Bill wrote: > on digital media life, Mafud wrote: > >> I can see one: my CD-R/RW disks may not be playable in >> twenty years ala 8-track tapes. > > Now, Now !!! I just saw several 8-track players in 2nd hand > stores for like a couple bucks each yesterday. Easy to hook up > to the old Marantz tube amp hifi system (or even straight into > the odd Fender Twin Reverb in the attic! :^)
The issue of playback hardware becoming unavailable is a common, and, I believe, fallacious, argument against CD-ROMs as a storage medium. Frequently mentioned are old computer tape formats that are now unreadable. What's overlooked is the fact that these formats aren't unsupported now because they're old, outdated and low-capacity; It's because they were never widely available (mass produced) in the first place. All computer hardware in those days was, by definition, highly specialized gear produced in small numbers. CDs have been produced in the billions and so has the hardware to play them. The hardware is very inexpensive to manufacture now. New media like DVD are, and will likely continue to be, made backward compatible because there's virtually no cost penalty for doing so. CDs are going to be produced for quite a while to come and hardware to read them is going to be available for even longer. -- Mark Roberts www.robertstech.com - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
