TITLE: A Place for My Stuff
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 13, 2005  5:04 PM
DESC: Cheap disk + rabid curiosity = a whole lot of stuff.
-----
BODY:
Gus Mueller writes about his
<A HREF="http://www.gusmueller.com/blog/archives/2005/1/24.html#1203">
   stuff folder</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE>
I've got a folder on my desktop named "stuff".  It's a
little over 25 gigs, and it currently has 154,262 files
in it.  I have no idea what exactly is in there.  Random
one-off projects, pics from the camera, various music
files.

I wonder, am I the only person with this situation?
Should I just trash it, or should I at least try and go
through it?  I don't know.  Do I really need anything in
there?
</BLOCKQUOTE>

Oh my goodness.  <EM>154,262 files</EM>!?!  But I can
assure you that Gus isn't the only one.

I have two <TT>stuff/</TT> folders, one on my desktop
machine and one on my laptop.  The volume of Gus's
stuff puts my folders to shame, though.  They total
only 750 MB.  They are full of stuffed apps I want to
try out when I get a few free minutes, articles I'd
like to read, <TT>.jar</TT> files I think I might be
able to use someday...  Of course, someday never comes,
and I just keep dropping new stuff in there.

At some point, my <TT>stuff/</TT> folder reaches a
certain size at which the chance I have of remembering
that a file is in there reaches effectively 0%.  What
good does it do me then?  Even worse, I feel guilty
for not using the stuff, and guilty for not deleting
it.

Every so often, I throw out all or most of my current
<TT>stuff/</TT> folder in a fit of good sense, but
here I am again.

For now I am buoyed by <EM>schadenfreude</EM> at least
I'm not *that* bad.  Thanks, Gus. :-)
-----