“Lost” Generation?
The relatives have packed up and left, and the feast entrees have been carved into sandwiches and long since eaten. For most of us, the holidays have come and gone. For many of us, especially those with children, that also means that countless digital photos of family and friends have been snapped over the course of the last week or two.
What if you lost all of those photos? What if 20 years from now you lost every digital photo you had taken over the course of the last two decades? In this week’s Tech Tip, we take a little detour away from “how to” and put some thought into “what if?”
I think I will be part of a lost generation….
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Can I install a wireless wifi pci card in my laptop (not a PCMCIA Card)and keep the nic/modem pci card also....found a company that sells mini pci cards foe laptops wireless, but I am confused if I will loose my nic/modem on my laptop.....Can you help me
I have a Dell C600 Latitude P3 750mhz
Thanks
JerryActually, there already is a place that does store pictures and information about families. It is in the Family history library of the mormon church which they have stored in a safe place. People can have their information and pictures attached to the family tree at no cost - and one does not need to be a member of the church. I also think that it is important to print out the occasional hard copy of the best photos too - in case of EMP incident.
An interesting but serious question you raise. Look at the broader aspect of your comments, the daily aspects of our lives as a community and country. There was an interesting side line to the Mona Lowienski (sp?) and Bill Clinton story---the picture that we have all seen with her face in crowd looking up at him only exists because that particular photographer had not yet switched to film. The other press photogs at the event deleted their coverage but when the story broke later the film guy went back to his proof sheets and now it is part of history. How much of the history of our times will be lost due to data storage incompatibilities in the future or just to someone arbitrarily deleting files to “clean up” a hard drive?
Sorry, missed a typo: should read that the press photog had not yet switched to digital, i.e. was still using film.
Howdy Folks at Tech. Tips,
I could not disagree with you more! my Wife wanted to use some my old worn out photos of our daughters for Christmas and cut them up for photo album.
I said no way but tell you how we can do this, we can scan them into the PC fix all the artifacts, coloration even cracks in the photos with photo shop software then print them out on photo paper to cut up.
She loved the idea and it worked fine now we have two reproductions of the old photos, with new ones on the hard drive restored!plus I’m putting them on CD and DVD that will last 100 years and can be stored real easily.
I just took my Mom and Dads VCR video of us when we where kids and put that on DVD in slide show format, for safe keeping for them and I made copies in matter of minuets to put away for our kids.With flash drives becoming very cheap with
gigabytes of storage this real convenient and easy way to store photos and video, as technology changes we can transfer to new media as I have pointed out, so I do think you have nothing to worry about lost generations anytime in the near future!
I just covered three generations and gave you just few ways we do it for our three families, there are many more ways to preserve your photos/videos for generations to come with new evolving technologies.
So rest easy my good friends its only going to get better nothing will ever be lost!!!I am a second generation photographer (semi retired) I have hung up my portrait camera and moved to the mountains where I enjoy photographing subjects that don’t care if a hair is out’a place or their lipstick is the wrong shade. Any way, the survivability of photos is a serious problem… as I understand national archive organizations around the world have chosen to go back to film. The last research that I did, they are exposing digital images to black n white film, using the tri-color process of making three images through three color filters a red, yellow and blue. this will record all the information for the future reproduction of the images, and silver based black n white film has proven to withstand the test of time.
I wished there was a printer available for the consumer that could do either color film or the tri color black and white system, for the home user. I think it would be a desired product. Mean while, I would suggest you consider going to a quality digital to photo processing lab and getting photo prints of your valued images made, one to show, and one you put in a acid free container with a lid. Light and moisture are killers for photo images. Standard Cardboard boxes have chemicals in them that will attack the photos, be aware of tape for images. Having restored photos over the years, tape, not using acid free mounting boards, photos against the glass in frames and light, etc. all are memory killers. Treasured memories are a responsibility, yes in spite of everyone having a camera our generation will be for the most part image less.Technology is nice, but folks don’t forget the 8 track tape, the Beta Max and the big Laser Disk players… or how bout the 5 1/4” floppy, 3 1/2 inch floppy oh the Super Disk, and Zip Drives. All these are technologies that are for the most part gone! Take the time to research the archive ability of CD and DVD, sorry for the most part they are short lived, and light will deteriorate them as well. When manufactures move to a new product, they are anxious to dump old inventory and get away from it. How about new computers that do not support parallel ports, leaving IDE connections for SATA, don’t have floppy ports. And all this change in little over 20 years. And we want our pix to last how long?
As the race for bigger and better computers continues this aspect does seem lagging.I have talked about this for years with my friends because we handle huge amounts of data and as the years go on and the formats change this becomes a real problem in the future.That will be the next great leap forward.
I already wrote about DVD and flash drive, external Hard drives and some folks wrote and said
these where poor media because the test of today show they last about two years.
we have no way of knowing because CD have not been around that long to know.
the test are not very good because they relay on lab test at best are speculative.
some of the oldest CD that where used for archive purposes are Japanese way back in the seventies!I did not think I had to bring this up but it bears repeating, if you want to archive say CD/DVD then you want use the best media you can find I use achieve CD/DVD that say right on them that are high grade ink coatings and materials. they are gold label and come in there own holders to stand up to be stored.
I like to vacuum seal mine with common food storage device to keep them air tight!
then put them in steel box to preserve them.Some of the old music CD of my original songs still work fine on new all in one DVD that plays HD Blue ray disk and my old disk that is about 10 years old and still works fine today in that player.
I think this media will be around with us decade or so longer since its cutting edge now.
No one has talked about mini hard drives that are removable like I have on my PC our pin drives
flash drives that hold gigs of data that are sealed for storage and are very reliable that coming out
all the time smaller and smaller with new players coming out still will work on the older PC. that been around about 20 years.As far as eight tracks four tracks go we still had open face reel to reel that worked then as well as today!
then came cassettes that some folks still use today it made the test of time!
beta tape did not last but VCR did and its still around today, big floppy disk gave way to the
diskette and that gave way to the CD and then the DVD all are still around working today folks!
CPU are getting smaller and running faster faster we now have the quad chip the duel core just came out last year! what drives that, gamers demanding more more speed in small postage stamp chips so they can play them on there laptops.So lets not throw out the Baby with the bath water I think this Chicken little mentality is modern paranoia!
I’m not worried about today’s technology rolling right along with us it always has.
Its the new trends towards laptops and our need for speed to go faster and faster give me more
give me more; that drives today’s market!Just to make it clearer.I was not refering to storage media such as CD’s but rather to the fact that most people do not back up their entire hard drive to CD or dvd or any other media.Upon a hardware failure alot of that data is lost without a great deal of expense and time to retrive it.This is not “Chicken Little mentality”
but rather a fact of the lifespan of the machine or just bad luck.True you may have CD’s that last a long time or tapes that do the same but a quantum leap is required to allow say a century old disk to be able to be retrieved say in the year 2108.I have heard some work is being done in quartz -something that would withstand centurys of storage.
@Robert - you bring up some very valid points. You seem very technically savvy, but I believe your are the exception, not the norm.
ex) If my parents and millions of others out there like them, (not technically savy), were to lose their laptop or to have complete drive failure I can assure you they have not taken the steps you have to ensure their videos, pictures, and memories have been backed up.
Most in my generation, 20’s-40’s, have not taken the steps necessary, to ensure their life’s worth of digital assets are completely backed up and resistant to technical advances.
I already know of many situations where a stolen laptop has resulted in a 5+ years gap of one’s life, via pictures and music. Bummer to not have thought ahead!
Services like the one described in this Tech Tip are not only currently thriving, but certainly will continue to play a key role as we continue to emerge ourselves in the digital world.
Howdy folks,
Well now your talking about apathy, I fight that all the time!
Last year my folks got new PC media center with new DVD all one burner in it.
They called me over to help them set it up with e-mail and to explain this one prompt that kept popping up from time to time.I was working with my Dad that is trying to learn
how run a PC and the prompt popped up; he said there it is!
you want know what it was windows was prompting them to make a back up DVD if they had hard drive failure!
I understand this standard prompt on all windows
desktops and laptops how hard can this be for folks?All they need to do is fellow the step by step instructions and at lest they have little
back up, I would recommend much more for your music and photos, videos and so on.
I have already talked about that above.
as soon as I told my Dad what it was he said lets do it.One big problems is fear he was afraid to do anything for it may wipe his hard drive out,
I said no Dad this is to help you; who told you
that?
he heard it from one his friends that forwarding crap around the net and lot misinformation.I well tell you one thing that I have seen young old do its one my pet Paves no anti virus software and opening up spam and even forwards.
they may not know how back up,they sure learn how
hit that forward button!I told both my parents to be very careful with forwarded jokes chain letters cute pictures,
this has resulted in getting viruses that wipe out there hard drive and they lose it all!I think we can help the our folks that less savvy
and help them, if they will listen and take the time to back up on some kind of media.
I got tell you I hear story after story that where just to darn busy to take the time to do it; they lost everything.I not worried about the technology going on past us as I said before it will move right with us
and I’m sure they will come out with ways to store lots data on cube or grain rice with nano
technology!I’m not worried about them extracting from old media,I know they will come up with way to make the new media backwards compatible.
Indeed you capture some of my foray in to the tomoro world today.
I was also worried what trouble makers could do by attempting to hack in to this on line storage engine rooms. Can you imagine if a hacker creates a worm embedded as his own personal data to be stored in such a place?
I am so confident that our generation would not be lost-we have capable tech heads with upcoming solutions.Hello Folks,
I agree with you Paul about the capable tech heads coming up with new solutions.
I have not heard of hackers doing to much
assaults,to online storage with a worm.
but they have ricked havoc on the FBI,CIA and one time us stock market!
All where caught and arrested and will not be able to use a computer the rest of there life! will be unable to do that again,we have much better ways of dedicating them today.
As long as we have the patriot act in place they will be stopped from over seas attacks!We are getting off topic here so I will come back
to losing a generation of photos and videos from not backing up our hard drives,and not making digital copies to archive them.
I think its absurd to think with all the media at our finger tips with gigs of storage on USB FLASH drives, or at lest DVD that a child could do it; and keep in safe place its just no brainier!!!
I’m not big fan of online storage they have lot down time,they lose data from carelessness all the time!
You better believe one thing they do and that’s make back ups of all there storages bins every day!
why should you bother with them, when you can do the same thing with the click of your own mouse!!!I feel its much easier to do it your self and it will last for your life time at the very lest.
furthermore its even more absurd to think all this technology is going some how disappear and we become vanishing Americans is just to much for me to believe! or swallow.
Howdy Folks,
I did not use one Curse Word on this whole blog that I have been saying, it shows you just how dependable on line computers are!
the on line computer misunderstood two words.
So I just wanted to tell you folks that and this just my opinion and nothing more.God Bless all of you folks out there and be sure
and back up your data,photos,music and videos some way you will be glad you did.Hi folks,
It just did it again I did not know God was curse word!
Howdy Folks,
When you bless some one what word would be in front of that, talk about being politically correct!
I’m Christan folks and this has been real episode
in futility!
I love each and every one of you with the love of Jesus.I have tech’d computers for over 20 years, the first question I ask when I go to work on someones computer, is “when did you do your last back up?” and you get that dazed look. Now they want you to be god and resurrect the machine some how! Yup, and before that I was a professional second generation photographer and Lab tech. so I have been around the block a few times. My simple question is this, Why do the worlds repositories of images like the Smithsonian use tri color on black and white film as their storage system, can’t they afford another hard drive?
Howdy Rebel,
I did not want cross swords with you old film
buffs, it just leads to hurt feelings!
My Brother is Nikon film Man he just went to digital format to save his pictures in raw format.
I myself used to take pictures with film and said that digital will never take the place of film but I was wrong it did.
its is far superior to film now that you can shoot on 35 millimeter chip and get better results and blow it up to life size
with out any artifacts I was convinced to go to digital format.As to your question about the Smithsonian you need to ask them about that, I’m Big Blues fan
and Jerry Gracia of the Grateful Dead asked them
if he could take old tin type recording and pervasive them on digital format and they let him do that!
(Do a google search if you don’t believe me)That must have been something to take the old muddy waters and Robert Johnson recordings
redigitize them for disk storige!!!Some of the oldest record keepers in world the Mormons use micro-fish film it only last for about 20 years some records have been lost from film transfer, I had bank lose all my records
and I lost money so I know this the hard way!
they told me it was the bad film in the canisters and would not reimburse me.Thank the lord they do not use micro fish film
today; anymore they put everything on a hard drive with a back up!!!As far as tri color goes my ink Jet printer will
do tri color.
of course a Laser printer will do six colors and its far superior you can do thermal print on a laser then blow it up wall size and you can wash it wipe it clean, this will last for around 50 years.Some of the old Black n white steam trains where made for a restaurant about ten years ago where I live, they are still hanging there to this day with bright sun light shinning on them every day!
I have coffee and look at them often I’m big Train fan.
I do wish they had colorized them the Black and white just dose not do them justice!This just my humble opinion; take or leave it.
Your blog gave me shivers! I thought about all the great times I had as a kid sitting around the projector watching slideshows of family vacations, birthdays and my Dad in Vietnam.
These have been passed onto me, and soon to my children for generations.I on the other hand have a Picasa album, username and password.
Not the focal family gathering point as it once was.
@njaneardude - I agree and share similar memories…
I guess the final decision will be made a hundred years from now. The issue of what will last will be settled there. As my father was a Brooks grad back when… and I have boxes of his work, and that is 60 plus and pix back to the great grand parents from there. I might add that I use a Canon SLR digital, and 4 or 5 others, but still do dark room, and have 6 or 8 film cameras as well and use them.
Yes digital is superior in that you get approx 1/3 more tonal ranges than the eye can see were as film is approx. 1/3 less than the eye can see. And that in the film/print paper relm, what gave prints permanance was the silver of acid free paper, and now even the film/paper is primarily dye, with only enough light sensive silver as is necessary to trip the process. As for digital, I shot a lot. I moved to the mountains to enjoy the scenery, but I have racks of CD/s, DVD’s Stacks of hard drives full of pix, that I plug in using a USB adapter. I have pix stored on websites, But my boxes of pictures are still there…Howdy Folks,
I was just taking some my wife’s old photos that are starting to yellow from age!
scanned them put them into photo shop and restored them to wonderful full eye popping
colors that brought back the memories of when it looked when we took them 20 years ago with an old browning box camera on Kodak paper colorchrome of its day.all the details that was lost was restored to how I remember it and even better then it was.
cheap cameras of those days could not shoot even close to what we have today but it was all we had!I too still have a Canon rebal SLR film camera I pulled out of storage and wouldn’t you know it the film was still in the can so I said I wonder whats on this baby? got be about ten years old or so well I took in to one hour photo place.
He said sorry man the film was black and had been exposed but the images where gone!
He told me he sees lot of that, and did not understand why folks do not just come in and have them scanned on his big scanner and put on disk or prints by today’s standards!
I told him that I thought it was just good old procrastination!
in my case I just plane forgot the film was in there.I also told him I may bring my old photos to Scan them on his commercial scanner far better resolution would it cost me arm and leg? he said whats your old memories wroth and you get back all your old photos it takes about one day
and I can be there with him, what super deal about 50.00 Buick’s a box.Talk about a film buff he has more cameras then I have ever seen, including Nikon film /digital cameras.
he showed me a stitched together shot with hundreds of shots of the grand canyon with his Nikon; that was wall size that was very impressive!Then he said let me show you my new 5.000 dollar
Canon camera that is cutting edge and has the most astounding image quality I ever seen bar none!
So I said 12-mega pixels he says try 21.1-mega pixel full-frame this baby can do it all
its just unbelievable what I can shoot we looked at some humming bird shots, that had to be seen to be believed what they looked like!!!This is the last time I’m going to post here I think I made my point!!!
you can scan and repair your old photos to eye popping color of today!
Or not just let them sit in the box and wither away its your choice.Then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder
my first film class, I failed because I shot all
my pictures with new SLR film camera, instructor said black and white is what I wanted with Manuel
camera!
I told him I do not see in black and white so I refuse to take pictures in black white and quit the class!!!21 Mega pixel camera! That’s off the charts. Anyone who has 5 grand to blow on a camera is either crazy rich or loves photography more than life. You could take a picture to cover my house with clarity. Come to think of it, I don’t think I have ever even viewed that large of a picture online. Time for me to research, I feel so left behind. ;(
Very interesting post. Thank you for sharing.
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