Things that confirm your age

[Ruffnut Thorston]

I seem to recall that the reason that Tomorrow’s World, et al, could coat disks in jam, etc., and still play them when cleaned was that they were using the proper high quality system disks...

 

Production disks have been made more cheaply, and as a consequence are no where as good quality, and damage far more easily like.

 

Build down to a price, never mind the quality....

 

 

 

[Hroth]

9 hours ago, Sarahagain said:

Production disks have been made more cheaply, and as a consequence are no where as good quality, and damage far more easily like.

 

The latest wheeze, possibly thought up by the beancounters to reduce the holding of manufactured product, is production on demand.  What you actually get is a "commercial" product that is no more than a CD/DVD-R which gets burned when you order it.

 

Built in obsolesence, wonderful!

 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

9 hours ago, Sarahagain said:

I seem to recall that the reason that Tomorrow’s World, et al, could coat disks in jam, etc., and still play them when cleaned was that they were using the proper high quality system disks...

 

Production disks have been made more cheaply, and as a consequence are no where as good quality, and damage far more easily like.

 

Build down to a price, never mind the quality...

Corners were very definitely cut in the boom years of production, and especially on pop releases. I have seen some dire specimens that were only fit for use as bird scarers, and at that only good for 6 months by which time the reflective layer had gone missing. Manufactured as specified: qualified materials, conforming equipment, defined process, all is well.

 

The answer as ever, buy properly composed 'classical music' created by skilled musicians who wrote it all out longhand in formal musical notation. This endures, my circa 2,000 CD's - the oldest dating from purchase in 1983 - all still play beautifully, just as they did on day 1.

[Dickon]

On 14/09/2020 at 04:03, pH said:

We called this “battering” a book, and the cover a “batter” - what the reason for that was, I do not know.

 

I would guess that somebody saw a resemblance to the batter coating on spam fritters or fish.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

On the canals, an embankment, or sometimes a cutting, was referred to as a batter...

 

Obviously a reference to the angle of the bank, batter being also the term for a receding angle in a wall in architecture...

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batter_(walls)

 

Not to be confused with the angle of repose, that's the steepest slope that the material it consists of stays put, and doesn't result in a landslide...

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by Sarahagain
typo

[NorthBrit]

As many people take things for granted these days, may I take you back to 1954.  Nine years after the war had ended we saw the end of rationing.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

My memories go further back  -  late 1940s in fact.

 

One could listen to the radio.  

 

There were three main BBC Radio stations broadcasting in Britain in the 1950s. The most widely listened-to service, the "Light Programme", brought us popular music as well as mainstream light entertainment in the form of variety shows, comedy, and drama. The "Home Service", whilst it also had its share of general entertainment programmes, was the main channel for news, features, and drama of a more demanding kind – and was the home too of regional programming. The "Third Programme" meanwhile was unashamedly highbrow in character: broadcasting in the evenings only, its output consisted of classical music concerts and recitals, talks on matters scientific, philosphical, and cultural, together with poetry readings and classic or experimental plays. In 1957 its weekly hours were cut by 40%.

Also, The General Overseas Service (previously The Empire Service, now the BBC World Service) was an international service which was beamed around the World from London with its news prelude Lilliburlero, famous since 1943. Every news bulletin was preceded by this strict sequence: at 59.32 the announcer would say "This is London". At 59.35 Lilliburlero was played, followed at 59.55 by the Greenwich Time Signal. The continuity announcer would then give the time - e.g. "Thirteen hours Greenwich Mean Time" and the news studio would be cued and the newsreader would say "BBC World Service. The news, read by....".

 

Then we listened to  Radio Luxembourg!

 

Edited September 15, 2020 by NorthBrit
Error

[jonny777]

On 14/09/2020 at 14:23, John Harris said:

 

Without wishing to upset you, but CDs (and DVDs for that matter) cannot be regarded as a permanent back-up.  https://cdm.link/2017/02/a-generation-of-cds-is-already-rotting-and-dying/  Some disc media, evidently using faulty dyes, can fail in under ten years, via something unpleasantly dubbed “disc rot.”

 

This was a minor issue while I was working, supporting payroll services, as some offices decided that CDs were a better option than pile (and pile) of paper, but the supplier could not guarantee the CDs would last more than 20 years.

 

jh

 

Going off at a tangent slightly, while I have some photographic images saved to CD/DVDs, the main part of my collection is on an external hard drive, backed up to an older second drive - but I am acutely aware that if one of the drives develops a hardware fault such as not spinning at the correct speed or the read laser giving up the ghost, the entire contents (currently at 5TB) is probably unrecoverable. 

 

I doubt that 5TB solid state drives are going to be affordable any time soon, and cloud storage appears to give away rights and control over what is mine; therefore I am wondering if I am heading for a storage disaster sometime in the future. 

 

 

[woodenhead]

When your lecturer describes you as a more 'mature' student in his 'late 20s' to his online audience and they all know he means you're a grey haired wrinkly.

[62613]

1 hour ago, NorthBrit said:

As many people take things for granted these days, may I take you back to 1954.  Nine years after the war had ended we saw the end of rationing.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

My memories go further back  -  late 1940s in fact.

 

One could listen to the radio.  

 

There were three main BBC Radio stations broadcasting in Britain in the 1950s. The most widely listened-to service, the "Light Programme", brought us popular music as well as mainstream light entertainment in the form of variety shows, comedy, and drama. The "Home Service", whilst it also had its share of general entertainment programmes, was the main channel for news, features, and drama of a more demanding kind – and was the home too of regional programming. The "Third Programme" meanwhile was unashamedly highbrow in character: broadcasting in the evenings only, its output consisted of classical music concerts and recitals, talks on matters scientific, philosphical, and cultural, together with poetry readings and classic or experimental plays. In 1957 its weekly hours were cut by 40%.

Also, The General Overseas Service (previously The Empire Service, now the BBC World Service) was an international service which was beamed around the World from London with its news prelude Lilliburlero, famous since 1943. Every news bulletin was preceded by this strict sequence: at 59.32 the announcer would say "This is London". At 59.35 Lilliburlero was played, followed at 59.55 by the Greenwich Time Signal. The continuity announcer would then give the time - e.g. "Thirteen hours Greenwich Mean Time" and the news studio would be cued and the newsreader would say "BBC World Service. The news, read by....".

 

Then we listened to  Radio Luxembourg!

 

Ah, the Light Programme; Sunday 1 p.m., after Family Favourites, brought stuff like Beyond our Ken, Round the Horne, The Navy Lark and so on. There was also stuff like Gardeners' Question Time, Does the Team Think?, and Twenty Questions, hosted by my time by Eamonn Andrews later on. Mum religiously had me listening to the childrens' programme at quarter to two, with Daphne Oxenford. This was all very late 50s/early 60s; we didn't have a telly until 1962

[Vistisen]

1 hour ago, jonny777 said:

 

Going off at a tangent slightly, while I have some photographic images saved to CD/DVDs, the main part of my collection is on an external hard drive, backed up to an older second drive - but I am acutely aware that if one of the drives develops a hardware fault such as not spinning at the correct speed or the read laser giving up the ghost, the entire contents (currently at 5TB) is probably unrecoverable. 

 

I doubt that 5TB solid state drives are going to be affordable any time soon, and cloud storage appears to give away rights and control over what is mine; therefore I am wondering if I am heading for a storage disaster sometime in the future. 

 

 

offsite Online backup does not cost a lot compared to the value of the memories in your photos.  

[melmerby]

Watching Bargain Hunt* on Telly

 

Watching a repeat of Bargain Hunt* on Telly that you have already seen and can't remember any of it...........

 

*insert programme of choice

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

Going off at a tangent slightly, while I have some photographic images saved to CD/DVDs, the main part of my collection is on an external hard drive, backed up to an older second drive - but I am acutely aware that if one of the drives develops a hardware fault such as not spinning at the correct speed or the read laser giving up the ghost, the entire contents (currently at 5TB) is probably unrecoverable. 

 

I doubt that 5TB solid state drives are going to be affordable any time soon, and cloud storage appears to give away rights and control over what is mine; therefore I am wondering if I am heading for a storage disaster sometime in the future. 

 

 

Not likely to be a laser, at that size it will likely be a normal magnetic drive and as long as the magnetic surface isn't damaged, professional service centres can recover data.

 

On CD/DVD drives the speed is definitely not important as different makes of drive go at different speeds, the same disc can be read whatever the drive speed. (just faster or slower)

[zarniwhoop]

3 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

Going off at a tangent slightly, while I have some photographic images saved to CD/DVDs, the main part of my collection is on an external hard drive, backed up to an older second drive - but I am acutely aware that if one of the drives develops a hardware fault such as not spinning at the correct speed or the read laser giving up the ghost, the entire contents (currently at 5TB) is probably unrecoverable. 

 

I doubt that 5TB solid state drives are going to be affordable any time soon, and cloud storage appears to give away rights and control over what is mine; therefore I am wondering if I am heading for a storage disaster sometime in the future.

 

Can you split the data into multiple parts, each less than 2TB ? I ask that because 2TB external (usb3) drives are consumer level and generally available.  But they do fail, one of mine decided it had 0 sectors a month or so ago.  My 'data' (mostly photos, some videos, flac music) is much smaller than yours and is currently under 2TB. If it grows to that level, I can separate the parts (probably flac vs the rest) and back them up separately. And the primary storage (along with backups of my desktop systems) is on WD red 4TB RAID1 using linux ext4.

 

Unfortunately, everything fails (quite apart from accidentally deleting things).  Having usable backups is important - and no, I would not trust writable CD/DVD media as far as I can throw it. I've got a 'regular' classical music CD which became unplayable, as well as a commercial DVD which is obviously DVD-R or similar and now only plays in black and white!

 

[John M Upton]

This morning delivering my four year old to Primary School, I realised that both his class teacher and the Headmaster are considerably younger than me.  I am just waiting for the day when I am asked if I am Thomas's grandad...

 

Forty five isn't that old is it?

[Hroth]

4 minutes ago, John M Upton said:

Forty five isn't that old is it?

 

You'll grow into it.....

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

But it only lasts a year.....

[TheQ]

15 hours ago, NorthBrit said:

As many people take things for granted these days, may I take you back to 1954.  Nine years after the war had ended we saw the end of rationing.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

My memories go further back  -  late 1940s in fact.

 

One could listen to the radio.  

 

 

 

I'll bet you didn't.... I reckon you listened to the wireless..

[TheQ]

15 hours ago, NorthBrit said:

As many people take things for granted these days, may I take you back to 1954.  Nine years after the war had ended we saw the end of rationing.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom

 

My memories go further back  -  late 1940s in fact.

 

One could listen to the radio.  

 

 

Also, The General Overseas Service (previously The Empire Service, now the BBC World Service) was an international service which was beamed around the World from London with its news prelude Lilliburlero, famous since 1943. Every news bulletin was preceded by this strict sequence: at 59.32 the announcer would say "This is London". At 59.35 Lilliburlero was played, followed at 59.55 by the Greenwich Time Signal. The continuity announcer would then give the time - e.g. "Thirteen hours Greenwich Mean Time" and the news studio would be cued and the newsreader would say "BBC World Service. The news, read by....". Alvar Liddell

 

 

Then we listened to  Radio Luxembourg!

 

 

[TheQ]

15 hours ago, jonny777 said:

 

Going off at a tangent slightly, while I have some photographic images saved to CD/DVDs, the main part of my collection is on an external hard drive, backed up to an older second drive - but I am acutely aware that if one of the drives develops a hardware fault such as not spinning at the correct speed or the read laser giving up the ghost, the entire contents (currently at 5TB) is probably unrecoverable. 

 

I doubt that 5TB solid state drives are going to be affordable any time soon, and cloud storage appears to give away rights and control over what is mine; therefore I am wondering if I am heading for a storage disaster sometime in the future. 

 

 

Get a couple of large external hard drives, initially save a copy on each one.

Then after each update to your files, save to an alternate one.

[Dickon]

Remembering the first time my father hit 60 mph in the family car. A brand new Mk1 Ford Consul on the Kingston Bypass.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Dickon
added 'brand new'

[Reorte]

2 hours ago, Sarahagain said:

But it only lasts a year.....

That seems to be about how long it takes to get used to being whatever age you are, yes!

[melmerby]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Get a couple of large external hard drives, initially save a copy on each one.

Then after each update to your files, save to an alternate one.

Grandfather, Father, Son is the term in business. That's how we backed-up our data and that was when quantities of data were in 10s of Mb

You have 3 backups and keep doing them in sequence.

 

[jonny777]

13 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Grandfather, Father, Son is the term in business. That's how we backed-up our data and that was when quantities of data were in 10s of Mb

You have 3 backups and keep doing them in sequence.

 

 

I have an 8TB and a 5TB drive, but the problem is that I am scanning slides on 64bit RGB at 5400 dpi. This produces a 200mb file for each transparency. (I want to preserve the photos in as high quality digital as I can afford). 

 

I am getting to the point where I would need three 8TBs just to keep up. They are not that cheap. 

[petethemole]

12 hours ago, John M Upton said:

This morning delivering my four year old to Primary School, I realised that both his class teacher and the Headmaster are considerably younger than me.  I am just waiting for the day when I am asked if I am Thomas's grandad...

 

Forty five isn't that old is it?

 

I was 51 when Martyn was born so I got some of that, but not as much as I expected as I looked younger than my age (or so I was told).

 

15 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

 This produces a 200mb file for each transparency. (I want to preserve the photos in as high quality digital as I can afford).

 

When I was at work the Council Archives were scanning historic photos which were available to view on the internal network if you had the right access permissions, which we did, as we used the resource regularly.  The scanning was done by volunteers and the settings varied a lot.  Some were done at high definition and produced 140+mb files.  We had a remote connection to the main servers through our own server and an optical link.  Attempting to download one of these files would overload our server, or the link, so nobody in the office could access the outside world.  Closing the file would free it up again.

[melmerby]

27 minutes ago, jonny777 said:

 

I have an 8TB and a 5TB drive, but the problem is that I am scanning slides on 64bit RGB at 5400 dpi. This produces a 200mb file for each transparency. (I want to preserve the photos in as high quality digital as I can afford). 

 

I am getting to the point where I would need three 8TBs just to keep up. They are not that cheap. 

Are slides really good enough for 5400dpi with 64bit RGB?

I used to take slides with a Canon A1 (+ Canon lenses) using Ektachrome (occasionally Kodachrome) film and I haven't gone to that depth of detail.

I use an Epson 4990 Perfection scanner, which gives 4800dpi @ 48bit native but I have never gone for the max as I cannot see any difference above 3200dpi @ 32bit colour

Edited September 16, 2020 by melmerby