Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, The Wogster 
<wogsterca@y...> wrote:>  So we need a 
> storage method that either uses more stable dyes, or a completely 
> dye-less process.

The problem with this whole discussion is that it focusses on the 
technology - whether it's dyes, file formats, magnetic -vs- optical, 
holographic -vs- linear, etc.    I'm going to guess that 95% of the 
people in this forum are geeks and nerds of one sort or another (I'm 
a hw/sw engineer), and human nature is a common geek/nerd blind spot.

But the PROBLEM isn't TECHNOlogical, it's PSYCHOlogical.   It has 
little to do with technology and lots to do with human nature.   Any 
archival solution that depends on active maintenance or intervention 
on a regular basis will fail because someone will lose interest or 
forget or will hand off a shoebox to someone without telling them 
they have to update it every once in awhile, or they won't have the 
technical skill, or they will dutifully DO the conversion but there 
will be a bug in the conversion program that no one will realize 
until 10 years later when someone else tries to do the NEXT 
conversion, or they will guess wrong about what the next standard 
format will be and convert it to something dead-end. 

Christer thinks someone will be "in charge" of doing this stuff.   
But we're talking FAMILIES here, not banks or hospitals or government 
agencies where there are specialists and bureaucrats to be in charge 
of things.   NO ONE will be in charge.  Someone will inherit an old 
trunk with lots of memorabilia and it will get broken up and 
distributed and stashed away and moved around.