keeping one step ahead

I bought a Shuffle as a floppy replacement - CD-R are no better, are they?- I kept slides on it to show when networks are down, and documents to finish at home.

Since then, the company net blocks executable files - Shuffle lost its value, had to buy an honest USB stick. The Office documents keep changing format - it is a struggle to keep one step ahead of admins so I can work like this.

Then, last week, the USB stick died in the washing machine. Reduced to carrying the laptop around.