On 08/28/2011 07:00 PM, Toby Thain wrote:
Good
heavens. Do you really think it takes a bunch of hobbyists
maintaining obscure information to preserve, say, the spec for GIF,
JFIF, and PNG?
These are terrible examples and illuminate very little. Why do people
insist on using them?
As examples in this discussion? Because we were talking about common
image formats, and someone asserted that all image formats are evil
because the specs for everything will be lost.
I think we are all agreed that JPG, PNG, GIF will not be lost.
Ok, well that's what we were discussing.
Now let's talk about the *interesting* cases...
The ones which comprise probably less than 1% of the world's digital
image data? Seriously?
Formats
that people actually USE? No. Sure, there ARE some
proprietary formats out there,
More than a few.
Ok: Any that matter?
But even
ignoring that...your supposed all-destructive holocaust is
going to destroy EVERY REMAINING COPY of Adobe Photoshop, along with
EVERY COMPUTER capable of running it?
Yes, that's very close to what inevitably occurs, once you put thought
into the problem. You are dealing with obsolescence on several levels
simultaneously, among them:
- media
- file format
- application
- operating system
- machine architecture
These all go obsolete on rather short cycles.
And if "go obsolete" means "can no longer be used" to you, then
you're likely already screwed on a few different levels.
It is not necessary for
the "last copy" to be destroyed. It is only necessary for "a copy I can
easily get hold of, along with a working machine of that architecture I
can easily get hold of, along with a copy of its system software, ..."
etc, etc. And soon enough you begin to need knowledge that you either
forgot or never actually had. Like a serial number. Or remote server
activation.<GAME OVER>
Well, suitly profitware is a "buyer beware" sort of situation. You
want to eventually lose access to your own images? Be enough of a moron
to buy garbage like that. Be enough of a moron to use "image hosting"
services. Be enough of a moron to NOT put any thought into the "hey,
how pissed off will I be if I lose this image forever?" question.
Are people like that really worth worrying about? For you, maybe.
For me? I'm just not that patient a person.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL