Saturday, September 30, 2006
Pictures
The other night I happened across a photograph of what I think was one of my grandfather's wedding. It looks like they were taken October 2, 1915. They're in pretty good shape. A little scuffed and slightly faded, but all-in-all, very recognizable. They are roughly 7.5" x 9" mounted on heavy cardboard. There's twelve people in the picture to give you some idea of scale - a person's head is about .5" tall. The photos are in good enough shape to still be able to make out the buttons on the vests and rings on fingers. Surprisingly, there isn't a smile in the bunch.
Today we have several hundred photos that are stored in probably roughly the same space those three photos take up. And the chances that someone in 2096 will be able to view any of them is pretty unlikely. That's a big problem going from analog photography to digital photography that seems hardly ever addressed. How many of you have images on some outdated media that you can no longer read? I tried to check out a 3.5" floppy the other night, but it was formatted by a computer I no longer have - and how many folks out there can get their hands on an Atari ST right now?
I still have some software on cassette tape. While that's reaching, just how long will CD readers be available that read what you have stored? Not to mention how long before that media just fades away? I've seen more than one article that puts the lifetime of CD data well under 10 years - let alone 90 years. I've inkjet printed pictures less than a couple of years old that have faded into near obscurity. I had one glossy high-end print whose image pretty much disintegrated in less than 5 years.
It's easy to dig into an old shoebox and see photos of your parents and grandparents. How many of your kids and grandkids will be doing the same with old CDs?
