Re: [Fwd: Photography Half-Life (Decay Rate) Changes]

[David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@xxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, June 26, 2009 08:50, lookaround360@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Once data is digital it WILL live forever.
>
> I see no reason why data storage couldn't expand to "infinite" capacity
> soon - and with it the means of extracting itself.  Advancing search
> engine technology will be recognized as vital to existence and forever
> be refined.

We already have PDF and DOC files being presented as HTML by Google, for
example; something similar could be done for image formats, if we outgrow
JPEG and PNG.

> Most likely, so called "dark energy" or "dark matter," the stuff that
> makes up most of the Known Universe AKA "The Big Attic in the Sky," is
> stored data.  Been saying this for years :-}

And "computronium", sure!

>
> Here's a neat story about mining old picture data:
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/LOIRP/

And what that's showing us is how close we came to losing some rather
major data from a big project.  Now imagine the loss risks for more minor
stuff!

The key point about digital archives is that they really need to be
well-curated; they do NOT thrive on a program of benign neglect.
-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b@xxxxxxxx; http://dd-b.net/
Snapshots: http://dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/data/
Photos: http://dd-b.net/photography/gallery/
Dragaera: http://dragaera.info