• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• BL Club
• Smartbuy
• Books
• Gallery

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

A.M. Faruqui

Yours to cherish in an album.

There was a time when we all had cameras with film rolls that could take only 36 photos, and if you made a mistake, there was no way to delete the photo. You took the film roll to the photo studio nearby and ordered prints.

But I have a digital camera now, you say. Great. You may also have a 2 or 4 GB memory card so you don’t have to worry about space. You decide to take your digital camera on a trip to Singapore with family. By the time you return, your 4 GB card is brimming with memories captured for eternity.

Wait. Eternity? Where are you going to store the photos?

Your computer?

What if it crashes one fine day? Your ‘fond memories’ will be wiped out along with other data. Your operating system and other programs can be reinstalled, but there is no way to retrieve your photos.

Do I hear you saying you have invested in a 1 TB hard disk and you don’t have to worry for the rest of your life? You have to remember your external hard disk is also a hard disk that may crash. Even if it doesn’t crash, what if USB drives become obsolete and future computers are not compatible with USB drives? You think that won’t happen? Do you remember something called ‘floppy drive’? Most new computers don’t come with one anymore and your kids look at you with a puzzled expression when you explain about floppies.

So, you have stored them in CDs. What if CDs become obsolete like floppies? Even now computers come with DVD drives that can ‘also’ play CDs.

Even if all computers can play CDs, you have to remember that the life of a CD is just around ten years. So, keeping your photos in CDs is also risky.

You have an account in one of the photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Photobucket or Picasa and religiously upload your photos everytime? Then, it’s time you remember something that happened a few years ago... it was called ‘Dotcom bust’ when several photo sharing sites vanished along with the photos.

But aren’t companies such as Yahoo! and Google strong? Yes they are. But what makes you think they will keep all their services on? Do you remember Geocities? It was a free Web site hosting platform. Yahoo! bought it a few years ago. Now it is shutting it down and has asked all its users to download whatever they have uploaded to Geocities. Why can’t Flickr or Picasa be next?

So, the best way to store a photo is to have it printed.

Though the prints might have faded, don’t you still have your marriage album? And prints of your antics at your college’s annual fest?

Do I see you hurry with your external drive to the nearest photo studio?

R. Dinakaran

More Stories on : Consumer Electronics | Photographic & Allied Products | Come Again!

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line