4 ms·

I kind of love this idea. How do you do this, especially if you're throwing originals away, in a frustratingly and methodically legal way?

simonblack 4y ago
There are many legal archival websites out there. The way I see it, is that I am merely transferring the informational data that I already own from one medium to another. I am not 'pirating' anything that I didn't already own before. Those books that I couldn't replace, I kept. A lot of cassettes, vinyl LPs and CDs I made copies of myself from my own media. That took an investment of my time in order to save my space. ('Audacity' and an analog-digital converter from Amazon. Audacity also helped clean up some of the worst scratches on the LPs.) Once I had copied off my LPs and cassettes, I could also dispose of the cassette-player and turntable. I haven't completed my task yet. I still have some snippets of video on various VHS video-cassettes that have to be converted to digital if I can get my VHS videoplayer to work again. I am still in the throes of converting decades-old photos that had been locked away in boxes to PNGs that display as a slide-show screen saver on the computers' screen.
- TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
  I went through this years ago and have some regrets. I don’t regret getting rid of all physical items, but some. Here’s why: 1. Album art and lyrics… gone. Would have loved to share these with my son 2. Digital books can’t be skimmed. I have a physical copy of Turbo Pascal above a toilet and love to skim it while doing the business. 3. Photos. We have tens of thousands of digital photos. The gems get lost in this mess even if you star/favorite them. If you have a few shoeboxes of physical photos, don’t get rid of them; cull them. Remove the ones that are scenery and landscape. Keep the faces and people photos. Write metadata on the back (who, where). Frame a few, keep the rest in shoeboxes to look at every 5 years.
  - simonblack 4y ago
    Album Art is still around. I keep that separately from the audio. I use it also as a record of the order of tracks on an LP. 2. Digital books can’t be skimmed. Very true. That's probably what I miss most too. But I see that as an offset. Many books I've had that just sat there year after year on the shelf, getting yellower and dustier by the day. Did I mention that I'm an 'information hoarder'? I still have files on my archive disk from 40 years ago.

simonblack 4y ago

There are many legal archival websites out there. The way I see it, is that I am merely transferring the informational data that I already own from one medium to another. I am not 'pirating' anything that I didn't already own before. Those books that I couldn't replace, I kept. A lot of cassettes, vinyl LPs and CDs I made copies of myself from my own media. That took an investment of my time in order to save my space. ('Audacity' and an analog-digital converter from Amazon. Audacity also helped clean up some of the worst scratches on the LPs.) Once I had copied off my LPs and cassettes, I could also dispose of the cassette-player and turntable. I haven't completed my task yet. I still have some snippets of video on various VHS video-cassettes that have to be converted to digital if I can get my VHS videoplayer to work again. I am still in the throes of converting decades-old photos that had been locked away in boxes to PNGs that display as a slide-show screen saver on the computers' screen.

TedDoesntTalk 4y ago
I went through this years ago and have some regrets. I don’t regret getting rid of all physical items, but some. Here’s why: 1. Album art and lyrics… gone. Would have loved to share these with my son 2. Digital books can’t be skimmed. I have a physical copy of Turbo Pascal above a toilet and love to skim it while doing the business. 3. Photos. We have tens of thousands of digital photos. The gems get lost in this mess even if you star/favorite them. If you have a few shoeboxes of physical photos, don’t get rid of them; cull them. Remove the ones that are scenery and landscape. Keep the faces and people photos. Write metadata on the back (who, where). Frame a few, keep the rest in shoeboxes to look at every 5 years.
- simonblack 4y ago
  Album Art is still around. I keep that separately from the audio. I use it also as a record of the order of tracks on an LP. 2. Digital books can’t be skimmed. Very true. That's probably what I miss most too. But I see that as an offset. Many books I've had that just sat there year after year on the shelf, getting yellower and dustier by the day. Did I mention that I'm an 'information hoarder'? I still have files on my archive disk from 40 years ago.