[Leica] (SPAM: ?) RE: (SPAM: ?) Re: So much for "film is forever"..

[Piers Hemy]

You want examples?

I'll give you two from direct personal experience - they may not be what
you thought you were asking for, but they make the same point.

1) All files I saved in .STN format. Did you say "What the dickens is
that?" -it's the format used by Genuine Fractals, which I am sure you
remember, now subsumed into OnOne Perfect Resize, currently at v9. To quote
OnOne "The only way to open STiNG files is via Adobe Photoshop if Perfect
Resize 7.5 or earlier is installed". Doesn't matter if the bits are
corrupted or not, the format has been abandoned.

2) All files I backed up to a so-called online backup system nearly 20
years ago. They went through two acquisitions, and the new proprietors felt
there was better business to be done elsewhere. Service was simply
terminated, as if they had gone out of business (they may yet do so, of
course). Doesn't matter if the bits are corrupted or not, again.

And a third of which I have no personal experience, simply technical press
articles this week. Look out if you use SSDs for backup, as 1s magically
can become 0s, as Spencer rightly says. You have to keep 'em cool.

Piers 

-----Original Message-----
From: LUG [mailto:lug-bounces+piers.hemy=gmail.com at leica-users.org] On
Behalf Of Mark Rabiner
Sent: 15 May 2015 06:22
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: [Leica] (SPAM: ?) Re: So much for "film is forever"..
Importance: Low

I think the fact that while most of us have switched to digital our body of
work is now (roughly since the year 2000) is in danger is very on topic as I
think its big news where can I sell my digital bodies and re buy back my
film ones?!?

I'd like to hear a roll count on the LUG of people whose old digital files
have given up on them or have gotten all wonky. Other side known as digital
fading.
I'm being told by you that my digital files are deteriorating I JUST CAN SEE
IT.!!

I don't think when you back up digitally to do it redundantly is the end of
the world. I used to back up my whole hard disk with floppies. A stack of
them many inches thick. And I had several sets of them in case one of them
was bad and for other reasons. It was an automatic process but doable.
Now its just copying one hard disk to another sometimes a slightly bigger
one. Can be done in ones sleep.


On 5/14/15 7:16 PM, "Spencer Cheng" <spencer at aotera.org> wrote:

> We are going way off topic here so this is my last comment. I did not say
to
> store your digital media using microfiche.
> 
> I am aware of a group of digital archivist (including someone from NIST)
> working on how to preserve digital media in a standardized fashion.
> 
> Best practice digital media preservation currently require regular active
> copying and indefinite transcription of digital media to protect again
> deterioration of storage media and format obsolescence.
> 
> If you are not doing both, your stored media is likely to stay ephemeral
> despite of what you believe.
> 
> Mark, do as you wish but 1’s magically becomes 0’s in digital media
whether
> you believe it’s going to happen or not. Good Luck.
> 
> Regards,
> Spencer
> 
>> On May 14, 2015, at 16:17, Mark Rabiner <mark at rabinergroup.com> wrote:
>> 
>> From the Library of Congress  (USA)
>> "Does the Library of Congress recommend microfilming or digitization for
>> reformatting institutional collections?....
>> 
>> " That said, the end of microfilming is near, despite it's relatively low
>> cost and the several hundred year projected lifetime of preservation
film.
>> The National Endowment for the Humanities no longer funds grants for
>> microfilming and microfilm readers are increasingly difficult to maintain
>> and service."
>> 
>> http://www.loc.gov/preservation/about/faqs/reformatting.html#prescopy
>> 
>> Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method
>> http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/links/pdf/preserving/8_34a.pdf
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 5/14/15 1:17 AM, "Spencer Cheng" <spencer at aotera.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Canadian Archive uses microfiche which are stable for 100+ years (or
>>> acid-free
>>> paper for documents). The Canadian census was stored that way. ³was²
because
>>> I
>>> am not sure we have a real census any more.
>> 
>> Digital storage is very
>>> ephemeral. I doubt if most digital storage will last more than 10 years.
>>> Those
>>> 1¹s randomly change to 0¹s far too frequently. I don¹t think
archivist like
>>> digital media very much.
>>> 
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Spencer
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica
>>> Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more
>>> information
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Mark William Rabiner
>> Photographer
>> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information




-- 
Mark William Rabiner
Photographer
http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/lugalrabs/



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