC's had just come out. I didn't have one. I could have done of my assignments on one available in the business office, but it was only open during "business hours." I had classes during those hours. The engineering computer, however, was available at all hours of the night. But that meant typing out your program on IBM punch cards, handing them in at a window and waiting for your green bar printout and cards to be returned at another window.

Back then PC's saved info on a cassette tape (which was more convenient than a deck of cards.) Then came floppy disks (and they really were floppy). Then 3.5 disks. Those started out holding so little information, that it took a stack of them to back up very much data. They got bigger on the inside as time went by. Then flash drives came along. I have one on my key chain. It makes taking things from home to the office much easier than disks. Until we got DSL here at the house, I hated having to e-mail pictures because it took forever. Now, just save it on the flash and take it with you. I wonder what the next new thing will be and how long it'll be before it's obsolete, too.