( i may have told this story before if so, sorry )

in the early internet days, my net was too slow to be useful for anything other than Usenet and email. ( Kermit dialup :) ) So once a month or so id take a box of floppies, go up to the local college at 2am using a friends ID to get in, and use their computers to get stuff ( latest version of Boot/Root, then SLS, then im pretty sure Debian ). Eventually a local store that sold free/shareware started selling CDs ( infomagic, walnut creek etc ) so that stopped.  Monthly visits to them to get latest versions of stuff instead. 

But i am in a similar mental boat, and i am sure to get all the source disks of Debian on every release.  And a copy of the live image.  Why? i dont know.  Paranoia? 80% of what i do is online anyway, so no net = no 'stuff' .  But i guess if that happened again ( we were with out net over a week after the tornadoes this spring ) i go back to reading books, and watching old movies/tv shows. ( and of course driving to the office every day.. )

Mon Sep 11 2023 17:46:04 EDT from darknetuser

I am a datahoarder myself, but I think it is more related to the fact I grew up Internetless in an era were eveyrbody had some connectivity.

I had to learn to use loads of heavy digital tools for job and study without Internet access. That means I had to keep everything I could need at home. Linux distributions that were designed to use only online repositories were a pain so I had to learn to build my custom ones and keep them and maintain them myself.

To this day I still have the mentality that I *must* keep enough digital tools laying around that I can still build and install anything I might need if I go offline. I have lots of packaging and build scripts from a decade ago.

Interestingly, I just rolled a new (old) home NAS for storing more backups.

Nah i asked the copy i kept and it assured me that didnt happen. I do have  theory, but will move that over to software. ( and a related thread to TV )

Mon Sep 11 2023 17:51:31 EDT from msgrhys

 

Mon Sep 11 2023 17:32:10 EDT from Nurb432

Ironically had it happen recently with an AI model. It was great, so i decided to download the entire model for safe keeping, and not just the quantized version.  2 days later it vanished, under odd circumstances.

IT ESCAPED!

Talking to a friend locally about the old days when we would go to the library sales up in town each season and buy these things called books, that were printed on pulpified and dried dead trees. 

couple of months ago donated 2 boxes to our local library. Pretty much the last of it. other than the few 'special' ones im keeping around.,

I did too. I had thousands. Literally. Some even predated me and were my dads or grandmothers. and every book i ever owned.. ever... And I could just not bare to give them up. Shelf and shelf of crates in the garage ( sealed totes, with descant, all labeled and cataloged )

2 things changed that

1 - Decided to build a small machine shop. Needed the room and wasn't about to rent a storage unit again just for that ( also the main reason my retro-computer collection left too )

2 - eInk became a thing.   90% what i had was either stupid outdated, or i could easily find digital versions.   I tried to read on LCD tablets, no dice unless i had to. ( or CRTs earlier ) but eInk, was a wonderful thing and fell in love with it. ( remind me sometime to tell a story about a project i did in middle school with charged particles, ink, and glass plates )

So i either scanned or downloaded everything of value, then tossed or donated it all other than 'special' stuff that would not be the same. ( tho i scanned those too for convenience and 'backup', but kept the paper )  Well, other than my Omni magazine collection. I mixed up the boxes.. they got donated before i scanned them.  Disappointing, and i have never have found good copies of those. 

And i agree, most stuff today is trash, and gone up in cost.  Much like movies and music, its rare to get something good these days. Sure, it happens, but not often.

Wed Sep 13 2023 19:04:02 EDT from darknetuser

I also hoard books.

I rarely buy new ones. They became insanely expensive around here and I have the feeling they don't write them like they used to. I sometimes get second hand books if they come from some old author or franchise I like.

Make that 'desiccant' above. Not 'descant' stupid typos + stupid spell check + inability to go back and fix (: 

If it all falls apart next year, we may see something like it. 

Just got done making a loaf of shokupan here.

Wed Nov 29 2023 17:42:06 EST from interrupt

I eat Wonder Bread and grow in 12 different ways.

the world may have changed, but we still have here...

Fri Mar 08 2024 19:33:14 EST from borker Subject: BBS Day Gone By

I am and deeply and painfully nostalgic for BBSing in the earlier to mid 90s and the scene I was part of

For me, BBS'ing was the mid to late 80's. I was on the Internet in the late 80's, before most of my friends. By the early 90's (pre-Eternal September) the local BBS scene had suffered multiple drama explosions and was dying from both that and the growing access to Internet.

Most of us around here were hitting adulthood in the late 80s, and were busy with our lives, so it took a back seat. And once the collapse started, it had sort of a cascade effect.   Then public access internet came along, and basically sealed its fate. 

Killed off ham radio too. Same sort of thing. The old-timers were dying off, and my generation was moving on to more important things ( like eating.. rent. children.. etc ) then internet came, and made it pointless for most that remained. 

Sure, pockets of both did survive, but pockets..

I donno, most of still have a fondness for particular bits of retro-tech. 

Sat Mar 09 2024 12:56:24 EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: BBS Day Gone By

What we're nostalgic for isn't the technology itself 

I kinda agree with him. I miss the smaller disparate communities and lower internet population in both data and users. Man wasn't ready for massive networks such as FB, Twitter, and YouTube. Or at least I don't think we were. 

Sat Mar 09 2024 12:59:21 EST from Nurb432 Subject: Re: BBS Day Gone By

I donno, most of still have a fondness for particular bits of retro-tech. 

Sat Mar 09 2024 12:56:24 EST from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: BBS Day Gone By

What we're nostalgic for isn't the technology itself 

 

And newbies were normally not total outsiders...  

Mon Jun 24 2024 16:46:13 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar Subject: Re: BBS Day Gone By

2. Newbies arrived slowly enough to acclimate to the culture and learn our social norms