I could have lost it all, but all I lost was a word doc

This morning when I got into work, I unpacked my laptop bag, set up my computer. when I hit the power button I quickly realized that my hard drive had died, and the data on it was pretty much lost. I have had the laptop in it's current configuration for almost 3 years, and while it was still able to perform for me, it was really time for an upgrade.

Well obviously now is the time, but when the thought set in that my drive was gone, and I had had this thing for almost 3 years, a small panic started to build up. What did I lose?

Well, all of my photos and music are stored on my Ipod, which are backed up on my computer at home, I also keep quite a few photos on my Flickr account. All of my work projects both experimental and client work are managed in source control at our office and backed up daily. I check out things that I want to take home, and if I build something at home I take it to work and check it in.

All of my contacts, calendar, email are managed in my Pocket PC which I partnered with both my laptop as well as my computer at home, so once again all good there.

So really all I lost was a word document I was working on over the weekend. I felt awesome, and so digitally free. this sounds stupid, but I remember back in the day (4 years ago) when my old G4 died and I lost my entire digital life pretty much.

Anyways, I have been doing alot of research lately on the web of the future and the internet as a platform, and when my computer died today I truly had the value of that vision resonate through my mind.

As I built up a new computer to work on at the office, I realized where computing still has a bit of a ways to go. Reinstall all of the desktop software I use to do my job, Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flex Builder, MS Office, Suitcase, copy over the font library, download Firefox, reinstall my extensions, try to rebuild my bookmarks, etc.

Anyways, the day my computer dies, and I am up and running doing my job on a new computer lickety split, is the day that web 2.0 will be fully realized.

After the experience of rebuilding a machine I can imagine quite a few valid Web 2.0 business cases. Looking for venture capital?, just kill your production(/personal...) machine. It is enlightening.