Uncle Roger's Notebooks of Daily Life


Monday, June 13, 2005

Tip: Audio Backups

If you're the sort that takes your CD's with you to listen at work or in the car, make a backup first and take the backup instead.

It is legal to make a backup copy of your audio CD's (heck, of any CD). If you do so and take the backup copy with you, then you won't be upset if it gets stolen, ruined by heat (a parked car gets hot!), scratched beyond recognition (or at least beyond readability) or otherwise damaged. You've still got your original and can make another copy for another seven cents.

It can be quite devestating to have a bunch of CD's stolen, especially if they were hard-to-find, rare, or otherwise special discs. I know this because it happened to me nearly ten years ago. I was working at Hewlett-Packard and had a stack on my desk to listen to throughout the day. Someone, overnight, took them all home with them.

Interestingly, they left the CD player, with one of the actual CD's still inside. Alas, some of these I still have yet to replace. Some of them are irreplaceable, truly. Here's the complete list (dug up from my ever-expanding hard drive):

Artist Album Status
Johnny Nitro and the Door Slammers Car Fixin' Blues Replaced
Johnny Nitro and the Door Slammers Drinkin' Triples 'till You're Seeing Double Replaced
Procol Harum The Early Years (Case only, no disc) Still have the CD, still don't have the proper case.
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon (Gold Disc) Getting by on the other two copies I have.
Govi Cuchama Not Yet Replaced
Govi Passion and Grace Not Yet Replaced
J. Geils Band Flashbacks Not Yet Replaced
Squeeze Singles Replaced
Ace of Base The Sign Replaced
Dr. John Ultimate Dr. John Not Yet Replaced
Dr. John Afterglow Not Yet Replaced
Proclaimers Sunshine on Leith So that's why I can't find that album! (Not Yet Replaced)
Beatles White Album (Early version in two separate Jewel Cases) Replaced (but with newer double-jewel-case version)
John Lee Hooker Chill Out Not Yet Replaced
Notting Hillbillies Missing...Presumed having a good time Replaced
Dire Straits Money for Nothing Now I know why I can't find all my Dire Straits albums! (Not Yet Replaced)
Dire Straits Telegraph Road Not Yet Replaced
Eric Clapton Unplugged Replaced
Eric Clapton From the Cradle Replaced
Lynyrd Skynyrd Skynyrd's Innyrds Not Yet Replaced
Elvis Costello/Brodsky Quartet The Juliet Letters Replaced
Paul Simon Graceland Replaced

Hmmm... It looks like I've got a bunch of shopping to do. In any case, had these been copies on CD-R, this would not have been an issue; I would have simply made a new copy of each.



Journal Description

My life is, to me, ripe with frequent challenges, occasional successes, spontaneous laughter, adequate tears, and enough *life* to last me a lifetime. To you, however, it surely seems most pedestrian. And therefore, I recycle the name I used previously and call this my Notebooks of Daily Life. Daily, because it's everyday in nature, ordinary. These conglomeration of events that are my life are of interest to me because I live it, perhaps mildly so to those who are touched by it, and could only be of perverse, morbid curiosity to anyone else. Yet, I offer them here nonetheless. Make of them what you will, and perhaps you can learn from my mistakes.

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