Brain:  I agree with you on future changes in Software and computers. My question is how do you get the do you get the code for GIF and jpeg? From: Brian J Densmore via <nywestch@rootsweb.com> To: nywestch@rootsweb.com Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2016 11:35 AM Subject: Re: [NYWESTCH] PA Archivist's Dilemma > "But when you give me a digital record to preserve, think about putting it > on the shelf and coming back in a hundred years. The hardware has changed > incredibly, the software to read it has changed. And so we have many > different formats of records that we are going to have to preserve for > hundreds of years, and that is a great, great challenge." THIS, is what happens when you don't have properly educated decision makers. Sure hardware changes, so that is an issue. Although the appropriate hardware to read whatever media you store it on could be mothballed and later retrieved to access and transfer, if that were a real concern. Or simply store the specifications on how to build the hardware. The software to read it issue is another thing entirely. It's been 20 to 30 years since GIF and jpeg formats came out. They are still in use today, and amazingly my images from the 80s are still readable on all kinds of hardware that didn't exist back then. Next up, if stored digitally, as you add new hardware you can upgrade quite easily with simple tools. Back to the software, it's just a set of instructions. Save the code for any software so it can be compiled on new hardware. You could even save it on paper. I have code from 1980, that still compiles on new hardware today. Go figure. I have code that was given to me that was written in the 50s(70+ years old). It still compiles today on hardware that wasn't even dreamed of back then. There is your almost 3/4 mark to 100 years. Sure it's primitive code by today's standards, and some of it must be run in an emulator (a virtual mainframe). I get it, that archivists aren't necessarily geeks, but that is no excuse for not asking experts before spouting off with unnecessary FUD. Lastly, only a fool in today's world would think it's ok to store something for a hundred years without checking to make sure it's still usable every few years at minimum. Furthermore, as technology progresses, you're going to have plenty of time to swap old storage media and software out for new stuff when it comes out. So worrying about a complete non-issue. Like what became of the carriage makers of the 1800s? Some switched over to making automobile bodies, and then into auto repair shops. Other's went out of business. You either adapt or stick you head in the ground. And yes, I'm going to say it. This is not rocket science. Not some magical, mysterious, black magic that can't be understood by "ordinary" people. [end rant] *************************************** Have you checked out the Westchester  County GenWeb site yet? http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nywestch/ *************************************** Browse or Search the Mailing List Archives of postings sent to this list over the years.  Visit http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/usa/NY/westchester.html#NYWESTCH *************************************** ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYWESTCH-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

> Brain:  I agree with you on future changes in Software and computers. My > question is how do you get the do you get the code for GIF and jpeg? There are books and books written about the various graphics formats. There is a ton of free software out there which has the source code for manipulating all the common formats, in basically every popular and less popular programming language in existence today. There is even stuff out there on how to read and write the proprietary pdf formats, along with postscript. There is so much already out there. The jpeg and gif algorithms are also out there on wikipedia. The algorithm is all you need to write the software in what ever language is available in 100 or 1000 years. That's what makes it so incredible when they talk about software incompatibility of digitized records in 100 years. Scan, save it in well known image format, instead of paying millions of dollars for some new proprietary software with a new graphics format, and no on will ever have to worry about the "software". The graphics formats are all plain algorithms and formats. All fully specified in numerous places today. You really have to work at it to make a digital storage system that won't work in 100 years. Yes, the hardware can be an issue, but unless we forget how to manufacture things there will always be a solution to retrieve digitally stored records. Sure, if Civilization collapses, it could all be lost. But in a post apocalyptic World, they may not be able to read books either. Provided any survived the apocalypse.