____/ Mark Kent on Wednesday 09 January 2008 08:11 : \____
> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>> ____/ chrisv on Tuesday 08 January 2008 16:59 : \____
>>
>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>
>>>>____/ chrisv on Tuesday 08 January 2008 13:57 : \____
>>>>
>>>>> Mark Kent wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> The higher definition is for Hollywood. It helps when they can make old
>>>>>>> content 'expire' (no longer be playable). They are drying people up, so
>>>>>>> to speak, and people then have to go out and get some more. Same
>>>>>>> situation with Microsoft Office...
>>>>>
>>>>> I don't think so, Roy. DVD's will always be playable. Unless you
>>>>> have evidence to the contrary?
>>>>
>>>>VCRs and gramophones are getting harder to find and also become more
>>>>expensive. It's gradual phasing out of technology that won't last forever.
>>>>The solution is to make backward compatible technology (like ODF).
>>>
>>> Sure, eventually, the whole "optical disk" thing will be past it's
>>> "use by" date. But, since HD video-disk players also play DVD disks,
>>> they themselves cannot be a force to "expire" DVD disks.
>>
>> Yes, but one key issue here (among more) is DRM, which has been described by
>> many as the monster that will eat digital preservation and spit it out. You
>> see, with tapes you could still trivially digitise, then put on a hard
>> drive, pass over to SSD, and so on. Another issue (among more) are formats
>> that are designed to spur 'upgrades' (monetary considerations over
>> integrity). Will be be able to open your Word files 20 years from now? 100
>> years? Is there sufficient documentation? Is it elegant? Will known bug be
>> understood at that time? There's a good video in YouTube about "Digital
>> curation". It's a one-hour long lecture, but it's worth finding and
>> watching.
>>
>
> There are also basic issues around entropy which cannot be ignored. All
> data eventually reduces to random noise unless energy is applied to it
> in some way. DVDs will surely be no exception to this, although it
> could take decades or more in some cases. Similarly, for how long the
> playback technology will be available is not necessarily clear. It's
> virtually impossible to buy new drives for 8" and 5.25" floppies now,
> and even 3.5" ones are disappearing fast.
The first point that you make reminds me of the dangers of encryption in this
context. A few corrupt bits (signals) of distortion ruin the whole chunk
rather than lead to random noise. You can't handle 'lossy' encrypted packets,
can you?
--
~~ Best of wishes
Proprietary, lockin-based tools lead to regrets. Doc(umen)tor, heal thyself.
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