That Developer What do you care what other people think?

I am in the process of digitizing my media collection. Over the past year or so, I have been converting my music CDs and movie DVDs into digital format to keep on my computer. It is somewhat painstaking, but I think the conversion is well worth the effort. All of my converted media is well organized and immediately accessible.

To go a little bit further, I have also been moving data onto the cloud. For instance, I love that all of my contacts are synced to Exchange. I can update contacts on Outlook, the web, or on my iPhone and they’re all synced together. I also use the Facebook connection feature so that it copies down profile pictures and syncs them to my contacts.

Recently I recycled a significant collection of printed research papers that I have digital copies of and then uploaded them onto the cloud. I really like the idea of being able to access these papers, specs, and other documents from anywhere. It is also nice to reduce clutter in the house and the office.

So that got me into thinking that it is about time that I also digitized my book collection. While I do still have some sentimental attachment to written books, I think the benefits to having them available on the cloud far outweighs the cons.

So today I purchased my first ebook on Amazon. I do not yet own a Kindle, but the book is now available on my iPhone as well as my home and office computer. I love how all of my readers can sync and keep track of my last page read so that I can always pick up where I left off. I find it difficult to sit down and read books for hours these days so I have to get through them on shorter strides. The Kindle readers will help me get through books a lot more efficiently.

The usual complaints apply to reading ebooks, but whether the book reading experience is quite there or not, I think the switch is inevitable enough at this point that I would rather start purchasing books in ebook format. And so far, I am very happy with the experience. I look forward to the day when I have the majority of my media digitized and on the cloud so that I can only keep around the things that I really care about in physical form.