I just don't log dives,why not?????

[Doc Harry]

I see this status more than I would anticipate.The main reason I log dives is because I have 7 wetsuits hanging on my wall and I dive both fresh and salt water.Just trying to remember how much weight to dive with what suit can be challenging.My question is why or why not log dives????

Keeping records about weighting with various configurations has nothing to do with logging dives. Two separate issues.

I kept a record of my dives because I was taking courses that required a certain minimum number of certain types of dives to take the courses. I am so far over these "minimums" now that it doesn't make any sense to log my dives anymore.

I do, however, keep records of weighting with various equipment configurations, but that is a separate issue that is unrelated to logging dives.

 

[TMHeimer]

A common misconception, but I agree, keeping information in digital form does require a commitment to forward migration of your data when standards change. For example, my writing is important to me, but I didn't just throw out the stuff that I wrote using WordStar in the early 1980s...

Content is content, and that is why you can and should keep important content as the world moves on. My dive logging software lets me export data as CSV files (comma separated variable format, which was readable in the 1980s and will always be readable in the future, as long as we still have computers). I can also use XML, UDCF (universal dive computer format), or even just print them out if I was really worried about the issue that you raised.

Yes, working with digital data does require learning some new practices, but we're divers and we are always learning, right? The only way that your data can be lost is if you go out of your way to lose it. Like, when you replace that 5-10 year old dive software, if you just throw out the data on the hard drive instead of hanging on to it...

Yes. Other than pen and paper, another way to save stuff is just print it out before the technology changes. I guess if you have 3,000 dives that's a lot of paper, but 300 not so much. I'm not one to trust stuff will always be there if it's electronic (I back up everything on my computer 2-3 times). Same thing happened with stereo stuff. Anyone know where I can buy a few good walkmans? Or a machine to get literally hundreds of audio cassettes (of my own playing) transferred onto an MP3 or somewhere modern?

 

[Tigerman]

You just need a casette player and an apropriate cable into your computer
That being said its one boooring job

 

[Darkforeboding]

I kept a log book from when I was certified in the 70's into the mid-80's in spite of losing it once and having to recreate it from memory. I chose a new log book poorly, filled it up quickly, then found I couldn't get new pages for it anywhere. Next I just used a notebook which promptly got wet and I found out that the ink that I thought was waterproof actually wasn't waterproof. Sometime in there I took another course and found out the instructor really didn't want to see my logbook and didn't care. Sometime after that I realized that I rarely ever looked at it myself. I probably have it somewhere in all the boxes from my last move, along with my old Jet-fins and a horse collar BC I used to use, but I don't have any urge to look for it.

DFB

 

[Stealth Mode]

This question was posed because I was curious as to what the reasons could be not to log dives besides the obvious,you people did not disappoint.I have enjoyed reading all of the responses including the ones that required aspirin for my hurt feelings,just kidding.Alot of the old school printed log sheets DO have a place for weight,as well as suit,vis,water temp etc.I actually dive with a computer,I have no beef with technology,however I will admit I write out my dive plan on my slate as well.I believe that it is a personal choice as to whether a person choses to log dives or not,again I was just trying to gain insight here......

 

[doctormike]

Yes. Other than pen and paper, another way to save stuff is just print it out before the technology changes. I guess if you have 3,000 dives that's a lot of paper, but 300 not so much. I'm not one to trust stuff will always be there if it's electronic (I back up everything on my computer 2-3 times). Same thing happened with stereo stuff. Anyone know where I can buy a few good walkmans? Or a machine to get literally hundreds of audio cassettes (of my own playing) transferred onto an MP3 or somewhere modern?

This works great, for video or audio...

 

[Nemrod]

I see this status more than I would anticipate.The main reason I log dives is because I have 7 wetsuits hanging on my wall and I dive both fresh and salt water.Just trying to remember how much weight to dive with what suit can be challenging.My question is why or why not log dives????

Because I do not want to and do not need to.

N

 

[flots am]

Can someone tell me what are the great dive logging softwares of 2014 that are effortless to use and work on every device

I use Uwatec SmartTrack.

It doesn't need to work on every computer. It only needs to work on mine.

 

[Darnold9999]

Don't log dives. Did for a while, but found no use for them.

With respect moving from one form of digital media to another is a pain - only things that are really important get transferred in my experience.

Waste of time to keep moving stuff from one media type to another, and the idea that digital media is somehow permenant is a very short term perspective. Most of this stuff will be unreadable in 50 years - ask an archivist and be prepared for an earfull. Standards change and what seems like a "permenant" standard is surprisingly short lived - from a longer term perspective. Just try reading some old backup tapes created more than 10 yeras ago for a server. Virtually impossible (I used to keep a whole shelf of old tape drives just for this purpose - as they got older they got less and less reliable and became more and more difficult to make work.)

I had lots of code written on punch cards that got tossed out with the trash rather than move to new media. Same with research papers and code written and stored on 8" floppies, 5.25" floppies, 3.5" floppies and now I have 20 years of work stored on a a stack of DVD's stored in a drawer somewhere. Can't be bothered to move it to a cloud and it won't be too much longer before they will be unreadable.

In almost 50 years of not moving files from old media to new have only rarely wished I had spent the time to move a specific file. Would rather be doing just about anything else.

 

[Tigerman]

Tapes is magnetic and not very resistant to being stored and this was known when people took up their use and reproducing them at certain intervals was recommended. CD/DVDs are much more robust in that regard if stored properly, but they are also expected to deteriorate with time and to need reproduction..