Whoah!

[altivo]

I've been wanting to find a way to back up all the stuff I've written on LJ since 2004, including the comments if possible. The only way I found to do it seemed to involve running Windows-only software, which as you can imagine didn't set well with me.

Well, now there's an answer. I saw tugrik mention it in his journal, so I went and gave it a try. Just go to http://www.ljbook.com and it's all explained there. The site gets some information from you to let it access your journal, and which elements you want backed up. Then it reads the entire thing, formats it, adds a table of contents and date headings, and creates a PDF file that you can then download. You do have to supply your LJ password, but if that worries you, just change the password to something else first, run the LJBook task, then change your password back.

The results are quite readable and printable, include all the comments by other users, and can even include all the graphics (though that makes the PDF file larger, so you might want to do it in smaller chunks.) You can specify the time period to be covered by each PDF file, and create multiple files as necessary.

I started by letting LJBook create a PDF for my journal from Jan. 1, 2006 through Dec. 31, 2007, since that was the default it offered. It took a while, but completed the task within the 12 minutes maximum allowed. Then it told me how many pages. OMG! That two year period takes up 2038 pages. Those are 8-1/2 x 11 inches, with a fairly small font. (You can specify other page sizes if you wish. In fact, if you use a 6x9 page size, you can have Lulu.com print and bind it as a book.)

I had no idea I had become so prolific. Of course, the comments by others do account for part of that, but still, it's huge. Then I went back and ran off 2004-2005, which was a bit more reasonable at just 656 pages...

The LJBook site provides this service for free. It appears that they will be displaying ads while the process runs, though I didn't see any actual advertising text. They also accept donations. It's a good service, have a look.

Comments

[drgnkiyo.livejournal.com]

I think that's the first time I've seen LaTeX actually be used for something. Kind of cool. LOL

But yeah.

I really need take a few days to move my old Xanga entries to my old LiveJournal account, since dragon_punk was basically my latter middle-school and high school life, minus my sophomore year which Xanga has.

Thanks for posting this!~ ^_^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

No prob. Let us know how it works for you.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

*ponders the icons* Hey aren't you that naughty dragon, I remember seeing those pictures :)

[drgnkiyo.livejournal.com]

The icon is compiled arts of Kitora's Faolan character. It's not me. My design is close but that's not me.

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

This looks kinda neat actually. Does it include images at all?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There's a check box option to include hi-res images. I left it unchecked, so I don't know how well it works. My PDF does include some small images, but none of the large photos. It was still 12 MB, which is enough to download over dialup. But I may try it again from work where the bandwidth is better, and chop things up into shorter time periods, like six months per volume.

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

Sweet.

I was tempted to try and come up with something myself as some good programming practice. But this would be a lot easier. :)

[goldenstallion.livejournal.com]

Dear rider.

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

MOUNT ME.

Uh, lemme rephrase that.

Go for a ride?

Uh, well never mind I guess.

Imp.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

I have a LOT of writing on LJ. I didn't realize how much until yesterday. If LJ were to go belly up, or become unusable due to policy stupidities as seemed likely this time last year, I might lose all that work. Sure some of it is drivel. But some is "deep thought" too.

So I'm looking at ways to save it all, with the commentary, outside of LJ itself. That's what I'm talking about. :)

Now about that ride, yes, I'd really like to. When?

How NOT to act presumptuous when asking questions...

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

Interesting... while I'm not going to presume what is valuable to you and what isn't, I'm curious to know why you-
A: Consider this LJ stuff "work"

&

B: What do you mean by "deep thought" stuff?

Re: How NOT to act presumptuous when asking questions...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Careful writing is always work. I check references, and check my syntax most of the time pretty carefully. I don't consider what I write here to be ephemera, for the most part. It's as serious as any diary.

A couple of examples of deeper thought, snagged without taking time to look real hard:

http://altivo.livejournal.com/4133.html

http://altivo.livejournal.com/11177.html

And a lighter reminiscence, but one worthy of any newspaper feature column:

http://altivo.livejournal.com/8056.html

Re: How NOT to describe yourself when trying to make conversation...

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

I do think the first to were near exceptional (Neil would've agreed with your thoughts on the first one), but I've no interest to preserve any of my LJ writings- I'm telling you this in case you see any you want to keep for whatever reason, I give you sole permission to duplicate anything on my LJ, provided it isn't used for monetary gain. Show it to anyone you want, just give me credit. I'm doing them to help me figure things out- it helps me to write out what I feel, as I communicate much better in written form than with my markedly lesser verbal skills. I've noticed I talk too fast, too uneven and sometimes too quietly... plus, I can't speak for long without weakening my vocal chords to the point my voice starts cracking. On top of all this, my emotions tend to show blatantly when I speak- if I'm excited I yell without meaning to. My speech can either be bumbling and awkward, or viciously sharp and blunt- so I rarely speak. Therefore, it's unlikely anyone will be finding an LJ voicepost any time soon ^_^

Re: How NOT to describe yourself when trying to make conversation...

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Like any other tasks that involve muscles, you have to improve your vocal abilities by exercising them. ;p

Re: How NOT to describe yourself when trying to make conversation...

[gabrielhorse.livejournal.com]

A tiny, selfish part of my mind says, "But I don't wanna!"... however, the rest of me agrees with you.

[atomicat.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Thanks for the heads-up on this one.

[bariki.livejournal.com]

I tried this service with hi-res images turned on and over the whole 5 years of my journal - it worked perfectly. Thanks for the link. ^)^

Previously it'd used a Perl-based backup method (lj2me) which created HTML files for each day/month/year and supports comments/images, but it was fiddly and used LJ's Lynx interface which sometimes borked tables and embedded graphics.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hmph. You got it to include graphics? I tried, but got nothing different. Even the photos from my own LJ gallery are merely appearing as html links.

[bariki.livejournal.com]

Hmm, dunno. It just worked. >:)

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

How cool is that, I must have a look, for some reason I want to save my babblings for posterity...cat knows why.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

You are very prolific ^.^ Lots of proper English and good writing that if we all read more of your posts we'd be much better with our literacy ;)