Things change

Sometimes it feels like nothing really changes, but then something happens and offers some perspective. Like communications when travelling and data storage.

I mentioned before that we were at South-East Asia for several weeks back in 2007 - 9 years ago now. Back then if I wanted to write email home I had to find a local net cafe (not that hard, even smallest villages we were in tended to have one somewhere), buy network time (cheap) and use their computers (very likely full of viruses, spyware and keyloggers) to log onto webmail. Yes, I used disposable mail account for that very reason. I of course had my phone, but calling and SMS were Expensive with capital E so I preferred to avoid them when not absolutely necessary.

I just returned from a holiday in Thailand and things are very different. Now almost all hotels and restaurants offer free WiFi. Just use your cheap phone to log onto your email or whatsapp or whatever's your favorite method and chat away. While that wifi might still be spied on (be it spyware on router or passive listening) that isn't really a problem with HTTPS and SSL (or if you are really paranoid, VPN). I don't think I even saw net cafes this time.

Then the storage. Back then I already had DSLR camera (the very first Canon 300D) that used CompactFlash cards. Those were still expensive, and I think I had just few 512MB cards. So at least weekly I had to somehow offload all that data to somewhere (I use raw format exclusively so pictures tend to be large). That somewhere was iPod (with 80GB hard drive, which funnily enough would be luxurious even today - you just can't get players with that much internal storage any more) with camera adapter. Show as hell, and horrible battery hog but it got the job done. Back then I chose that iPod because of the camera adapter and storage alone. Had it not been available my solution would have been something very different and very likely less practical.

These days I carry bag of smallish (typically 2GB) SD cards. Cheap enough to be almost disposable. For some reason I have never trusted SD cards that much, and by using small cards I only lose that much of data if one fails. No need for external storage, but I do take care not to abuse them. Losing data sucks, doubly so if that is for some dumb mistake like pouring your beer on it (none of the cards I have have failed so far, but knocking on wood...)

My camera is still Canon, but features in my current 700D (with 18-135mm lens that has image stabilizer) are something I would only have dreamed about back then (and it is something I still prefer to stay hidden in my backbag when it's not used, no reason to draw more attention to yourself than necessary)
So much has changed over the years, but when that change is gradual you kinda miss it. Only now, when I could make direct comparation to what I had available back then and now it suddely came clear and surprised me. Wonder what we'll have in another 10 years or so...