Re: filmscanners: Best digital archive medium for scans?

[John Matturri <jmatturr@earthlink.net>]

> So getting an archival medium is only a third of the problem.  What happens
> in 10 years when no one uses TIFF files anymore.
>
Preston Earle

After a certain level of usage it is unlikely that software formats and
even (non-obscure) hardware readers will be impossible to find. There is
too much information stored on the internet and elsewhere in standard
formats to make it likely that these will become unreadable, at least
barring the effects of a major depression, nuclear war, or the odd
asteroid hit. People often to refer to scientific data which has become
inaccessible, but these were made early on with technologies that had
limited use. A couple of times recently I've had to recover data from
early versions of wordstar and the not wildly successful (but much
lamented) outline processor grandview. Even in the latter case I was
able to find a free conversion program in a couple of minutes. Moreover,
librarians and others are aware of the potential problems and are
working on solutions.

But of course your major point is well taken. You want to keep your
files as easily accessible as possible and take as few chances as
possible.

John M.