Our smoke detectors are linked too and it’s quite a racket if they go off if you test them. Still, we worried about people not hearing stand alone ones going off. Ours have sealed batteries with a supposed 10 year life.

The closest I’d come to your last question are:

My mother sometimes thinks of writing about life in a very rural borders part of Shropshire (England) from her birth in 1935. There are some sheets of A4 around somewhere and her efforts are probably saved on her PC but that’s as far as it goes.

My father (who has lent one or two cards to one or two others for books) has sometimes considered doing something with his collection of North Norfolk (Mostly West Runton and again England) post cards. That one has never got off the ground. I have expressed willingness to scan for him but would not understand what he wants to achieve. On the other hand, I suspect his ability to plan a proper project like that went a fair while ago. There is one relic from the last attempt, a digital “Dictaphone” that we got him as we felt it might help get ideas down but I don’t think it was used and there is no paperwork.