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Blooker Awards

November 10, 2005, 10:36 pm

Someone out there is coining the word "blook" to refer to printed books that archive or are a descendant in some way from a blog.  Since Lulu, who is sponsoring a blooker contest, used my "blook" here as an example in their contest announcement, I guess I have to enter, huh?  While the contest is obviously a clever way to market themselves and perhaps create a new product category, my whole experience with Lulu left me quite satisfied.

I can't emphasize this enough to those of you who may be younger than I am and have lived through fewer generations of computing technology:  Do not count on the digital storage of today being accesable or easily readable 20 years from now.  If you have something you want to make sure your kids can read when they get older, back it up on paper.

Category: Blogging, Computers & the Internet
  • Jonathan

    Back it up on GOOD paper. A lawyer friend observed that a lot of not-so-old documents he's had to research had deteriorated so much that they were difficult to read.

    BTW, this is also an argument for using film cameras for at least some of your photographing.

  • earl

    Actually, this is now solveable. The answer is VMWare/ Microsoft Virtual PC. This is software that runs on your OS and emulates an entire computer; you run a new copy of your OS inside the program.

    Software developers love this because you can, say, run 20 different versions of Windows on one PC. The application to archiving is this: you can preserve the exact programs and OS that you use to read your electronic media. Of course, you will have to continually back it up, but that's not so rough.

    If you believe you are archiving electronic media by printing, first check what type of paper and what type of ink the used -- both matter.

    earl