It may be helpful. Consider online backups for your important digital documents

[Dan]

It's nice to have photos, but even if you lose them at least you have the memories.

That's all our ancestors ever had, as well as those today too poor to afford cameras.

[Garth Wilson]

(12-24-2018 03:56 AM)Dan Wrote:  It's nice to have photos, but even if you lose them at least you have the memories.

That's all our ancestors ever had, as well as those today too poor to afford cameras.

There were artists too. Although professional ones who painted large portraits in color would have been too expensive for many to afford, many families could have had a member who could do accurate pencil drawings of events and people, even long before photography existed.

[pier4r]

(12-24-2018 03:56 AM)Dan Wrote:  It's nice to have photos, but even if you lose them at least you have the memories.

That's all our ancestors ever had, as well as those today too poor to afford cameras.

Yes once the memory is gone (human memory is not so rock solid, it fades away) or the person dies that's it. And what about the subsequent generations?

We know things from the past thanks to sketches , drawings, early pictures and so on. There is a time in history were there was almost no recording, and for thousands of years people couldn't improve past a small tribe or village.

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(12-24-2018 11:23 AM)pier4r Wrote:  There is a time in history were there was almost no recording, and for thousands of years people couldn't improve past a small tribe or village.

Those were the times! ;)

[Albert Chan]

I rather keep physical documents, if possible.

Even if the data is digitally stored, and in good condition, we may be unable to read them later.

Digital Preservation and the Doomsday Project

Quote:Less then 15 years later, it’s system was unusable. Compare that expensive failure to the longevity of the Domesday Book:
a record written on paper in Latin in the 11th century and is still readable today.

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

(12-18-2018 12:24 AM)Claudio L. Wrote:  I should mention (not really part of my digital backup strategy but I could say it is given my system's weakness) that I have one fire extinguisher in the kitchen, another one in the garage, and two more, one on each car, so if a fire starts while I'm there, I can stop it before it becomes bad.

Be careful of this strategy. I had two friend that died in the fire they were trying to put out. For myself, having spent 90 days of my youth in a hospital with fire burns on my leg, I'll just exit the house and let it burn.

Bill
Smithville, NJ

[cdmackay]

(09-08-2019 11:47 PM)Albert Chan Wrote:  I rather keep physical documents, if possible.

Even if the data is digitally stored, and in good condition, we may be unable to read them later.

Digital Preservation and the Doomsday Project

Quote:Less then 15 years later, it’s system was unusable. Compare that expensive failure to the longevity of the Domesday Book:
a record written on paper in Latin in the 11th century and is still readable today.

That's a cautionary tale (as is Bill's!), but I think keeping multiple PDF copies, both at home and in various clouds, updated/checked yearly, is going to last as long as is required.

Given the huge amount of documentation worldwide in PDF, it seems reasonable to expect readers/converters to remain available for decades. And as soon as its end is in sight, converting to whatever comes next shouldn't be hard.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(09-09-2019 07:11 PM)Bill (Smithville NJ) Wrote:  Be careful of this strategy.

Exactly. In our yearly firefighting training they keep telling us that the purpose of a hand-held fire extinguisher is to clear a way for a safe escape. It is much too small to extinguish a real fire anyway.

(09-08-2019 11:47 PM)Albert Chan Wrote:  I rather keep physical documents, if possible.

Even if the data is digitally stored, and in good condition, we may be unable to read them later.

Digital Preservation and the Doomsday Project

Quote:Less then 15 years later, it’s system was unusable. Compare that expensive failure to the longevity of the Domesday Book:
a record written on paper in Latin in the 11th century and is still readable today.

I'm not so sure about that. The relevant Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project) says that all the data of the Doomsday Project are still there. They had been retrieved from their laserdiscs in time and were even publicly available on the internet for some years. Due to copyright issues the website had to be taken down, but the data itself is safe.

And I would say that the surviving Doomsday Book from the 11th century is a great exception. The vast majotity of books from that time are long gone.

Regards
Max

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(09-10-2019 10:47 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  And I would say that the surviving Doomsday Book from the 11th century is a great exception. The vast majotity of books from that time are long gone.

And the vast majority of floppies, too... :)

[Thomas Okken]

(09-10-2019 11:45 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 10:47 AM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  And I would say that the surviving Doomsday Book from the 11th century is a great exception. The vast majotity of books from that time are long gone.

And the vast majority of floppies, too...

The information on them lives on, though. The contents of the hundreds of floppies I once owned migrated to a handful of zip discs, then to an even smaller number of CD-R discs, and currently live on a couple of USB hard drives, with the really important stuff also backed up at another site.

Digital information is easy to lose, but it can be preserved. It takes some care, but that's true for all types of information carrier.

[Massimo Gnerucci]

(09-10-2019 12:04 PM)Thomas Okken Wrote:  

(09-10-2019 11:45 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  And the vast majority of floppies, too...

The information on them lives on, though. The contents of the hundreds of floppies I once owned migrated to a handful of zip discs, then to an even smaller number of CD-R discs, and currently live on a couple of USB hard drives, with the really important stuff also backed up at another site.

Digital information is easy to lose, but it can be preserved. It takes some care, but that's true for all types of information carrier.

Ditto here, with the exception that I used Jaz discs rather than Zips.

However also books were duplicated, since dark ages, via scribes and amanuensis.
But, of course, you're right: digital info is so ridicoulosly easy and cheap to duplicate and transfer!