On: Sun, 02 May 1999 16:07:28
"John A. Lind" <jlind@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
...There is another issue yet to be addressed by the digital community:
archival. How does one archive electronically digitized images for 100
to 200 years as can be done with dark storage of Kodachrome (even longer
with B&W)?... The problem with digital information is that the archive
format alone has a current half life of about 10 years. Translate that
as sunrise to complete sunset in about 15-20 years. There is also the
problem of degradation of magnetic media, both in the medium itself and
its content. I think this also needs to be resolved before digital
images, however convenient they might potentially be, can replace our
"analog" silver halide technology.
-------------------------------------------------------------
I won't argue with any of John's prior points but I believe that the
archival issue is a non-issue. In fact, it's the one area where digital
technology can actually win the competition. Archiving anything is a
problem due to slow degradation of the storage medium. The difference
with digital information is that, before the storage medium
disintegrates, you can make another PERFECT copy... and you can go on
doing this almost ad-infinitum. (I say "almost" since you will get a
few bit errors after the first few millions or billions of copies).
There are, of course, some drawbacks. You do have to make new copies
periodically and you have to do it before the copy source's storage
technology becomes obsolete. But, if you really want long term archival
storage, this is it!
I have programs that I wrote in 1982 that started life on a 180K floppy
disk. Over the years they have been copied to 360K, 1.2M, 1.44M and
various hard disks from 20M to 8.4G. It won't be long before they move
to CD-ROM. Just waiting for 4X CD-RW at the right price point. After
that, who knows?
Chuck Norcutt
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|