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>If the file format becomes obsolete, it's gone. (This has actually happened to many video and audio formats.) Any examples of video or audio files that are cu

by mrob 8y ago

>If the file format becomes obsolete, it's gone. (This has actually happened to many video and audio formats.) Any examples of video or audio files that are currently impossible to watch/listen to because knowledge of the file format, and all software capable of playing it was lost? If such a thing has happened, there are probably people interested in reverse engineering the format.

elygre 8y ago
I keep hearing the fear of losing content because of obsolete file formats. Then I think about Linear B, and I rest again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B
- mrob 8y ago
  There's no emulator that can run a Linear B parser. If a linear B dictionary ever existed, it was never mass produced. Linear B is older than the printing press, let alone the Internet. But now we do have those technologies, and "lots of copies makes stuff safe" is cheaper and easier than ever. I don't believe any mainstream digital format (i.e. popular enough to have a Wikipedia page) will be permanently lost unless there's a complete collapse of society, and then we'll have bigger problems to worry about.
pbhjpbhj 8y ago
I can pick up some writing on physical media -- an Akkadian clay tablet -- and read it (if I have the knowledge) despite it being thousands of years old. Things like laserdiscs, I can probably still buy equipment to read, but it's substantially different as I need the technology to read it. Microfiche is quite good in this respect, you can easily read it even without the specific tech it was made for (using a magnifier, or projecting the image with a simple light source. I wonder if you could make a crystal where, like a hologram, you can rotate the crystal a minute amount in order to project a different page (an idea I saw decades ago had a digital clock style projection from a crystal, used asa sundial -- pretty sure it was theoretical). That way the information is relatively easy to discover, and with a simple light source you can get info out if it.

by mrob 8y ago

elygre 8y ago

I keep hearing the fear of losing content because of obsolete file formats. Then I think about Linear B, and I rest again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_B

mrob 8y ago
There's no emulator that can run a Linear B parser. If a linear B dictionary ever existed, it was never mass produced. Linear B is older than the printing press, let alone the Internet. But now we do have those technologies, and "lots of copies makes stuff safe" is cheaper and easier than ever. I don't believe any mainstream digital format (i.e. popular enough to have a Wikipedia page) will be permanently lost unless there's a complete collapse of society, and then we'll have bigger problems to worry about.

pbhjpbhj 8y ago

I can pick up some writing on physical media -- an Akkadian clay tablet -- and read it (if I have the knowledge) despite it being thousands of years old. Things like laserdiscs, I can probably still buy equipment to read, but it's substantially different as I need the technology to read it. Microfiche is quite good in this respect, you can easily read it even without the specific tech it was made for (using a magnifier, or projecting the image with a simple light source. I wonder if you could make a crystal where, like a hologram, you can rotate the crystal a minute amount in order to project a different page (an idea I saw decades ago had a digital clock style projection from a crystal, used asa sundial -- pretty sure it was theoretical). That way the information is relatively easy to discover, and with a simple light source you can get info out if it.