Re: Film Lover's Lament


"Colin D" <ColinD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:441F2EC6.EF284CBF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


Jeremy wrote:

"Nicholas O. Lindan" <see@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:nyCTf.7708

If the backup is a slide then the image is no longer digital and
no longer relevant in a discussion about backing up _digital_
data.


Kodak has made a very good case for microfilm backups of digitized
documents--particularly those documents that are being archived for the
long
term.

There are one or two small oversights in Kodak's scenario, if its
reported correctly.

They note two risks with digital archiving:

1: The image file formats now in use will almost certainly be replaced,
and
the current formats may be difficult to decode in, say, 50 years.

Any responsible archive-keeping regime for digital files will naturally
be keeping track of new and potentially better storage systems, and in
that 50 years will certainly have migrated the files to new media. It's
not realistic to think that the data will be untouched for 50 years, and
then somebody will suddenly say "let's look at this here file - oh, we
can't read it"

2: The storage media will be replaced as time progresses, and the
ubiquitous
CD or DVD may be difficult to read because of the unavailability of
appropriate hardware.

The same argument applies. If the storage media is replaced at
intervals, it will naturally be replaced with the then current
technology. It won't be a case of being unable to read optical media by
then if the techniques have advanced.

Microfilm stored under proper conditions has a projected life of 500
years,
and it requires only a light and a magnifier to enable it to be read.
And,
the microfilmed images can always be re-digitized into whatever image
formats are currently in use at any time in the future. So an analog
backup
may in fact be better for long-term storage to ensure that the file's
contents remain readable long after media and file formats have changed.
We
simply do not know what the landscape will be like in two centuries.
What
we take for granted today, in terms of file formats, may be virtually
unreadable then.

A mistake often made is to imagine that data will sit stored without
being accessed until, way in the future, somebody will try to read it.
In reality, somebody somewhere is always accessing stored data, and
usually wanting copies or printouts. The problems with analog backups
are obtaining hard copies, and distribution, the image or data
degradation encountered with successive copies. Hard copies require an
optical printer of some sort on hand, and the quality of the printout is
mostly rubbish, hard to read, often in the negative form (white on
black). You just have to look at the state of tens of thousands of
microfiche produced by the Latter Day Saints and others for their
genealogical records. They have so many downstream copies of copies
that many of them are practically unreadable. Further, they have to be
physically mailed around the globe, as nobody has come up with a scheme
to distribute microfiche down a phone line as yet. Despite actually
having immense amounts of data on film, the LDS are redoing everything
into a digital format, for reproduction and dissemination reasons, not
to mention searchability and extraction of specific data. Another major
problem with physical storage is accidental or deliberate physical
damage to individual copies and even outright stealing from fiche
centres. It's difficult to see what isn't there, and it's not until
somebody realizes that a fiche has vanished that the loss is
discovered. Of course that can't happen with properly managed
datafiles.

It would be interesting to know the date when Kodak made their case for
microfilm. I wonder if they would hold the same views today.

Colin D.

PS: I'll be well gone from Earth in 50 years hence, but how about a
scenario where there is established a huge computer databank system
underground on the moon, with tera-giga-moo-cow bytes of storage
capacity and unlimited gigabyte or terabyte links to Earth, accessible
to every nation. The total gross amount of information currently held
in earth-bound computers could be stored up there. Of course, there
would be a two or three second latency, but that could be taken care of
by forward-reading algorithms that anticipate what the user would want
next ... Hmmm, where's the Patent Office?

Colin D.

I suggest punching the data into tungsten "IBM" cards, and then storing
these on the moon......


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Film Lovers Lament
    ... The storage media will be replaced as time progresses, ... Microfilm stored under proper conditions has a projected life of 500 years, ... So an analog backup ... contents remain readable long after media and file formats have changed. ...
    (rec.photo.equipment.35mm)
  • Re: Film Lovers Lament
    ... The storage media will be replaced as time progresses, ... Microfilm stored under proper conditions has a projected life of 500 years, ... So an analog backup ... contents remain readable long after media and file formats have changed. ...
    (rec.photo.equipment.35mm)
  • Re: Odysseus update, change in file storage
    ... I just want an independent backup of my Eudora folder, ... also requiring far more storage, plus a complex and more fragile system, ... Search that is done inside a single-threaded MUA ... Filesystem implementations make certain operations 'atomic' from ...
    (comp.mail.eudora.mac)
  • Re: ADAT or other older multitrack, transfer to computer?
    ... When I'm working on a real mixer, I do a real mix, refine it as we go ... care of all my music backup for now, and when it runs out, I'll just ... most of it online somewhere. ... have 2500 hoursof online video storage for my digital TV already. ...
    (rec.audio.pro)
  • Re: Odysseus update, change in file storage
    ... (I was focusing on the issue of backup and archiving). ... individual file, directory entries and space for every individual file, ... of an entire store, and so forth). ... Even returning to the issue of local file storage, ...
    (comp.mail.eudora.mac)
Loading