Unless you were born after the creation the Mosaic browser odds are you have old photos and VHS tapes that need to be digitized to be of any use to humanity.
Those without endless amounts of time and patience (or a scanner) should consider outsourcing the task to Scan Digital, a video and film conversion service based in California.
As a first step you ship them your old photos, videos and film reels. There’s $10 charge for two-way shipping (once paid you can print the UPS shipping labels).
Because these are one of kind objects they offer a service called “Essential Tracker,” so you can be sure your goods are safe during transit.
They’ll sort everything out and get to work. This includes cropping, color correcting and removing dust, blemishes and red eye (and, of course, the actual digitizing).
A week later they’ll mail back the originals along with DVDs that contain all your old memories. They’ll also create an online gallery, which makes it easy to share (and provides a back up in case you lose the DVDs).
Photos start at 48 cents (for a 300 dpi version). Videos (including VHS, mini DV and even Betamax) are $19.95 per cassette. And film transfer costs 28 cents per foot.
But, of course, being able to share that long lost footage of you in your college-era punk band on Facebook is priceless.