I spent half the day sorting out my important papers and putting them in a fire proof box.

[texanwitch]

Glad I did it.

Damn, we need a lot of papers today.

Now it is time for a beer.

[HopeHoops]

1. We've got 2 fire safes about the size of a beer cooler each and one that's slightly smaller.

Yes, you need a lot of papers. My eldest daughter also has a fire box she cable-locks to her bed frame at college for her passport, etc.

[texanwitch]

2. I didn't think it would take so long.

I have two othe fireproof boxes for other things, one is full of CD's.

I am now going to scan the papers to a cd, and put it into a safety deposit box.

I have my papers, and some of my parents papers.

Even when you die you still have papers.

[HopeHoops]

3. Just a small warning - if the firebox isn't MEANT for CDs/DVDs, it probably won't protect them.

The only kind I'll buy is Sentry and they do make what are called "media safes". One even has a USB port with a hard drive inside. They're a bit more expensive for the volume you're getting, but the internal temperature level is significantly lower. Paper takes a pretty high temperature to reach incineration point. It doesn't take that much to warp a CD/DVD.

[texanwitch]

4. Thanks for the info.

The cd's are special to me.

I have the pictures also off line but it is nice to have the cd's on hand.

[HopeHoops]

6. That's one of the sad realities of digital photography. I've got a lot of older ones I can't locate

I've had dozens of hard drives over the years in dozens of computers. I've tried to copy files into "this old computer name" folders on the newer machines, but sometimes I STILL can't find something that I know I've got stored somewhere - could be on a CD, maybe a floppy, 5 1/4" or 3 1/2", a ZIP drive disk, or a hard drive in a machine I haven't booted in a few years. Who knows. I DO know where all of my 35mm film and associated prints are!

On top of that, media types come and go, as do file types. How many files do I have in Ami Pro? How about Word Star? It is really difficult to keep up with upgrading the things you care about to the more contemporary formats. I've got a shitload of stuff on my Amiga and C=64 disks, but fortunately those machines still boot if I need access to their contents.

My eldest went to Greece and Turkey for a college photography class in January (great price). She took 10,500 pictures. They're all on my main server, as well as her laptop, but how many of those are we EVER going to look at? I remember my grandfather's endless slide shows. I know my dad still has all of his carousels full of slides, but none of them have been looked at in at least 25 years, since shortly before my grandfather died.

Super 8 film? I've got a projector. Film strips? I've got four or five projectors/viewers. One of them is a record player/film strip viewer combination. LaserDisc was never a recording medium, but I've got a player and a few hundred discs. Cassette seems to be making a comeback, but Sony recently discontinued the WalkMan. I've got a double cassette player and two VCRs (counting the one that's in the same box as one of the two DVD devices). 8-Track was never that great for sound, but I've got a few players, car, stereo, and portable that all still work. I've got an LP player with a strobe hooked up to the stereo, and yes I have a lot of vinyl. I DO NOT have a reel-to-reel player or any tapes of that format, but I do have an opaque projector and an overhead projector.

At this point, I would suggest copying all of your CDs onto DVD and make at least two copies (keeping them in different locations). When you could first start burning CDs, the projected media life was ten years. It is longer now, but don't count on it. Besides, DVDs hold a shitload more data. Just use the DVD-R type. I completely forget what the difference between -R and +R is, but for data you want to use -R for both CD and DVD - and pretty much everything else as far as I can tell. No, I'm not going to search for the answer on Google right now, but that's just how it is.

[texanwitch]

7. I have my Grandparents old photos, boxes of them.

My favorite one is my Grandparents going out on a date in horse and buggy.

My Grandmother took a lot of pictures.

She did write on the back who the people were and when the pictures were taken.

We won't have that.

[HopeHoops]

8. I know. Sadly, a lot of the photos I have from dead relatives have no such markings.

Digital photos won't either. Yes, you can add tags, but they don't necessarily go along with format conversion and who looks at them anyway?

[texanwitch]

9. I quess future people will find flash drives and wonder what they are.

I need to scan my Grandparents pictures also.

That will take time.

[HopeHoops]

10. I only use flash drives for trasition purposes. They're damn fast.

I've got the entire house tied into the main server, but peer-to-peer is not enabled. It's easier to take a flash drive from one box to another than to copy something to the server and then back onto a different machine. And frankly, the flash drive is faster than the WI-FI anyway, especially if my middle daughter is on the net.

[texanwitch]

11. I have lots of flash drives.

I am like my Grandmother, I like to take pictures.

[HopeHoops]

12. Yeah, we've got a few dozen thumb drives and GOD knows how many SD cards.

I buy them when they are on sale at K-Mart or OfficeMax.

[texanwitch]

13. SD cards mulitiply.

I have a ton of them.

My biggest is 16 GB.

[HopeHoops]

14. I've tried buying them condoms, but they just won't use them!

Fortunately, my eldest daughter does. Not applicable for the younger two yet, but they're available.

[texanwitch]

15. I always say I will reuse them but I don't.

They are really cheap to buy.

[trof]

5. So...whaddya do with the box?

??????????