Pilot's log archiving

[455 Bravo Uniform]

I wonder how many in the past would have talked exactly that way about your crap. I'd say just the usual resistance to new ideas or practices simply because they are different and assuming the old ways were inherently superior. I guess I'm just too young to understand

Nah, you’ve got a point. Look at all the heirloom crystal, china, furs, and other crap that get tossed after a beloved passes. As with everything, there are exceptions. Maybe paper is the exception now.

I threw away a foreign published paperback that included my ancestry and lineage history in a language that I didn’t understand. Didn’t realize what I’d done until 2 years later. I have no idea where to find a copy. I feel horrible.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I threw away a foreign published paperback that included my ancestry and lineage history in a language that I didn’t understand. Didn’t realize what I’d done until 2 years later. I have no idea where to find a copy. I feel horrible.

Don't blame you. I've had things like that which are gone, like my mom's high school yearbook.

 

[RussR]

Nothing wrong with electronic copies of paper documents. But IMHO the originals should be preserved. One reason being they are accessible without possessing the same quickly outdated "tech".

I guess it somewhat depends on your definition of "quickly outdated". I say that for the most part, various file formats like jpg and pdf have been pretty stable over the past 20 or 30 years. I mean, I can still open various MS Office files from the 90's (even if I'm not using MS Office to do so). And I have jpgs from at least 2001. Same for PDFs. If I had to bet, I'd bet that jpgs and pdfs will still be accessible for a long time to come.

Now, if your files are saved in some proprietary format, that's a problem, but it's a "one-time" problem until you convert them into a standard format. And then don't do that again.

Now if you're talking about physical media, sure that needs to be updated every so often, but I'd bet for most people, that's just a normal course of IT replacement. It's not as if you have to keep that 8088 running MS-DOS 2.0 alive to be able to get to your logbooks.

I will agree that back in the 80's and 90's, the file formats and standards changed really quickly. But things have been pretty stable as far as file formats go for quite a while now.

 

[midlifeflyer]

I guess it somewhat depends on your definition of "quickly outdated". I say that for the most part, various file formats like jpg and pdf have been pretty stable over the past 20 or 30 years. I mean, I can still open various MS Office files from the 90's (even if I'm not using MS Office to do so).

You got me curious so I searched to find the oldest data file on my hard drive. Turns out to be a WordPerfect (DOS) document last modified December 28, 1989. It's a letter I used to include when subpoenaing a witness for trial. We're talking before it was standard to identify files by extensions, so it doesn't even have a .wpd at the end of the file name.

WordPerfect is actually still around, but I haven't had it since about 1995. Anyway, it opened perfectly in MS-Word and I'm pretty sure OpenOffice or LibreOffice will handle it as well. Google Docs and Apple Pages don't handle them natively but there are many available converters.

 

[Jim_R]

You got me curious so I searched to find the oldest data file on my hard drive. Turns out to be a WordPerfect (DOS) document last modified December 28, 1989. It's a letter I used to include when subpoenaing a witness for trial. We're talking before it was standard to identify files by extensions, so it doesn't even have a .wpd at the end of the file name.

WordPerfect is actually still around, but I haven't had it since about 1995. Anyway, it opened perfectly in MS-Word and I'm pretty sure OpenOffice or LibreOffice will handle it as well. Google Docs and Apple Pages don't handle them natively but there are many available converters.

YMMV.

Some time back Office dropped support for PowerPoint 95 (or whatever version it was...it was a long time ago!), and suddenly I couldn't open my older Powerpoint files. For a while I still had access to the previous version of Office, and there were also some 3rd-party converter tools and also a view-only MS tool that would open them. With some effort, I was able to convert a fraction of the most-important/frequently-accessed files that I had...some of which I still have (or have the modern evolution of) today. For the rest, at some point I lost access to the previous Office versions and 3rd party tools that could open them and they were all eventually lost/abandoned/deleted. I'm still annoyed by that--there have been many times I wished I could look something up from that archive.

 

[Rene]

I wonder how many in the past would have talked exactly that way about your crap. I'd say just the usual resistance to new ideas or practices simply because they are different and assuming the old ways were inherently superior. I guess I'm just too young to understand

I'm in college, but I understand that "new", "better", "superior", and "improved" are not synonyms (or antonyms).

 

[midlifeflyer]

I'm in college, but I understand that "new", "better", "superior", and "improved" are not synonyms (or antonyms).

True. But neither is "old" or "established"

 

[midlifeflyer]

YMMV.

Some time back Office dropped support for PowerPoint 95 (or whatever version it was...it was a long time ago!), and suddenly I couldn't open my older Powerpoint files. For a while I still had access to the previous version of Office, and there were also some 3rd-party converter tools and also a view-only MS tool that would open them. With some effort, I was able to convert a fraction of the most-important/frequently-accessed files that I had...some of which I still have (or have the modern evolution of) today. For the rest, at some point I lost access to the previous Office versions and 3rd party tools that could open them and they were all eventually lost/abandoned/deleted. I'm still annoyed by that--there have been many times I wished I could look something up from that archive.

And MS-Access was famous for changes that completely invalidated older code.

 

[Pinecone]

Nah, you’ve got a point. Look at all the heirloom crystal, china, furs, and other crap that get tossed after a beloved passes. As with everything, there are exceptions. Maybe paper is the exception now.

Tastes change.

But it is still strange that a piece of crystal will sell for $80 at the department store, while that same piece is $3 on eBay.

Dealing with my parent's house and stuff right now.

 

[455 Bravo Uniform]

Tastes change.

But it is still strange that a piece of crystal will sell for $80 at the department store, while that same piece is $3 on eBay.

Dealing with my parent's house and stuff right now.

Sorry to hear that.

My mom was sad to learn that the only thing that had any good resale value was the sterling silver, which she eventually took to a jeweler.

An estate sale might have been easier, but it was Covid and folks were skittish. We just didn’t have room for 2 houses full of stuff, and our kids were not old enough yet to have their own place. We kept some stuff. Much else was donated to friends and family.

Maybe donate and itemize tax deduction.

All the best.

 

[Pinecone]

Sold the silver. Some friends have bought some things. Planning an estate sale. Whatever is left will be donated. And what they will not take, will end up in the dump.

Very sad. Spend years getting nice stuff, thinking it will be worth something, and it is worth nothing.

 

[MauleSkinner]

Very sad. Spend years getting nice stuff, thinking it will be worth something, and it is worth nothing.

My grandma was a collector. It took my mom and my aunt six months of pretty much full-time work to figure out what was and wasn’t worth something.

 

[M20K]

Now if you're talking about physical media, sure that needs to be updated every so often, but I'd bet for most people, that's just a normal course of IT replacement. It's not as if you have to keep that 8088 running MS-DOS 2.0 alive to be able to get to your logbooks.

It is the old media that is always the issue. A lot of people think they have things backed up on a drive that has sat on a shelf for a few decades, then wonder why it won't work when they need it. Same with old removable "backup" media. It was great at the time, but even if you still have the drive, the media may have lost all the magnetized data - regardless if the format still could have been read.

 

[midlifeflyer]

It is the old media that is always the issue. A lot of people think they have things backed up on a drive that has sat on a shelf for a few decades, then wonder why it won't work when they need it. Same with old removable "backup" media. It was great at the time, but even if you still have the drive, the media may have lost all the magnetized data - regardless if the format still could have been read.

Right. Nothing’s perfect. Backups need maintenance. Even paper tears, burns, becomes discolored, and crumbles (which I am certain the stone tablet lovers were quick to point out.)

Anyone else have these? Apparently you can still buy one if you still have a few disks laying around.

 

[Roller]

One of my favorite apps

‎Scanner App: Genius Scan

‎Genius Scan is a document scanner app in your pocket. Quickly scan your paper documents on the go and export them as multi-page PDF files. *** Apple App of the Week *** 20+ million users *** 1000s of small businesses *** Place any document in front of your device’s camera: our scanner app...

apps.apple.com

You can use your phone to scan documents to PDF, run OCR so you can search the text, and even add or remove pages from existing PDFs—perfect for updating your aircraft or pilot logbook over time.

It’s important to digitize and store all your paper logs. It’s way too easy for an engine or pilot logbook to go missing or get stolen.

When the annual rolls around, I just email a PDF to the mechanic.

 

[M20K]

Anyone else have these? Apparently you can still buy one if you still have a few disks laying around.

I think I still have one somewhere... Make me an offer!

 

[midlifeflyer]

I think I still have one somewhere... Make me an offer!

I had about a dozen Zip disks I used for backup. Fortunately, ever since I bought by first computer in the late 1980s I knew there were and would be limitations to “current tech.”

 

[Pinecone]

Right. Nothing’s perfect. Backups need maintenance. Even paper tears, burns, becomes discolored, and crumbles (which I am certain the stone tablet lovers were quick to point out.)

Anyone else have these? Apparently you can still buy one if you still have a few disks laying around.

View attachment 137637

I may have some.

I have a stack of SyQuest cartridges.