Ask Slashdot: Easiest Way To Consolidate Household Media? 272
First time accepted submitter Lordfly writes "The wife and I have started looking to buy a house. In the spirit of that, I've been giving away books, CDs, and DVDs to 'downsize' the pile of crap I'll have to lug around when we do find the right place. That got me thinking about digital files. I'm perfectly okay with giving up (most) books, CDs, and DVD cases. The only music I buy are MP3s anyway, and we stream most everything else if we wanted to watch a show or movie. That being said, I have a desktop, my wife has an old Macbook, we both have tablets, and I also have an Android smartphone. I'd like to set up something on an extra Windows box shoved in a closet that lets me dump every digital file we have (photos, music, ebooks, movies) and then doles it out as necessary to all of our devices. Unfortunately my best computer geek days are likely behind me (photography and cooking have consumed me since), so while I CAN schlep around a command line, I've lost most of my knowledge, so go easy on the 'just apt-get FubarPackageInstaller.gzip and rd -m Arglebargle' stuff. Something easy enough for my wife to use would be a major plus. So: What's the best way to make your own personal 'cloud'?"
An ultimately simple concept... (Score:5, Insightful)
...you just have a fileshare. Create two if you want to be fancy. One is read only and is a media horde and the other is a scratch and play area that everyone in the house can use.
Use any tech you want. Use any OS you want.
Just create two samba shares and have at it.
Legality? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Legality? (Score:4, Insightful)
Even with a receipt, if he gives or sells a DVD then he gives up the license for that movie. He could give/sell the boxes away and simply keep the original discs inside a tower like you get when buying 100's of blank discs. That way he would still be legal and still own the licenses but cut on the space required for them.
Another idea: apart from those stupid printed-directly-on-cardboard boxes, most DVDs come in plastic boxes so he could keep the printed sleeves in a binder and the discs in a tower.
Re:Legality? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why should he have to? "Innocent until proven guilty" should still apply until the copyright mafias completely buy out the government.
Wrong priorities (Score:2, Insightful)
What you NEED to be spending your time on is finding out exactly how much this will cost! How much in welcome tax, municipal tax, school tax, water tax, insurance, inspectors and whatever other creative ways we invent to suck money out of people's wallets.
If you are renting, what's wring with your place? Don't you realize that home "ownership" makes little sense these days? What if you lose your job? What if you want to move on a moment's notice? What if repairs need to be done?
You are on your own when you "own", and you probably have no real idea of the real costs of that.
Real estate hasn't made sense for the individual for a long time. The whole idea of "owning" was based on the idea of life-long commitment to one career at one employer in one place. That was true for my Dad's generation in the 1960s.
Are you buying a new house? You realize how utterly cheaply they are made these days? Particle board and glue instead of real wood, etc.
Some things are better these days, but structurally? No way.
So forget your "household media" and concentrate on the HOUSEHOLD itself.
Let me know after you buy if what I said makes sense or not.
Re:An ultimately simple concept... (Score:5, Insightful)