Forward into the past
I've been shopping for digital cameras. Finally, the SLR's are getting to a price that doesn't make me feel like I need the GNP of a small European principality in order to buy one. And then I remembered the nightmare.
The nightmare centers upon all the floppy disks I have sitting at home in closets - disks with files on them that I can no longer read due to either equipment obsolescence, disk failure, or software obsolescence. I have word processing files from a Commodore 64 computer (using PaperClip software). My C64 was given away years ago. From my PC days, I have desktop publishing files from a no-name publisher that have pithy comments that I printed and stapled around my classroom ("Trying is not doing - just try to pick up a pencil"). I have boxes of games that no longer run on any PC. These things are from only 10 or so years ago.
Then the nightmare goes something like this - fast forward a mere 10 years from now. What am I going to do with these gigabytes of digital photos? Will I even be able to read them? Will they have been destroyed in a hard disk crash, and my DVD backup also failed due to a bad dye layer?
Years ago, I was a professional photographer - so yes, I realize that printed photographs also degrade. But not in 10 years. Not due to the electronic whims of a storage medium gone bad. Almost everyone I know stores photos in JPG format - and frankly, it really isn't all that great due to its compression algorithm that tosses out information it feels it doesn't need. I can certainly see how a better format may become all the rage - and then I'd have to spend untold hours (yes, this is also part of my nightmare) converting all my JPG's into the newer, slicker and better format. I've already found myself at a crossroads between MP3 and MP4 sound files.
Maybe it is such nightmares that keep me looking to the past - wandering aimlessly through antique stores and fingering the ancient photos, furniture and knick-knacks. These things are time machines - tangible connections with the past from which they emerged. All my digital photos won't be touched until I print them out on an overpriced printer on overpriced photo paper...and then, the inks are only good for a few years. (Did I hear you say dye sublimation? Where's that GNP of that small European principality when you need it...)
What's interesting about my nightmare is that it continues during the day. Every day. Even now. It is screaming its message to me even as I type this. And I want to turn around and run.
The nightmare centers upon all the floppy disks I have sitting at home in closets - disks with files on them that I can no longer read due to either equipment obsolescence, disk failure, or software obsolescence. I have word processing files from a Commodore 64 computer (using PaperClip software). My C64 was given away years ago. From my PC days, I have desktop publishing files from a no-name publisher that have pithy comments that I printed and stapled around my classroom ("Trying is not doing - just try to pick up a pencil"). I have boxes of games that no longer run on any PC. These things are from only 10 or so years ago.
Then the nightmare goes something like this - fast forward a mere 10 years from now. What am I going to do with these gigabytes of digital photos? Will I even be able to read them? Will they have been destroyed in a hard disk crash, and my DVD backup also failed due to a bad dye layer?
Years ago, I was a professional photographer - so yes, I realize that printed photographs also degrade. But not in 10 years. Not due to the electronic whims of a storage medium gone bad. Almost everyone I know stores photos in JPG format - and frankly, it really isn't all that great due to its compression algorithm that tosses out information it feels it doesn't need. I can certainly see how a better format may become all the rage - and then I'd have to spend untold hours (yes, this is also part of my nightmare) converting all my JPG's into the newer, slicker and better format. I've already found myself at a crossroads between MP3 and MP4 sound files.
Maybe it is such nightmares that keep me looking to the past - wandering aimlessly through antique stores and fingering the ancient photos, furniture and knick-knacks. These things are time machines - tangible connections with the past from which they emerged. All my digital photos won't be touched until I print them out on an overpriced printer on overpriced photo paper...and then, the inks are only good for a few years. (Did I hear you say dye sublimation? Where's that GNP of that small European principality when you need it...)
What's interesting about my nightmare is that it continues during the day. Every day. Even now. It is screaming its message to me even as I type this. And I want to turn around and run.
posted by Erik | 1:44 PM
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