Cassettes – Acceptable in the 90s

Ever been given a cassette tape, that is, in the last 15 years? You know, actually some of you really don’t, but cassettes used to be the audio format of choice. The old school MP3. But once CDs hit the market, cassettes were done for. They were bulky, had poor sound and you had to fast forward and rewind blindly until you where at the place you wanted on the tape.

But I bet you could find a whole pile at your masjid. Or some random brother gave you one and told you it was a great lecture you should listen to. But come on, cassettes, really?

Regardless of how great the lecture is, the fact that it is on a cassette tape means no one will ever hear it again, at least not the youth.



Instead of just throwing them in the trash, what you can do is take the audio from the tapes and transfer them to a format that does not require a time machine just to listen to. There are a few options you have for transferring the audio.

Ion’s Tape 2 CD

This device from Ion lets you transfer your cassette tapes onto your computer as MP3s. You just pop in the tape and follow instructions. It also has features that let you add title and artist to the file. You still have to take the time to transfer each cassette, but it is a smooth way to transfer all the cassettes you have on to your computer. It is a bit pricey at $119.99.

Line in

Using the line in jack on your computer is a very inexpensive way to transfer audio form cassettes to MP3s. You just need a 3.5mm to 3.5mm/RCA cord that will connect your device (3.5mm/RCA) to your computer’s line in jack (I just discovered my computer does not have one, the old one does, bummer). And you’ll need some software that allows line in recordings. An open source (that usually means free) recording and editing software you can use is Audacity.

So once you have painstakingly transferred all those cassettes to your computer, then what to do about all those tapes. You may be able to find a recycling depot that is willing to take cassettes. Or just destroy them, they’re cassettes!

The MSA Prez Computer Crashes – Don’t Panic Enter the Cloud

Bismillahi Rahman ar-Raheem,

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa baraktuh,

Just image this scenario: the laptop of the MSA President (or head of any other dawah organization) crashes. The files cannot be recovered, there’s no backup computer and the repairs will cost hundreds (that’s a lot especially for one of those religious guys people think has no future outside the Masjid). So what is lost: email lists, event schedules documents and pictures? The data of the organization. Basically the whole organization has crashed along with the amir’s HP laptop. The dawah organization has to collect all that info and material again. Start from scratch and move along.

The Qadr of Allah is the Qadr of Allah, and part of belief in Qadr is taking the necessary actions that will benefit you in this life and the next. So remember to make dua because it is only Allah, subhanahu wa tala, who can protect your computer and you. Other ways that you can secure your important data is sharing the documents among a few computers. You can also buy an external hard drive, 1TB nowadays costs less than $200.
Enter the Cloud

For organizations like MSAs, the realm of cloud computing may be a good option to secure data. Here’s the gist of cloud computer.

You have files and applications. You need to put them somewhere so you can access them. So you put them on you hard drive. If you want to access those files or applications, you have to be at your computer where you can access the hard drive. If you want to use the files on another computer, you need to transfer them onto another hard drive. You could transfer them with a floppy disk (really old school), CD/DVD or USB jump drive.

With cloud computing you can store files and access whole applications directly through the internet. You don’t store them on your hard drive. They are store in massive data center (Google has lots of them). So if you want to access the files, you access them through online storage service. Even whole applications can be accessed through the cloud.

Here are some examples of cloud storage that Muslim organizations can use:

Adrive
ADrive is a popular online file hosting site which gives you a whopping 50GB of storage space, with a upload limit of 2GB. It’s a good bet if you want to back up a lot of documents. The 50GB is more than enough space and it’s really hard to actually get at 2GB in one file, baring audio and video of course. The layout is very simple and you can organize your files into folders. I wasn’t able to upload audio or video files, which makes this site meaningless for all those halaqas and events you have on file. It has two very annoying features: it asks you to verify if your human (CAPTCHA) every time you log in and when your in the process of uploading files it takes control you that instance of your browser, so have another one open just in case. All in all Adrive gives you a lot of space to work with and it can be a good place to store years and years of documents and pictures.

humyo
Humyo is a lot like Adrive, same layout, but looks a lot better (Adrive looked very 1990s). You only get 10GB of space and technically there is no files size limit. Just as the layout of humyo is very similar to Adrive, but when uploading files it will not take control of your browser. And it did not ask me to verify if I am of the human variety. Again I was not able to store audio or video files. Humyo is another good option if you want to store a lot of documents and pictures, but falls short of Adrive’s size.

File Dropper
The quickest way to backup files, no login, no registering, just upload and it gives you a URL for your file. That’s it. This comes in handy if you quickly need to back up a file or share. You can upload 5GB and you can make as many links as you want. Problem? It just stays there, and you have to remember the URL for each file. In theory someone could randomly type in your URL and there’s your masjid mailing list. Not your best bet for file storing.

Gmail
Yes Sheikh Google can also be used as a file host. Another quick and easy way to store files is to just email them to yourself or others in Gmail. Since Gmail gives you 7GB and counting, you can store your documents easily on Gmail. Of course the files can’t be very large, but you can store them none the less. Organize certain files into a folder and it’s your personal storage space.
With dawah organization performing a wide array of services and holding numerous events for the community, it is essential that they secure their information. You may not realize the importance of a certain file until it’s lost.

Cloud computing is more useful for small documents (word, excel, power point) that needs to be accessed on a regular basis. Things like registration forms, contact info, plans, etc can be stored in the cloud for easy access. You get a lot of space and you have access to other useful functions, such as sharing and collaboration.

But as for audio and video files it would be better just to go with an external hard drive. They are cheap (1TB around $200) and more secure than the cloud. Also you can make it your one stop shop for all your media files. Also cloud computing is not totally safe. Internet crime is rampant and someone could hack into your account and steal your files. And you’re using these site to backup your files. If their own server crashes, there go your files. They are not going to backup your backup.

With all these options available for your dawah organization all you need to do is make the commitment to back up your files. Of course it’s a bore and storing years and years of files will take a while to upload, but this will give your organization peace of mind and inshAllah protect it when things go wrong.

So follow the advice of the Messenger of Allah, ṣall Allahu ʿalayhi wa sallam, and tie your came! Start up loading!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu hu,

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