I still remember using Word Star on a black and white monitor. When I bought one, I was advised by the vendor to keep the PC strictly in an air conditioned room since any dust or heat could make the PC unusable. I had no air conditioner at home so I asked if an air cooler would suffice. No, the moisture from the air cooler will damage the RAM and Hard Disk. With very little knowledge of what RAM and HD was or the difference between the two, I said I can only afford a fan and that too Orient — one of the best available then. He said he will not take up the AMC for the machine if it is not put in an air conditioned place. It caught me thinking for a while. I stay in a city with dust and heat both available in plenty. It enters anywhere without invitation. I had to make a choice. Either I buy an air conditioner or a PC. Now that I have already bought a PC, Air conditioner was out of my budget. So I took the risk. But 6 months down the lane, I did buy an air conditioner exclusively for the place where PC was kept. I felt that the PC gave me enough indication of thanking me for the gesture. I never thought then that I would be replacing this same machine for a new one two years from then. The Wordstar that I used to type with a hell lot of commands in the key board to remember, would be replaced with a machine that ran an OS called Windows. And I was then introduced to Word — MS word as it is called now. It changed the way I filed stories.
But that is history. I hardly use Word now. There are so many Word Processors that has come into the market that I hardly miss it. I primarily use IA Writer. But what is important is how you keep your rumblings, records, links and everything that you use to write your stories.
Been shuffling with Trello, Notion and now Coda. It looks cloud is coming of age and keeping anything in a hard disk is no more fashionable. But then the main question is if all these platforms which gives you the cloud storage and enables you to store your data are sustainable or not. More importantly if they are secured. I have had many experiences where the platforms just got shut down giving me an offer to back up my data. But my efforts to put up those were not counted. But I am glad most of these platforms are not free. The age of free lunch seems to have got vanished altogether. Each of these platforms gives you free access to experience the way you can use but then the more you use or the more you want to enable yourself, it is being charged and I see nothing wrong in it.
Companies need money to sustain and the money cannot pour from investors who may look for the valuation of a company. But then the company needs to make profit one day and that profit has to come from clients. That one day could be today if it gives a good platform to work on. Trello is a great platform but when it comes to flowing text, it doesn’t really helps. It is more of a block puzzle game. I use it extensively for my travel plans. Notion also gives you great benefits but again fails in flowing large texts. Notion is my go to tool for every thing that keep record of. That is why I am in coda which gives me the flexibility of Trello and Notion and also the flowing text. But mind you, Trello and Notion are great apps without which my life will come to a standstill. These apps plus many other tools helps me use my brain to a manageable level.
