Comment by themodelplumber | Hacker News Reader

Comment by themodelplumber | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

themodelplumber

He's big on printouts for emergency backup.

OSC was, too, I think, after he lost a bunch of writing.

The refrigerator is an interesting location. It almost brings to mind the symbolism of the act/location itself, in the "why not just a cool fire safe, I mean look at your bulging wallet" sense. The guy had stainless steel interior doors custom designed for his home library.

So, using a fridge seems kinda irrational in various ways. Maybe unless you're a big _Crystal Skull_ fan.

I wonder what other authors have done along these lines. Do they save only the current manuscript, some subset of papers representing achievements, or whole pallets, etc. I mean, certainly a pallet is practically nothing, if it provides peace of mind, backs up lots of good stuff, and takes up less floor space than the golf cart?

I printed out my life timeline with major events and things once, just to have something of a history around in case of a fire, or fire and my screaming death. It felt absolutely ridiculous to print it out and store it, and I really hoped nobody found the document while cleaning out the fire-proof thingy.

But while packing it away, I got to wondering about a reasonable upper bound of storage for people who write a lot of good stuff, published or not.

There is a scene in 100 years of solitude[0] where a background character (the butcher? Or baker?) dies, and while in his house they find crates and crates filled with thousands of sheets of papers, all covererd in handwriting. I think they don't even check what it is, if it's a journal or something else. They move on.

Kinda stuck with me.

Also, don't know why, but this makes me think of filmmakers using salt mines to store film negatives! [1]

[0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Hundred_Years_of_Solitud... [1]:https://www.agweb.com/news/business/technology/hidden-underg...

I don't remember this specific scene, but I want to give a shout-out for this book. It was an incredible experience reading it for the first time and it's filled to the brink with scenes that just stuck with me and caused a lasting impression.

It's not the easiest read, but imo it's not a tough one either like e.g. Proust or Moby Dick. I devoured it in no time and just can't recommend it enough.

When I had my family trust notarized the lawyer recommended keeping a copy in the freezer as it's the most likely place in the house to survive a house fire.

As someone that just lost everything I own to fire I think this is a bad idea. The fire is a problem, certainly, but a secondary problem that killed all my paperwork was the fire service putting out the fire. That high pressure water is getting into literally everything, even things that seem like they are totally and fully water resistant.

Sorry that happened to you.

I have a hard time believing that the freezer would be better than a small fire safe for that purpose. The freezer has plastic seals that would melt, letting the heat in. All the frozen food/ice freezer would melt making for water damage.

...I mean, presumably you put it in a Ziploc bag first...

Takeaway food container. Bit of tape around the lip.

Yep, I agree, I didn't take the advice and I bought a fire safe instead.

Just FYI, they’re not really all that effective against fire outside of very narrow parameters. If you have one, consider placing it in places that tend to survive house fires, i.e., bottom corners or the structure, away from the kitchen and electrical or combustibles, preferably not below grade where the fire fighting water will flow.

In pre-home-computer days, I heard stories about writers keeping important working documents in the refrigerator. They were generally people for whom a safe would be priced out of reach.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com