jit_hacker

"Forever" is a very long time. Hopefully 60 more years if I'm lucky. Way long than most off the shelf storage devices will last.

I currently have about 2GB of personal files (and growing) that I want to retain the rest of my life. Nothing overly interesting, but some files contain sensitive information. I'll only add files once or twice a year, so low availability is fine.

My only real requirement is that I know it's secure. And I know I have the only key. So either I how the physical devices or I use strong encryption before sending it up.

How do you guys handle backups?

I've spent the last 6 months doing a lot of high level Architecture and API design. Most of my thought gathering, brainstorm and sense making exercises have involved a whiteboard.

Whiteboards are awesome because you can draw and express ideas easily and freely, but the sketches are hard to save and catalog. I've tried UML and digital white board tools and frankly the input mechanisms really cumbersome and slow down the whole process.

Is there any tool out there that leverages the freedom of a whiteboard, while still remaining digital?

I've worked for a few enterprise software companies on big products in the past and am currently working for a startup that may not be around in a few years (hopefully it will be, but that's reality).

Lately, I've been wondering how I could preserve my work to showcase in the future. I don't think it's always practical, or legal, to assume keeping a copy of the code is a good showcase. And screenshots are, well, shallow.

Anyways, I was curious if any of you have done the same? And what route you took for preserving your work.

EDIT: I'm not just referring to interviewing purposes. I think in general it would be great to reflect back on the things you've done from time to time. Who knows where you'll be in 20 years, but in a digital age it seems desirable to keep some kind of log of what you've done of the course of your career. Perhaps the word, "showcase", was a bad choice.

EDIT 2: My comment about keeping the code was poorly worded and being misinterpreted. I have no interest in keeping any former code, it'd be dated within a year or two. The heart of this question is about showcasing/archiving great innovations and cool things you've built that aren't easily available.