ephemeris: where things are, today.
While the PS3 again functions as a game console and BD/DVD player, it's repository of useful information, primarily photographs, is gone.
We collect a lot of "documents" as we live our lives: photos we've taken ourselves, interesting photos we've copied from others, letters and e-mail sent and received, gadget manuals, meeting notes, calendar notes, phone directory notes, etc.
I have this stuff on paper, on 35 mm color slides and photo negatives, on 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppies, CDs, DVDs, MFM and IDE "hard" drives, USB and SD flash drives, and GSM cell phone SIM cards. It's on a PDA, various cell-phones, a laptop, one current and two mothballed desktop computer systems, and some of it *used to be* on a game console.
It's out of control.
Most of this information will never be needed again.
In writing some personal history, however, I was wondering about something that's probably on a 5.25" floppy, if at all. Wondering whether the machine which supports that media; the oldest of my mothballed PC's, still knows what kind of hard drive is on board. I suspect that the little battery that used to back up the configuration memory probably died a decade ago.
It would be a monumental task, to go back through the data warehouse, and look at each document, if I can remember what editor was used to open it, and how to operate that editor, just to see whether a document is worth translating, and archiving on some newer, more accessible media.
It's just so hard to delete historical documents. Maybe an unrecoverable game system crash, an unbootable archival PC, a deteriorated collection of removable media, or God forbid, a natural disaster, is just what some of us need from time to time, to keep from being buried under mountains of hoarded data (or furniture, or anything else).
I *know* some beautiful vacation photos were lost by the corruption and resurrection of the PS3. Most of them are still backed up on the daughter's laptop. I'll probably copy them all back onto the PS3, where it can serve as an archive, in case the laptop dies.
Once upon a time, I had configured the PS3 to access a shared photo folder on my desktop, via WiFi, but that functionality died with a software upgrade to Windows XP, Kaspersky Internet Security, or the PS3. I've tried to get it working again, but the PS3 doesn't see the shared folder anymore, despite my inept fiddling with the firewall settings, etc.
I have received a warning from the Universe, that it's time to cull and archive my data. At the very least, I need to buy a spare hard drive, and clone my primary desktop PC, before I have a system crash. The DVD backups on this machine haven't worked right for years.
At best, I should learn how to install and maintain a RAID system, but that doesn't solve the problem of detritus on obsolete media. Maybe I should just grit my teeth and fire up the shredder, before I lose my nerve.
We collect a lot of "documents" as we live our lives: photos we've taken ourselves, interesting photos we've copied from others, letters and e-mail sent and received, gadget manuals, meeting notes, calendar notes, phone directory notes, etc.
I have this stuff on paper, on 35 mm color slides and photo negatives, on 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppies, CDs, DVDs, MFM and IDE "hard" drives, USB and SD flash drives, and GSM cell phone SIM cards. It's on a PDA, various cell-phones, a laptop, one current and two mothballed desktop computer systems, and some of it *used to be* on a game console.
It's out of control.
Most of this information will never be needed again.
In writing some personal history, however, I was wondering about something that's probably on a 5.25" floppy, if at all. Wondering whether the machine which supports that media; the oldest of my mothballed PC's, still knows what kind of hard drive is on board. I suspect that the little battery that used to back up the configuration memory probably died a decade ago.
It would be a monumental task, to go back through the data warehouse, and look at each document, if I can remember what editor was used to open it, and how to operate that editor, just to see whether a document is worth translating, and archiving on some newer, more accessible media.
It's just so hard to delete historical documents. Maybe an unrecoverable game system crash, an unbootable archival PC, a deteriorated collection of removable media, or God forbid, a natural disaster, is just what some of us need from time to time, to keep from being buried under mountains of hoarded data (or furniture, or anything else).
I *know* some beautiful vacation photos were lost by the corruption and resurrection of the PS3. Most of them are still backed up on the daughter's laptop. I'll probably copy them all back onto the PS3, where it can serve as an archive, in case the laptop dies.
Once upon a time, I had configured the PS3 to access a shared photo folder on my desktop, via WiFi, but that functionality died with a software upgrade to Windows XP, Kaspersky Internet Security, or the PS3. I've tried to get it working again, but the PS3 doesn't see the shared folder anymore, despite my inept fiddling with the firewall settings, etc.
I have received a warning from the Universe, that it's time to cull and archive my data. At the very least, I need to buy a spare hard drive, and clone my primary desktop PC, before I have a system crash. The DVD backups on this machine haven't worked right for years.
At best, I should learn how to install and maintain a RAID system, but that doesn't solve the problem of detritus on obsolete media. Maybe I should just grit my teeth and fire up the shredder, before I lose my nerve.