Do that digitizing, you'll be glad you did.
By Harry Brown

I just spent 4 hours, doing something I am so glad I did, even though it 
was a lot of work!
I continued what I have been doing for some time now, and that is, 
digitizing my personal files, things like:
1. All my CDs.
2. All my casette tapes
3. All my braille, stuff in notebooks that I've written over the years, 
both personal, and work related.
4. All kinds of file folders with personal braille papers
5. print books, which I have to scan and save.
As you can see, I have a lot of things to digitize. I don't do it every 
night, but when I have a nite available, I'm doing it, and I cannot tell 
you the joy I feel knowing, that if there is a fire or flood, I won't 
lose all the stuff that I would never, ever, be able to get back if 
those things happened.
I say all that to say this, is all your personal stuff digitized? Things 
like:
1. All your music, like tapes, records, CDs?
2. Any stuff on DVDs?
3. All your braille, or print papers, stuff that you would never want to 
have to rewrite again, whether notebooks, letters, personal files in 
envelopes or file folders?
4. Family pictures, or personal pictures?
5. Any VHS tapes?
The reason I mentioned CDs, DVDs, casette tapes, and VHS video tapes is, 
after a while, they can oxidize, and become totally useless to play. I 
found this out with a CD set I had, which I left in a bedroom closet. 
Even though it was away from the sunshine, it just oxidized, and they 
were useless to play, (and I tryed them on a CD player, and on 2 CD 
drives on 2 computers).
That really got my attention! Thankfully, I was able to contact the 
ministry that gave me the same files that were on those CDs, via the 
internet.
So, I say all that to say this, if you haven't digitized the above 
things, get started on it, no matter how long it takes, just do it, 
you'll be glad you did.
The question you might be asking is, "How do I digitize all this stuff?
Let's take them one at a time:
1. For CDs, use Windows media player to do it, and it does a great job. 
If you don't know how to rip from CD to your computer, just ask!
2. For DVDs, I would think it is the same way, but I don't have any DVDs 
that I need to digitize, so, ask around, on email lists, or ask techies 
where you live, about how to do that.
3. For casette tapes, I use studio recorder, which is great for this! 
There is also Gold Wave, and, there is Audacity, as well!
You connect your computer to a tape recorder or player, using a patch cord.
4. For braille, you'll have to set up Windows speech recognition, or, 
use Dragon Naturally Speaking, and if you're a jaws user, get J-dictate, 
which works with jaws and dragon naturally speaking. Then, just read all 
your braille into a microphone, and then, you'll have it all on your 
computer.
If you want to know about that part of the process, let me know.
5. For print books, if you're blind or are disabled so you cannot turn 
pages, they are available through NLS, or, through book share, then 
you've got them that way. However, if not, you'll have to use something 
like Open Book, or, Docu scan plus, made by the folks at Serotek, which 
lets you scan any print material, and it will convert it to text, or, to 
an MP3 audio file! For print papers, you'll have to scan those in, or, 
read them, or, have someone read them, on to the computer using Dragon 
Naturally speaking.
6. for records, you can connect a record player to your computer with a 
patch cord, using Studio Recorder, Audacity, or Gold Wave.
7. for pictures, you can use that same scanner that you use for print 
materials, to scan and save any pictures.
8. For VHS tapes, you can put those on your computer as well. Now I have 
no VHS tapes, so, ask around on email lists, or, where you live, because 
there are folks who can tell you what kind of cable to connect between 
your VCR, and your computer.
The next question is, "where do I save it all to?
Save it all in 2 places:
1. On your hard drive, and I would get a SSD, (stands for solid state 
drive)! Right now, I'm using a regular hard drive, one that spins 
around, but this or next week, I will be getting an SSD drive. These 
drives are great because they have no moving parts! They last much, 
longer than traditional hard drives.
What drive to get? Get the Kingston Hyper x Savage!
I say that because it is the fastest SSD on the market, I've looked at 
them all. And very important, after you get that drive installed on your 
computer, make sure to turn off disc defrag. If you don't, defrag can 
ruin your solid state drive. SSDs do not need to be defragged, like 
traditional hard drives do.
So, that's one place to put all this stuff.
2. Also, be sure to put it on another external SSD, whether one of those 
2 and a half inch external drives, which fit nicely into a pocket, or, 
into a hand bag or purse.
Or, put it all on a thumb drive, (also called flash drive). These drives 
are very nice as well. I have my thumb drive in an iPod case I got at 
Wall-Mart, and it's on my key ring, and it goes everywhere I go!
If you choose a thumb drive, be sure you get one that is water proof, 
(they do make them), and, it has to be made out of metal or steel. Why, 
because plastic ones break, that's right, you read that right. They, 
literally, split right in half.
I've heard stories of that happening, and a friend, showed me one, split 
right down the middle.
The next question is, "how big does the drive half to be in storage 
space? I started with a 4 gig, then filled that one, then, moved to an 8 
gig, and filled that, then, moved up to a 16 gig, and filled that, then, 
up to a 32 gig, and filled that, and now, I'm using a 64 gig thumb 
drive, and when I fill that up, I'll move up to a 128 gig thumb drive! 
Now when I filled each one of those, I bought the bigger one, and copied 
all the stuff from the smaller drive, to the bigger one that I bought.
Those are the 2 places I have all my stuff on.
3. There is a third place, and that is, the cloud! That's right, the 
cloud, and I'm not talking about the one in the sky either. I'm talking 
about the internet. For folks reading this, who don't know what this is, 
the internet is called the cloud, by many techies. Now you can store a 
lot there, however, if you've got a lot to store, there would be a 
charge to store it all on the internet, but it is only so much a year. 
There's dropbox, google docs, one drive, and probably more that I have 
forgotten to mention!
So, those are the 4 places where you can store stuff at.
conclusion. My heart was burdened tonight, after I got some more stuff 
digitized, so, I put something in our local newspaper, and on our local 
area radio station, about this topic.
My heart breaks when I hear of fires and floods, and people lost 
everything, and all those above things I mentioned, will never be recovered.
So, for your sake, do that digitizing, because you will feel so glad 
that you did it. I am doing it myself, and I'm so glad that I am!


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