Let's Get Small

[elfs]

I spent the weekend transferring much of my music from the relatively inaccessible format of archival DVDs to one of those new USB-powered portable hard drives (Western Digital, still the most reliable and useable, despite WD Customer Service's developing reputation for being actively hostile to Linux users), and it struck me how odd it is that my entire music collection, almost 2500 albums (not counting the 600 or so vinyls I have that I haven't encoded yet) all fits on the damn thing.

It's kinda humbling to realize that a lifetime of work, from my first record album (the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever) to my latest purchase (Dave Matthew's Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King), fits in a little box in the palm of my hand. I mean, that's it? That's the entirety of my music collecting life?

And then you realize that it holds almost eight months of music, nonstop, 24 hours a day. And that, in its own way, is equally startling.

I used to scoff at the Eganesque post-human vision of a fully conscious and humane awareness fitting into something the size of a period at the end of this sentence. But then you appreciate how walls and walls of vinyl, eight-track, analog cassette, and compact discs have all been stored down in a little red box the size of a pocket notebook and think, y'know, maybe it is possible.

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

Trouble with artificial intelligence is that we cannot really define what real intelligence is, thus modeling it is very difficult.

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

Can you share with us your choice of encoding software, music format, etc.? I've toyed with the idea of archiving all of my music, but haven't settled on a particular scheme.

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's anything special. For CDs I just use GRip and default Lame settings. For vinyl, I use an old-school Tandy linear turntable with adjustable speed dial (necessary because vinyls can have different resistance characteristics to the needle), a 1980's era Radio Shack pre-amp, and SoundBlaster as my intake.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

The last few versions of GRip are barfing on me. They read the CD, and then erase all of the tracks that they just read. Or erases the info and won't let me edit it.

Which makes me very sad. I love GRip. It used to be my exclusive ripping tool. Nothing else comes close, even now.

[slfisher.livejournal.com]

Are you planning to see Dave at the Gorge?