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Indeed, the internet is the most permanent looking transitory thing ever. Sure, we have arvhive.org.. but that didn't always exist, and it might not always (no

by dusted 3y ago

Indeed, the internet is the most permanent looking transitory thing ever. Sure, we have arvhive.org.. but that didn't always exist, and it might not always (no matter how much I want it to). Build your digital life with this in mind, everything that ever matter to you in the slightest, must be stored on devices that are under your control. I'm afraid of the future, I'm afraid of the day where I can no longer install Linux, and then, of the day where I can no longer build my own PC from parts, and the day when I can no longer buy a general purpose computer at all. When, not if, but when that day comes, all I have left are whatever cutting edge devices of the last generations I have in inventory, and I will be stuck in time, and I will be content with that, until my hardware supply dried out and I'm back into the world.. Hopefully I die first.

captainbland 3y ago
Even for devices you own, storage options are often only rated to last a decade or less (although they might do better in practice, it becomes a gamble). Options like printing photos start making a lot of sense when you're thinking about the span of your life and maybe even up to your grandchildren's.
- dusted 3y ago
  A agree. I buy a new datacenter disk every 2 months and swap out the oldest in my primary storage, the swapped out goes to the cold-storage backup server. But this is expensive and cumbersome and I am aware that I'm a liability, if I die, my family have limited access to my data. I'm preparing instructions so that they can extract it, I'm keeping the family-relevant parts of the data on a read-only share that multiple family members can access. Of course, if the server goes down while I die, little hope is left. Printing out photos is definitely a good start.
  - joshspankit 3y ago
    You might be interested in something like B2. They have parity data and consistently validate all data stored with them as well as having multiple copies of your data in different geographic locations. And the cost is decent at $5/TB/mo (it has gone down over time). The server can easily sync changes on a schedule and if there are concerns about privacy you can also encrypt before sending (add your decryption key to the instructions).
  - midoridensha 3y ago
    Why would your family have much trouble accessing the data on your system? Assuming you've stored the passwords someplace they can get to (and that assumes the disks are encrypted), even if they're tech-illiterate, they can just hire someone who knows how to work with Linux servers to retrieve the data (assuming that's what you're using). It won't be free of course, but unless you've devised some entirely custom OS and filesystem to store your family photos, it really shouldn't be that hard. Of course, you should probably write up some instructions so they don't need to hire an expert, but in the worst case where you get hit by a bus before you write them, it should be possible to get to that data. The real problem is if you're using encrypted filesystems, and you didn't bother to write the root password anywhere.

by dusted 3y ago

captainbland 3y ago

Even for devices you own, storage options are often only rated to last a decade or less (although they might do better in practice, it becomes a gamble). Options like printing photos start making a lot of sense when you're thinking about the span of your life and maybe even up to your grandchildren's.

dusted 3y ago
A agree. I buy a new datacenter disk every 2 months and swap out the oldest in my primary storage, the swapped out goes to the cold-storage backup server. But this is expensive and cumbersome and I am aware that I'm a liability, if I die, my family have limited access to my data. I'm preparing instructions so that they can extract it, I'm keeping the family-relevant parts of the data on a read-only share that multiple family members can access. Of course, if the server goes down while I die, little hope is left. Printing out photos is definitely a good start.
- joshspankit 3y ago
  You might be interested in something like B2. They have parity data and consistently validate all data stored with them as well as having multiple copies of your data in different geographic locations. And the cost is decent at $5/TB/mo (it has gone down over time). The server can easily sync changes on a schedule and if there are concerns about privacy you can also encrypt before sending (add your decryption key to the instructions).
- midoridensha 3y ago
  Why would your family have much trouble accessing the data on your system? Assuming you've stored the passwords someplace they can get to (and that assumes the disks are encrypted), even if they're tech-illiterate, they can just hire someone who knows how to work with Linux servers to retrieve the data (assuming that's what you're using). It won't be free of course, but unless you've devised some entirely custom OS and filesystem to store your family photos, it really shouldn't be that hard. Of course, you should probably write up some instructions so they don't need to hire an expert, but in the worst case where you get hit by a bus before you write them, it should be possible to get to that data. The real problem is if you're using encrypted filesystems, and you didn't bother to write the root password anywhere.