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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 16, 2023 1:06:32 GMT
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Post by potet on Jan 16, 2023 12:43:16 GMT
We are experiencing a grave crisis.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 16, 2023 12:46:58 GMT
Oh for the joy of E-books.
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Post by potet on Jan 16, 2023 20:48:35 GMT
Oh for the joy of E-books. e-books do not last either because of some technical failure or due to a code change. Only a few of the DVDs of my correspondence with a fellow scholar are now readable. The CDs of the 18th-century French encyclopedia I bought in the 1990s cannot be opened on current computers. Only books remain legible after decades and centuries, and you don't need a machine to read them. |
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 17, 2023 1:50:34 GMT
Oh for the joy of E-books. e-books do not last either because of some technical failure or due to a code change. Believe it or not, some do have an expiry date, especially if borrowed from a library. That's not a code change, that's a deliberate ploy already built in. Even some publishers do it. Otherwise no one knows how long they will last. It's like in one of my stories. Immortality? How long is that? will someone one day say to a claimed immortal, "I told you you are not" as they expire in a million years.
Only a few of the DVDs of my correspondence with a fellow scholar are now readable. Maybe he kept them too close to a strong magnet? I have DVDs, CDs. VHS, even cassettes of unknown age that all still play.The CDs of the 18th-century French encyclopedia I bought in the 1990s cannot be opened on current computers. I have a relatively new external CD/DVD reader/writer plugged in to mine. (Because quite a while ago they stopped fitting players in to PCs because most things are now downloadable, and often only so). I have not had it refuse to play anything as yet. A lot is to do with the many types of codecs things are written in though. Some versions of Windows no longer have them all built in, and some codecs never were. Try this. It usually plays anything. www.videolan.org/vlc/ it's in widespread common use, so safe.Only books remain legible after decades and centuries, and you don't need a machine to read them. Depends how they are looked after. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a bit of a mess. It's said glyphs carved in to stone will last longer ... |
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Post by potet on Jan 17, 2023 11:03:46 GMT
Kevin said: (Only a few of the DVDs of my correspondence with a fellow scholar are now readable.)
"Maybe he kept them too close to a strong magnet? I have DVDs, CDs. VHS, even cassettes of unknown age that all still play."
These are my own archives kept in the best conditions possible - placed vertically, etc.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 17, 2023 15:15:35 GMT
Kevin said: (Only a few of the DVDs of my correspondence with a fellow scholar are now readable.) "Maybe he kept them too close to a strong magnet? I have DVDs, CDs. VHS, even cassettes of unknown age that all still play." These are my own archives kept in the best conditions possible - placed vertically, etc. |
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 17, 2023 15:16:12 GMT
Oh, and discs can be washed under a tap  |
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Post by potet on Jan 18, 2023 17:30:47 GMT
I don't know how those damned DVDs got corrupted. They are clean, and they won't open whatever the machine used. To me the practical conclusion is that handwritten or printed archives are superior to archives on DVDs.
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 19, 2023 1:54:46 GMT
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Post by And Kevin 2024 on Jan 19, 2023 1:57:14 GMT
I have some very old CDs in my car. They get minus temps in winter and roasted in summer (my car is in direct sunlight for most of the day. Too hot to touch!) And they still play OK.
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