crankyuser

Hard drives: -2, Wunderkammer: 1

After a lifetime of relative hardware bliss, I recently had two hard drives crash on me -- one at work, one at home. Both were physical errors, and the data unrecoverable. Fortunately at work everything is under source control, so I only lost a couple of days of work. Fortunately at home I had only recently started using a loaner laptop, so I only lost a month of chat logs, browser history, sent email, to do lists...sigh. The to do list for this site was fortunately saved here.

I recently read an article by one of the founders of BoingBoing, who was discussing how his blog was his external brain, easily categorized for future reference. Since I didn't blog it, I can't find it anymore. But Julian Dibbell describes something similar:

A Web log really, then, is a Wunderkammer. That is to say, the genealogy of Web logs points not to the world of letters but to the early history of museums -- to the "cabinet of wonders," or Wunderkammer, that marked the scientific landscape of Renaissance modernity: a random collection of strange, compelling objects, typically compiled and owned by a learned, well-off gentleman. A set of ostrich feathers, a few rare shells, a South Pacific coral carving, a mummified mermaid -- the Wunderkammer mingled fact and legend promiscuously, reflecting European civilization’s dazed and wondering attempts to assimilate the glut of physical data that science and exploration were then unleashing.

I was finally compelled to clean out old email for six hours, and rethink how I do things. Crankyuser email is POP3, and I'd been leaving copies on the server in the hopes that I could access my email from anywhere. It's recently been pointed out that this is utterly stupid, and pushing POP3 past what it's meant to do. I turned off this option, so now all my email is stored locally whenever I ask it to check the server. When elsewhere, I can check new mail via Hotmail's POP3 association feature. This means that I can't look up any old email for reference, but that's just more reason to use the Wunderkammer.

Or I could just Gmail exclusively. Thus far I'm using it for conversations that I know will be long and threaded, but like this feature so much I'm considering using it as my sole account.

I have some philosophical issues with using my own email vs. using Gmail. With the former I have total control but total liability; it's up to me to back things up. With the latter I have to worry about being at someone else's mercy; nothing is for free.

I dreamed up a crazy archiving scheme involving cheap dvd drives and imaging my machine nightly, but for now will settle with cleaning out my secondary hard drive and using it for storage, since that is free. At least until it dies!

Following is some excerpted IM discussion on email archiving.

crankyuser: question of the week: how do you sort/archive email?
AcKSiON: i wish i did... i don't do it very well. i just have a big ass inbox, and a couple folders for the important stuff
crankyuser: i am in the process of archving everything since 1999
AcKSiON: thats a tall order..
crankyuser: took me 3 hours to get my current inbox down to 175
AcKSiON: one of the reasons i use the big inbox is cuz i can sort by name and get what i want..once i start putting things in folders, it slips out of mind
crankyuser: it's good and bad, because you can prioritize
AcKSiON: i have very poor organization skills...
crankyuser: we're both information architects!
AcKSiON: hehe, its all mapped in my head and its the fastest way for me to access information
crankyuser: i'm more worried about archiving it in way that will make sense in 20 years
AcKSiON: i duno, are you going for completeness ?
crankyuser: sort of.
AcKSiON: i'm just waiting for a google appliance for email...
crankyuser: um, you mean gmail?
AcKSiON: yeah.. :)
AcKSiON: i think its meaningless unless you maintain some association with it...and if you're trying to archive 20 years of conversations, i think you're beyond the scope of research in the field..
crankyuser: hahah
AcKSiON: now that u mention it, it'd probably be useful to maintain some metadata about a conversation...
crankyuser: evolution of thought
AcKSiON: the way i work, i can cleanly separate conversations by people...so that's how i'd break it down... evolution of a relationship
crankyuser: by people?
AcKSiON: yeah...it'd be too much to work to really separate all the conversations into different bins
crankyuser: so you just sort by person?
right now i'm finding that filing is a lot easier when you do it by person
AcKSiON: thats my usual process... if i'm looking for info, i sort by people, then look at the subjects
crankyuser: i see

Brian: question of the week: how do you sort/archive email?
JadeCloud: on gmail or in general?
Brian: general, but now gmail also. because i find that gmail basically does what i do by hand...delete all but the last email, assuming the entire thread is in each one
JadeCloud: at home everything goes to my inbox, and then I sort them manually. stuff in inbox I haven't replied to or haven't dealt with. at work I sort to all of the aliases I'm on, keep only things I haven't dealt with in my inbox, and try to keep that number to a minimum
JadeCloud: ah, I do that too, but only if there is space issues.
Brian: once you deal with it what do you do?
Brian: at home is pop3?
JadeCloud: I sort them to the appropriate category--if it doesn't fit then it goes to "junk"
JadeCloud: imap at home
Brian: i do the alias thing too, only all the top level stuff goes to root
Brian: via mac?
Brian: phpwebhosting only has pop3
JadeCloud: yeah
JadeCloud: I like imap
Brian: does all your sent email stay in one giant folder?
JadeCloud: mac.com has a good web interface as well
JadeCloud: it does.
Brian: hm, maybe i could do my own imap setup on phpwebhosting
JadeCloud: if it gets too heavy to access I sometimes sort to a secondary folder
Brian: how do you mean?
JadeCloud: like "old sent"
Brian: oic
JadeCloud: old sent contains almost 20k messages.
Brian: wow
JadeCloud: sent contains less than 1000, usually
JadeCloud: well, I have been working at the same place for a while :)
Brian: so everytime you respond to an email that's in root, you then file it away?
JadeCloud: yep. unless it is an invite or a reminder or something. if it is work related it goes into TODO, if it is not it goes into NOT WORK
JadeCloud: when those are dealt with then they are usually filed to junk
JadeCloud: or the appropriate category :)
Brian: you're talking about at home, yes?
Brian: i am going to try this "zeroing your inbox" approach
Brian: and categorize and set up rules
Brian: it's a lot easier at work, where everyone's in an address book
JadeCloud: no..this is at work. at home I'm a lot less strict with filing. there is a "storage" folder, w/'consume' 'food' 'from work' 'house' 'learn' 'poetry' 'software' 'visit' 'watch' and a general todo folder
JadeCloud: do you keep most of your messages in your inbox right now? I don't know how people can stand that.
Brian: it's easier to sort
Brian: rather than digging through folders
JadeCloud: but then you have to sort through a lot more.
JadeCloud: and searching goes across folders, anyway.
Brian: true
Brian: right now i have: contacts, friends, jobs, resources, spam?
JadeCloud: I guess in a way I've conditioned myself at work--I often send myself emails containing todo items, so my inbox is my todo/reply list.
Brian: from my cmu days in my archive folders i have: bvw, classes, commerce, contacts, cranky, design, email test, evidence, fall00, insurance, jobs, majestic, molly, pebbles, scient
Brian: that needs a lot of reorganization...
Brian: i keep a text file but that's not nearly as safe
JadeCloud: ah..yeah, all of my cmu email lives in giant txt files on a burned cd.
JadeCloud: in no particular category (more just to satisfy pack rat tendency)
Brian: same here
Brian: i should probably just offload that stuff
JadeCloud: yeah. just let it go. :)
Brian: it's so difficult! arrr
Brian: i hate losing data
JadeCloud: i love cleaning up email/hard drive space. it's like wiping my memory
JadeCloud: very cathartic
Brian: and am paranoid about cd longevity
Brian: but two hdd's died on my recently
Brian: so.
Brian: i thought you didn't clean out emails?
JadeCloud: not at work, but at home I do
JadeCloud: i'm paranoid about cd/hd robustness, but not enough to care, since I figure that if I do lose it, I won't miss it since i probably won't remember what I lost.
Brian: i suppose
JadeCloud: hal9000 syndrome :)
Brian: it's more the thought of losing something
Brian: when i'm old this will be my scrapbook
Brian: searchable via google :)
JadeCloud: hehehe
JadeCloud: different philosophies. :)
Brian: i'm just too anal
JadeCloud: do you feel bad when you lose data?
Brian: sometimes
Brian: i mean, it's happened twice recently
Brian: losing chat logs, emails
JadeCloud: ah...icq doesn't seem to keep chatlogs for me anymore
JadeCloud: how did you lose email?
Brian: i have a gap between 2001 and 2002
Brian: so i was on crankyuser email
Brian: must've been something lost when changing computers
Brian: i'm throwing all this stuff under "friends" and hoping that i don't have to go through and clean them out later
Brian: rather than cleaning them out NOW
Brian: sigh
JadeCloud: eh, you won't need it. :)
Brian: don't need what
JadeCloud: you've inspired me and I've been cleaning out my inbox
JadeCloud: the gap
Brian: yeah
Brian: i'm stuck here sorting rather than say, doing laundry
Brian: arrr
Brian: so are you just cleaning, or having new sorting methods?
JadeCloud: just cleaning.
JadeCloud: I dont' really care about home email
Brian: i try to only use work email for work related stuff
Brian: home email for everthing else
Brian: crankyuser and not hotmail or gmail
Brian: not sure what to do with gmail yet
JadeCloud: yeah..gmail is too new for me to trust so far, but I'm sure I'll move to it at some point since my mac.com keeps running out of space
Brian: i keep thinking big picture
Brian: http://radiofreeblogistan.com/2003/07/21/robbs_law.html
Brian: applies to email too
Brian: i'm going to be some crazy security paranoid hermit one day
JadeCloud: yeah. I just don't care enough for home stuff, but yeah, that's why our indy project has a separate webserver
Brian: i think having a friends folder that i move stuff to after replying will help me keep straight what i've replied to, rather than relying on the "replied to" flags, which don't follow the emails in the psts
Brian: who runs that?
Brian: maybe i should just be forwarding hotmail to crankyuser rather than maintaining two addresses
JadeCloud: midphase.com :)
Brian: oh right.
JadeCloud: do you get a lot of real email in your hotmail acct?
Brian: from real people? yes. not as much as crankyuser though
Brian: most people know to use that
Brian: some people find my hotmail address or haven't updated, though
Brian: also alumni forwards there
JadeCloud: ah, you shoudl just phase it out. :)
Brian: i still need it for my ms passport though
Brian: also you can check your live buddylist via msn
Brian: it's neat
JadeCloud: ah..
JadeCloud: I like webicq. :)
Brian: yeah you WOULD
Brian: ;)
Brian: cleaning out hotmail now
Brian: then my junk suspects
Brian: then archiving
Brian: and i am DONE
Brian: i discovered yesterday that i could use hotmail to check other pop3 accts
Brian: so now i use that instead of phpwebhosting's shitty webmail service
Brian: just for checking
Brian: my home machine does all the archiving
JadeCloud: ah...a lot of mail clients do that.
JadeCloud: I just finished editing python scripts! productivity abounds
Brian: hoorah
JadeCloud: now if it works, then i'll be happy...
Brian: heh
Brian: break out the olde english
Brian: old email from dave:
hey brian,

this is a dumb question, but i thought you'd be good to ask. how do you change the cat litter? the one in our house STINKS! how often do you change everything, and how often do you just add litter to the top and stuff like that?

oh, and come to SF!
dave
JadeCloud: hehe. amusing.
Brian: i remember
Brian: like i had some magic cat cleaning power
JadeCloud: hehehe, ok. I'm done with the python and the 'puter. time for me to go do something nonputer
Brian: whew, cleaned out hotmail
Brian: WOO

June 18, 2004 09:33 AM