Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/04/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]William. I've been saying this for years. I have a ton of digital files of papers my students have submitted. I moved them from floppy to CD about 8 years ago. There are quiet a few that, while the files are in great shape, there is no way to read them. The software used 10-15 years ago just doesn't exist anymore. The newer Mac's don't even have floppy drives (yes you can buy attachments). And at the current rate of change, I think your 50 year time frame will be more like 10 years. I did convert those files that were done in early versions of Word/Excel Appleworks/MSWorks to a later version of Office a few years back and made a new CD, but that took a lot of time. As others have posted, they have taken literally hundreds of thousands of digital photos. Are they going to be able to change them as old formats fall out of practice and new ones come into practice? (GIF to JPEG to...) Will they have the time to take new photos when all they are doing is converting file after file after file.... Do we save everything as text or raw data? As I've stated before, I think this age has the most information available to it than any other age, and in 50 years I think we well find it has the least information available to future historians than any other age. Lots of stuff storred but no way to access it. Maybe technology will solve this problem, too, but for the short run, watch out. Aram PS. Good thing I also have hard copies. But the ink???? > Date: Sat, 27 Apr 2002 20:42:54 -0500 > From: William Gower <w_gower@sympatico.ca> > Subject: RE: Vs: [Leica] Digital vs Film > Message-ID: <422141D3-5A49-11D6-A111-00050289F09A@sympatico.ca> > References: > <<large snip>> > > Are your great-great grandchildren going to be holding one of your > digital inkjet prints 100 years from now just because Epson or someone > like Henry Wilhelm says you should experience no significant fading > under proper storage conditions ? > > Do you expect that electronic manufacturers will continue to build > technology to support the CD and DVD formats 50 years from now, or are > they going to be the technological equivalent of the 8 track tape, 45 > RPM disk or wax cylinder recording ? > > Digital may be more efficient = more images. I'm thinking now that > digital = the potential for more images lost. > > My thoughts. I guess only time will tell. > > William - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html