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MAYDAY MAYDAY! – Serious
threat of loss! |
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Pictures passed down to us by our forbears are
irreplaceable reminders of times long since past. They have
a spiritual meaning money cannot buy – as cherished works
of art. Yet how many of us handle them with the diligence and
care they truly deserve? And did you know that indirectly, every
day, we submit these old pictures to unseen environmental dangers
– dangers all around us? |
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Save your pictures now! |
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If we carry on treating images the way we do
today, even pictures and data we are currently generating could
fall irretrievably into disrepair within a matter of decades.
The problem lies in the papers churned out by industrial manufacturing
since the middle of the last century. Not only do they not keep
properly, they contain acids which actually cause them to self-destruct
within a handful of decades! All your pictures, plans, documents
and cherished certificates are destined to fade away…
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A digital catastrophe |
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Currently our main hope of preserving our visual
heritage lies in the archiving of digital images on data storage
systems. Digital archiving is not without risk, however. And
it is not as secure as we would like to believe it is. It does
not take long for data to become unreadable and contemporary
types of media such as magnetic tapes, CDs and DVDs have a highly
limited life span. Worse still, they are extremely sensitive
to scratches and heat – the slightest carelessness and
they become illegible. |
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Media and systems are developing rapidly
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Ironically, the media is only half the problem.
Old data formats and media types can also make data obsolete.
Have you ever tried to extract data from Syquest? A couple of
years ago we were merrily storing data using this ground-breaking
system but try opening it now with Photoshop CS! |
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Thankfully, Fotolabor M has developed an extremely
useful tool, aimed precisely at solving this infuriating problem:
savedpictures – for images that keep forever! |
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