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March 14, 2007

Faded Memories

CD-R has a 75-year lifetime! Use 'em for backups! Put your photo collections on 'em! You'll lose your memory before they lose theirs!

Not Quite.

I've always regarded claims of CD-R lifetimes with skepticism. 75 years? Yeah, right. Maybe plain old CDs can do that, maybe, but CD-R? Its recording layer is chemicals, and why should anybody think that a chemical designed to be changeable isn't going to change or degrade over time?

Nonetheless, I drank the kool-aid. I put important files--my photos--on CD-R. I did make multiple copies just in case, and I gave one set to a buddy for safekeeping in case the house burned down. I put one-of-a-kind recordings onto CD-R. All because PC hard drives back in 2000 were miniscule in comparison to the half terabyte drives I can pick up off the computer store shelves today. Basically, archival stuff.

A few months ago, I decided that my PC had plenty of space and I could restore all my photos to hard drive so I could enjoy them. Enjoy was the antithesis of what happened next.

Windows XP couldn't find a disk. Hmm, there goes volume 1. How about volume 2? 3? 4? What about the duplicate copies I made? No go? What about the copies I gave my friend? I'm sure he's still got them, but he's moved and I don't think he could get his hands on them easily as much as I know he'd like to, so I haven't asked. I'm not optimistic anyway, and that's the real reason I haven't asked.

I tried reading the old CD-R discs in a couple of CD-ROM drives. No go. It was disheartening to read the CD-R vendor's name, "Nashua" in discolored emulsion when looking at the recording surface. I called Nashua, and they had no suggestions.

Finally I tried my laptop running Linux. Success? Maybe. I think I was able to get about 25% of the photos back undamaged, and portions of another 10%. The balance of the photos remains unreadable. Unfortunately I don't have any friends in the NSA who could scrape the remaining bits off, but even if they did, they probably wouldn't be able to give them back to me!

I'm slowly getting my CD-R collection onto hard drives. Those half terabyte drives are great, and they can hold more than all the CD-Rs I'd want to keep. If you're archiving on optical media, I'd suggest you think about doing the same.

Posted by Pat at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)

March 21, 2007

Time to Revisit the National Security Letter

We've got an item that I can't categorize today. It's either an "I told you so" or "That was the obvious outcome".

It seems that the FBI has misused its privilege of issuing National Security Letters to obtain information kept by banks, ISPs, libraries, etc. about individuals. Congress is unhappy.

Here are the specifics for those who haven't been keeping score:

Who would have thought for a moment that the FBI, offered unaccountability, would fail to take advantage of that to collect as much information as it possibly could? Thank the authors of the Patriot Act, who set this abomination into motion.

This is a clear affront to Americans and the values we stand for. This is the type of unaccountable activity we expected from the Soviet Union two or three decades ago, and never did we think back then that this would happen in our own country.

Had they not already started to do so, I would now be calling on Congress to examine the use of these letters and put some reins on the process. Fortunately, they've already seen the light. This problem reeks so badly that both sides of the congressional aisle can't help but notice it. I'm hoping for real reform here, in the shape of accountability for these letters, and in the application of due process for production of these letters.

Posted by Pat at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)