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Coverage of formats that are in danger of obsolenscence.
If you ever come across an old floppy disk, be careful how you hold it and what you place against it. We’ve found a number of cases where putting a smartphone or tablet against a floppy disk will erase the data stored inside.
Tomorrow marks an important milestone in the lifecycle of computer software, and should be a day of concern for perhaps hundreds of millions of computer users worldwide. April 8, 2014 is the final day that Microsoft will provide extended support for its aging Windows XP operating system. Although Microsoft has not been providing any new […]
In an era where music is downloaded, synced, and played back wirelessly, the writing is on the wall for most physical containers of digital media, and MiniDisc could be among the first of many types of this physical media to go obsolete in the near future.
On July 7, Sony announced that production of MiniDisc playback equipment would cease in September, with the manufacturing of blank media to end approximately one year later. Soon to be gone, it shouldn’t be forgotten, as MiniDisc is a valuable case study in the effect of format wars, and how adoption of a medium can be hampered by Digital Rights Management and poor business decisions.
The drumbeat continues to sound for the preservation of obsolete and endangered moving image formats. As older tape formats become unplayable, either through decay or lack of equipment to play them back, the urgency grows to find ways to preserve their content using modern digital formats. But what digital format should be used to preserve this content in the digital space, and help ensure that we aren’t finding ourselves in the same obsolescence predicament right away?
If you have any Kodachrome Film stashed away, the last days to get it developed are at hand. December 31, 2010 is the last day Dwayne’s Photo will process Kodachrome, shutting down the last commercial processing plant for the film.