[Dis]Organization
Optical recordable media is the spawn of the devil.
No, really. It is. I remember when the compact disc first started replacing the cassette tape. "They're practically indestructible!" cried the tech magazines. Mhmm. And here you sit today, trying desperately to pull some photos off a CD you burned, only to find it's totally unreadable because of a scratch the size of a fruit fly's toenail. Little Sally's first Girl Scout dinner is gone forever, all because you breathed on it. Or looked at it wrong, maybe.
But you can't bring yourself to throw the disc away. Certainly - you think - some future technique will be devised to rescue discs like this? To recover my valuable data? Sure. Right after they come out with that DVD/8-track combo player they've been planning. Next year, for sure. Still, i think this way myself. This is why we now have something like nine different binders scattered around our living room, filled with data backup discs from three years ago that i couldn't bring myself to throw away. It's not that they have anything i need on them; it's that they might.
So i started going through them the other day. Star Wars fan films, anyone? (They weren't mine. I got them from a friend. No: really.) I have resolved to simplify with ruthless efficiency, beginning with my photos. Ever since that nasty little episode in Belize where Don Golden had to step in with File Scavenger to save my digital life, i have become zealously paranoid with my backups. Burn a backup copy, burn an archive copy, sprinkle a few drops of holy water....It's paid off, too. The problem is that it's come with certain adverse consequences for the organization of our living room in general. I can locate, on command, numerous dull snapshots of every insignificant event in my entire life. But that Windows 2000 install disc? Gone without a trace.
My latest solution is backing up to DVD. Four point seven gigabytes? Beautiful! Every photo i've ever taken, all safe and sound on just four shiny little discs. Except that at my current rate of two failed burns for every success, it's going to get a little expensive. But paranoia does have its benefits. At least the DVD experiment hasn't been a total loss. They make lovely coasters.
No, really. It is. I remember when the compact disc first started replacing the cassette tape. "They're practically indestructible!" cried the tech magazines. Mhmm. And here you sit today, trying desperately to pull some photos off a CD you burned, only to find it's totally unreadable because of a scratch the size of a fruit fly's toenail. Little Sally's first Girl Scout dinner is gone forever, all because you breathed on it. Or looked at it wrong, maybe.
But you can't bring yourself to throw the disc away. Certainly - you think - some future technique will be devised to rescue discs like this? To recover my valuable data? Sure. Right after they come out with that DVD/8-track combo player they've been planning. Next year, for sure. Still, i think this way myself. This is why we now have something like nine different binders scattered around our living room, filled with data backup discs from three years ago that i couldn't bring myself to throw away. It's not that they have anything i need on them; it's that they might.
So i started going through them the other day. Star Wars fan films, anyone? (They weren't mine. I got them from a friend. No: really.) I have resolved to simplify with ruthless efficiency, beginning with my photos. Ever since that nasty little episode in Belize where Don Golden had to step in with File Scavenger to save my digital life, i have become zealously paranoid with my backups. Burn a backup copy, burn an archive copy, sprinkle a few drops of holy water....It's paid off, too. The problem is that it's come with certain adverse consequences for the organization of our living room in general. I can locate, on command, numerous dull snapshots of every insignificant event in my entire life. But that Windows 2000 install disc? Gone without a trace.
My latest solution is backing up to DVD. Four point seven gigabytes? Beautiful! Every photo i've ever taken, all safe and sound on just four shiny little discs. Except that at my current rate of two failed burns for every success, it's going to get a little expensive. But paranoia does have its benefits. At least the DVD experiment hasn't been a total loss. They make lovely coasters.
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