Is a Journal Worth The Effort?

Leuchtturm 1917 & Sony ICD SX712

Writing a journal does require a bit of effort but as time and technology moves on it is getting quicker and easier to do.

I still keep a few notes as things happen during the day but I’ve changed what I do at the end of the day to produce a better and more complete record. I now use a SONY voice recorder that I’ve had for years to dictate my daily journal using my notebook notes as a prompt, it takes just a few minutes to do this.

Once done I get the .mp3 file off the recorder and drag it into a transcription application called AIKO which is frankly unbelievably accurate. The AIKO app uses the Whisper large v2 model on macOS and the medium or small model on iOS depending on available memory. AIKO transcribes audio directly on your device, ensuring complete privacy it is perfect for sensitive recordings. Apart from writing journal entries AIKO easily converts speech to text from meetings, lectures, phone calls and more.

I’ve been surprised how often it is useful and enjoyable to be able to refer back to things in my journal. I used to post things to Twitter and Facebook but I no longer bother with these platfoms now that they are infected with untruths, scammers, misinformation and far worse.

Does it all matter in the grand scheme of things? Probably not, but for me at least a journal makes some sense of the passing time and stops memories and events just becoming an impenetrable fog. There is no doubt, based on my experience, that the value of a written and searchable record rises as time passes. Initially it can feel like a chore but after a while I’ve come to value these records more and more.

Ask yourself the question, what did you do on the 23rd October 2014? If you have no idea, which I wouldn’t have without my journal, maybe a brief written record would have made that day just a little more valued, we only have so many of them!

Why I’ve Chosen M-Disc for Long-Term Data Archiving

Verbatim BD-R 25GB

After researching different storage solutions, I have decided to invest in an M-Disc compatible burner and reader, along with some M-Discs. My primary goal is to securely archive important digital material for the long term, prioritising reliability over speed or convenience.

Why M-Disc?

M-Disc (Millenniata Disc) is a unique optical storage medium designed specifically for long-term data preservation. Unlike traditional DVDs or Blu-rays, which degrade over time due to the organic dyes used in their recording layers, M-Discs utilise a rock-like inorganic material that is resistant to environmental factors such as light, humidity, and temperature fluctuations. This makes them ideal for archiving important files.

While standard DVDs have a lifespan of only 7-10 years before they may well start degrading, M-Discs are rated to last up to 1,000 years, ensuring that stored data remains intact for future generations. This remarkable longevity makes them a compelling option for anyone looking to preserve valuable digital assets.

My Use Case for M-Disc

I plan to transfer a significant amount of stored material onto M-Discs over time. One of the main drivers behind this decision is my current camera, which produces extremely large file sizes. Instead of consuming cloud storage (and paying for it over years) or overloading the SSD on my iMac, I can use M-Discs to maintain the original files in a safe and permanent format.

I have chosen Verbatim 25GB M-Discs for this project. Although M-Discs have slower write speeds compared to conventional discs, this is not a concern for me, as my primary focus is durability and data integrity rather than quick access. They are written once and that’s it.

Benefits of M-Disc Optical Media

M-Discs offer several advantages over traditional storage methods:

• Longevity: With a lifespan of up to 1,000 years, they far surpass the durability of standard DVDs and Blu-rays and of course flash drives.
• Data Integrity: The rock-like recording layer ensures that data remains intact, free from degradation.
• Universal Compatibility: M-Discs can be read on any standard DVD or Blu-ray drive, making data retrieval easy.
• Resistance to Environmental Factors: Unlike hard drives or flash storage, M-Discs are impervious to magnetic interference and electronic failures. Who knows when the next Carrington Event is going to hit Earth?

Ideal Applications for M-Disc

M-Disc technology is widely used across various fields where data preservation is critical, including:

• Archiving Personal and Family Histories: Perfect for safeguarding family photos, home videos, and important documents.
• Medical Records Storage: Ensures the long-term preservation of critical patient data.
• Legal and Government Documents: Provides a secure and reliable medium for sensitive records.
• Photography and Videography: A reliable solution for professionals and amateurs alike who wish to archive high-resolution images and videos.

Final Thoughts

M-Disc technology aligns perfectly with my archiving needs, offering a secure and long-lasting storage solution. By investing in an M-Disc burner and reader, I can systematically transfer and protect my digital files without relying on potentially costly cloud services or volatile storage media.

Much has been written on Reddit and elsewhere about whether the Verbatim M-Discs are “real” M-Discs or not, based on all sorts of criteria but in the end it is simply not possible to to get to the bottom of the “science” behind various opinions/claims being expressed. For my part I am happy to make my decision to use M-Discs to archive my material and to stick with it in the belief that these Verbatim M-Discs are at the very least going to last a good while and are stable, more stable than the alternatives. In the end all you can do is make the best decision you can, go with it, and hope!

Rightly or wrongly I’m confident that these will outlast CDs, DVDs, SSDs, HDs, SDs, SDHCs, USB Sticks and probably cloud storage too but time will, as always, reveal all. Cloud storage is all very well but there is going to be a huge volume of data “lost” when folks sadly pass away and nobody else has the keys to the castle.

At the time of writing I have invested in an ASUS BW-16D1H-U PRO External Blu-ray Writer which I bought from Amazon at a reduced price as the box was “damaged” but it looked fine to me and works perfectly. I suspect that someone bought it and changed his/her mind. This writer allows me to write M-Discs holding 4.7GB, 25GB or 50GB of data which is enough choice for me, I don’t need to be able to write the 100GB M-Discs. Interestingly at the moment the 25GB discs work out to be the more cost effective storage option. A pack of 5x25GB discs is £19.86 so about 15p per GB and a pack of 5x50GB discs is £63.53 so about 25p per GB, that’s a big difference but it’s not always easy to fill a 50GB disc.

For anyone looking for a robust and future-proof method to preserve data, I believe that M-Disc technolgy is well worth considering even though many may think of optical storage as being “old” technology. Reliability matters.

You can read lots more about M-Disc here.

My Sad Postach.io Story

This was what I wrote when I decided to move from Blogger to Postachio.io and what a performance it was. If only I’d know about Blot.im back then I could have saved myself a whole lot of time and missed out Pistachio.io entirely. At least I’ve still got all my material in Evernote.

Here’s what happened:

Well, I have finally made it. After a great deal of hassle I have managed to move the 1831 posts from my previous blogging platform, Blogger, onto a new platform, Postach.io. The beauty of this arrangement is that each and every one of those previous weblog postings now sits in my Evernote account where they are fully indexed and searchable so that I can actually easily access and make use of all the information that I have collected over the years.

I do not know, nobody can know, whether this new platform will stand the test of time but I found the idea of having everything under the one roof very attractive and it is for that reason that I have expended the time and energy to get to this point, I hope it will prove to be a wise decision.

If nothing else this move does at least mean that all this material is now under my own control and if changes are made to the blogging platform or if one day it is no more then I still have all the information safe and sound and easily accessed. If need be any or all of my notes can be used elsewhere and I am no longer subject to future decisions that the folks at Google might make about their blogging platform.

It has been difficult and tedious to move all the material from one platform to another. However, now being able to easily embed video, slideshows, still photos, downloadable PDFs, sound files etc. etc. using Evernote and to publish this material simply by applying the tag “published” to the Evernote note will be a huge benefit and the work and frustration that has been involved will soon be forgotten.

In terms of the process I started with a Blogger weblog which I had to export as a single file and then import that into a temporary Wordpress blog. A Python script I got hold of would accept a Wordpress export file as an input. The script would not accept a Blogger export which was why this intermediate step was necessary. Having generated a Wordpress export file this was processed by the Python script and a number of .enex (Evernote Export) files were generated by the script. These files could then be imported into Evernote generating individual notes, each one representing an individual post on the previous weblog.

The story did not end there, many of my original posts had embedded images, videos etc. and all these had to be regenerated. This doesn’t sound too bad but I was dealing with over 1800 individual posts so it has been quite a task.

From there it has been a matter of checking things and tidying them up, this whole process has thrown up a number of deficiencies with the Postach.io service which I am hoping over time will be addressed. Bear in mind that I have no knowledge or skill in writing HTML and I cannot therefore make changes to a style sheet to change my Postach.io template without running the risk of wrecking it, there will be many many people in the same position. Here is a checklist of just a few of the issues that I hope will be resolved quickly, as these issues are remedied I will tick them off and this post will be updated, as if by magic :-)

1. A serious problem I encountered was that the “force sync” button on the Postach.io website was resulting in ALL my weblog postings being deleted which was a disaster for me. I would urge great caution in using this button and I in fact am now terrified to go near it. I understand that this is going to be looked at.
2. There are regular very significant delays in between publishing a note and it actually appearing on the weblog. Sometimes this can be many hours and this is the result of “queue problems” at the Postach.io server end of things. Sometimes the queue is “flushed” and posts then have to be re-edited and the sync process run again. This needs to be resolved as a matter of urgency.
3. Currently it is not possible to search a Postach.io weblog. This is a huge deficiency as it is impossible for a weblog visitor to search for information. It used to be possible to add a Custom Google Search to the weblog but at the time of writing this is not possible, the facility to add a custom search is no longer available.
4. Checklists generated in an Evernote note do not currently appear as such on the connected Postach.io weblog which would potentially be very useful, as things stand a checklist is simply converted to individual paragraphs.
5. The available navigation is very basic and some sort of calendar or “blog archive” option is badly needed. As things stand, certainly on the template I am using, the only available navigation option is “older posts” or “newer posts” and with almost 2000 posts that is not adequate. My postings go back to at least 2008 and scrolling back page by page is just a non-starter.
6. When posts are tagged selecting an item from the tag cloud does not bring up all the posts. If for example you have 25 posts tagged “Vacation” and you have the website set to display 10 posts per page when you select the tag “Vacation” ten posts will be listed. That sounds fine but the option to view the remaining unlisted 15 tagged posts is not available, there is no “previous posts” or “more posts” option. This makes tagging posts largely pointless because you can only pull up and display a limited number of them.
7. There is an issue with deleting posts. Sometimes if you delete a post from your Evernote notebook with the intention of the corresponding post being deleted from your weblog what you expect to happen will not always happen. I have had a situation whereby a deleted note does NOT result in the posting being deleted which can be very annoying. Bear in mind if you post something, you may not be certain of being able to subsequently remove it! This has been identified as an issue according to the Postach.io weblog and apparently the problem has been fixed but I have experienced this problem since the apparent fix. One option might be the “force sync” button but beware, see (1) above.
8. RSS feed issue. Clicking on the RSS feed button, at least on the template I am using, does not deliver a working RSS feed but simply opens the URL of the weblog itself. I believe from a little research that what is required is to add “/feed.xml” (minus the quotes) to the end of the link provided by the RSS button. This system has great promise, which is why I have chosen to move over to it but as it stands I think it runs the risk of being looked at by people and it being rejected because of the fact that some basic tools are missing. ANY weblog must be capable of being searched and navigated easily “out of the box” without specialist knowledge of how to hack a page of HTML, that’s my view at any rate.