Archiving and Space Saving

Couldn’t decide if this should fall under History or Apple due to the nature of this project, so when in doubt, it goes into Potpourri! 
 
To save space and cut down on the clutter in my house (this year I really mean it), I managed to get Somara’s old Umax USB-based scanner working with Mac OS X 10.4 on my desktop. Not bad, it only cost me $49 for a Photoshop-based plug-in. How does that save space? Well, it cuts down on the clutter by having me scan all of your cards, photos and letters to me over the years. Then I can shred all the paper stuff like I do with my cashed checks and taxes older than seven years. I’m still keeping the photos though, I just have a more convenient means to call them up. Once I get them completed, I will probably store them on multiple drives for back up purposes. Then they will be archived to DVD-Rs too. The DVD-Rs will have to wait until I get everything completed by years since I am currently just scanning what I have found around my office. 
 
Don’t fret. Storage space is relatively cheap these days so your past correspondences are being preserved at 300 dpi, TIF-based files. They look fabulous and be quickly read in Preview or iPhoto.