[Dr. Zzyzx]

Ahhh, this soothes some of my angst about not owning a digital camera yet.

[Bikers4Bush]

How hard is it to burn images to a CD for crying out loud?

[Dr. Zzyzx]

Oops, don't even know Katie Hafner. Don't know why I had to write her name over and over.

[pabianice]

Duh. CD. Good for 100+ years. Non-magnetic.

[Fierce Allegiance]

obsolete computers, stacks of Zip disks and 3 1/2-inch diskettes, even the larger 5-inch floppy disks from the 1980s.

I used to lug punch cards for my dad when he rented cpu time on the weekends. I was very happy when the 11" floppy's came along. My dad still has a bunch in his cellar, but no machine to use them on.

[reagandemo]

Oh I get it. Let's go back to using tin type. Boy those images will last and last and last! CD's will last as long as you protect them. Also I bet just like 8mm that there will be ways of reading them much longer than any of us will be around. Remember the marketing will drive this. Where there is a way to make a profit there is a way.

[Capriole]

I have a ca. 1981 ATT PC which still runs Wordstar very nicely. Am trying to figure out how on EARTH to get some of the data off the hard drive and onto my regular computer. My sixteen-year-old daughter's baby journal is on there and it's precious. So are the early novels I wrote but never published, which are now suddenly in demand. If anyone has any suggestions short of retyping, please let me know!

[Revolting cat!]

CDs lasting 100 years? Sez who? I've read reports of music CDs deteriorating after several years. And don't tell me "oh, those are the early CDs. the technology is much improved now", just show me a 100 year old CD that plays and I'll show you a 100 year old wax cylinder that still plays!

Arrogant fools in every age think everything is better than everything that preceeded it.

[xander]

All of this stuff will last as long as it takes to get to the next big breakthrough in digital storage. I'm already transferring my CD's to DVD's, my VHS too. All my images are stored on both CD and DVD and an external hard drive and internal drive. Objective is just like the market, don't put them all in one place. Actually, it's an advantage over the old film negs since I can make unaltered copies without degradation and store them in numerous places.

[APFel]

The emulation and vaporware scene to the rescue! There are quite a few folks who are interested in preserving old media (not just old games). For archiving that old C64 or Apple II collection, try buying a Catweasel floppy disk controller for your PC. It'll read all of the old media from almost any common home computer ever made, from the Apple II, Atari computers, Amiga, etc.

I bought one and backed up 300 C64 disks as well as my Amiga collection. Great little product.

http://www.jschoenfeld.com/indexe.htm

(I am not financially interested in this product, I am just a satisfied customer and a computer geek).

APf

[Ignatz]

the Library of Congress has spent the past several years forming committees and issuing reports

ROTFL! Gotta keep that grant money coming in, fellas!

Or try this one:
the Library of Congress [insert Go'vt agency of your choice here] has spent the past several years forming committees and issuing reports

[TomGuy]

"Whereas to take a traditional photograph and just put it in a shoe box doesn't take any work."

Uhhhh...flood, fire, tornado, hurricane. That photograph is extremely vunerable to the elements.

... individual PC owners struggle in private.

GAG! Give them some credit!!!

The life span of data on a CD recorded with a CD burner, for instance, could be as little as five years if it is exposed to extremes in humidity or temperature.

In high humidity and high temps, a photo can have an even shorter shelf life.

Ok, here's a solution:




CD-R drives are dirt cheap, free to $20 and the disks are maybe a quarter in quantities.

DVD-R drives are getting dirt cheap, $50 to $150 and the disks (holding up to 4.7 GIG) are ander a buck.

Uploading digital data to newer media isn't that difficult, Pete. I can upload from a 3.5" floppy, to the CD-R or to the DVD-R. It ain't that difficult, Pete. It really ain't.


Pete Hite seems to be looking for a problem where none really exists.

[Paco]

Legacy data is a BIG issue. The problem isn't really about storage, it's about file format compatibility. While JPG, TIFF, BMP may be accepted formats today, what about tomorrow?

You can always burn images to CD but the viewing sofware will change and eventually (sooner than you think) JPG, TIFF, BMP will not be standard formats. What do you do then? Convert your thousands and thousands of images to the new format? Lots of luck. I deal with this issue every day in my business. Engineering documents that have been created over the past 20 years need to be accessed today and the cost of converting them to current file formats is VERY EXPENSIVE.

Rule of thumb, make sure you have a hard copy of everything you want to save.

[citizen]

Kodac's revenge?

[Travis McGee]

Wut yoo sed.

[Semi Civil Servant]

Ahhh, this soothes some of my angst about not owning a digital camera yet.

I can make a print from the negative of a picture my parents took in the 50's. If I had a negative from 1900 or before, I could make a print of it as well. Good luck to those trying to make prints off of a floppy or CD in 2004.

I'm in the process of "going digital", but I will make semi-archival prints of everything I think is worth saving.

[FreeReign]

Have a rotational backup to a series of CD's.

Rotate in new CD replacements every several years.

Always convert to the latest format.

[VOA]

bump

[rabidralph]

Print your images, line them up on a wall or bulletin board and then shoot them on motion picture film. Transfer the film to videotape as a backup and leave the tail end of the tape out.

[R. Scott]

I sure would like to be able to retrieve my collage work from my old 5” floppies – done on a Commodore. The trusty Commodore died, and with it the ability to read the disks.

[Revolting cat!]