Date:         Mon, 8 Jan 2007 11:51:23 -0800
Reply-To:     Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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Sender:       Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
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From:         Karl Miller <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Digital in a post-digital universe--was: Interesting WSJ
              Article on when libraries should discard their holdings
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George,
   
  I remember that episode. Tonight I am giving a lecture on the problems of long term storage and will include that story! I have a visual that I call, the digital information house of cards. Each layer of the house of cards is information/applications stored magnetically and in most instances the applications involved are proprietary. Another visual has some hieroglyphs and the Rosetta Stone.
   
  Also, on another post, you mentioned our audio-media generation...I am reminded that cursive writing is becoming a thing of the past.
   
  I am also reminded of those college freshman papers I used to grade...sometimes, to figure out what they wrote, I would have to figure out what they wrote before the computer tried to second guess the correct syntax. There were times when I found trying to figure out what a student meant was as much of a challenge as the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.
   
  I wonder, do you suppose some future generation might try to reconstruct the noise we removed when we restored some audio?
   
  Brave new world here we come...I wonder if I am beginning to sound like my father...
   
  Karl

George Brock-Nannestad <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  From: Patent Tactics, George Brock-Nannestad

----- but - and here I am thinking about one episode from "Twilight Zone" we 
need interfaces to the stored material. In the episode, everything is 
destroyed, but the library stands, and the avid reader looks forward to a 
lifetime of reading (not that it will necessarily be long, though). But his 
glasses have broken in the destruction ...

Kind regards,


George