Is there a specific reason you don't want to just print the pictures on photographic paper? It's a pretty efficient storage medium, doesn't need an encoder, and crucially doesn't need a decoder either...
I'm echoing the suggestions to store the images in an analog format. Best bang for the buck in terms of archival storage.
Specifically, I'd suggest negative film, black and white, selenium toned, archivally stored. Glass is good, modern film stock no less so. Maco in Germany produces a film stock that is rated for 500 years under ideal conditions with appropriate development and sufficient fixing; 25 years should be a breeze.
If you need to store colour, shoot separations with registration marks, clearly labelled. In the Future(tm), these can then be scanned and the channels combined in whatever imaging software they will be using.
Film, aside from its physical longevity and resistance to decay, has a very specific, simple advantage: it is *immediately* clear what the item is, and how to use it. You don't have to include instructions, hex dumps, computers, or anything else. You look at a neg (or a positive transparency), and it's pretty obvious how to derive an image, because the image is, you know, visible.
Caveat: I'm an analog photographer. While digital photography has its uses, none of them tally with what I do.
But taxis and buses don't damage the roadways and the other vehicles on it during ordinary use.
You haven't spent much time in African traffic, right?
Windhoek's traffic is ~50% comprised of taxis, and they sure as tickets damage the road and other vehicles. I feel safe because I drive an Uri. Lokal is Lekker.:-)
None of these sites, TTBOMK, asks for or checks references. And the liability assumed thereunder would be huge if they did, so they probably never will.
Not entirely true.
At least with hospitalityclub.org, there's a kind of ad-hoc peer-reviewed identity checking. Example: you stay at my house. I check your passport/other ID and verify your identity. I can then say on your profile that you were my guest, and that I verified your identity. Likewise, you can check my identity and post on my profile that you checked it. Couchsurfing has a comparable mechanism.
If I hypothetically found you to be a creep, I can say so in the 'I was Harmonious Botch's Host' section. It seems to be a surprisingly effective way of keeping out the creeps. Because if you want to stay at my house, you send me a message through the site, and I can check to see what peoples' general opinion of you was. If I don't like what I see, I can say no.
Individuals are responsible for the risks inherent in letting people stay over, but IMO that is the case whether you met them online or in a bar while backpacking in Kathmandu.
Likewise, people are responsible for their own safety, whether they're staying on a CS/HC member's couch, whether they take an overloaded matatu from Nairobi to Mtito Andei, or whether they stay at a Club Med resort. Someone young/naiive enough to stay in a dangerous place will be in danger irrespective of how they got there.
Peer review doesn't work for everyone; I know of one HCer who photographs guests, photocopies their passports and makes 'em sign a waiver.
What worries me is that the man who raped, er, had consensual sex* with this woman with no protection is very likely to be SA's next president. His long time accomplice is currently doing a healthy stretch for corruption. And yet his party still actively support him. Even if you drop the corruption charges, you're still talking about a man who believes it's ok to have unprotected sex with aids carriers as long as you have a shower afterwards. I mean really, WTF? What hope is there for the masses with this kind of mind in charge?
Oh, we're on the same page here; the Z-man must not become president. But on a purely anthropological level, I find the level of fanatical support he enjoys in the face of overwhelming evidence that he is a loony fascinating.
Sort of like That Other Guy.
5 years ago, I would have traded anything in the world with you to get your place in the USA. Hell, I even quite like Jersey from what I've seen of it:) Today, I don't even go there on holiday any more:(
Ach, NJ is nice enough to look at in certain places. Just being a foreign teenager in blinkered middle class suburbia sucked. There are now other things I object to about the notion of living in the US.
And government incompentence and corruption is simmering quite nicely could just as easily describe the current US administration, no?
No, it couldn't. The US pot has boiled over. They're brazenly corrupt and evil.
No arguments there...
I tried making a difference, I really did, but I couldn't take it any more so I left. I was tired of being racially discriminated against for work because of the sins of my father and his father. I was tired of living in a country where the minister for law and order says 'If you dont like the crime, leave'. I was tired of living in a place where the proposed government cure for aids is to eat your vegetables and have a shower after raping an HIV positive woman. You might recognise this country as you live right next door:)
Believe me, I recognise the stupid. Our particular former president is not much of an improvement, and he's not altogether gone yet either; the current guy is doing an *okay* job -- nothing stellar, and no Nobel Prizes.
The racial stigma you're referring to is the one that bugs me most; I came here; the sins my forefathers committed are not even applicable here. I had to fight for my job, but i got it in the end on the strength of being willing and able to train 'native' Namibians, which I am doing in addition to my main job.
Crime's an issue here too, but it's being taken seriously, and while I can't see great strides yet, they will come. Or not.
As for places like Zimbabwe, I don't believe there is hope for the simple reason that the people don't fully understand democracy. Same goes for SA really. A lot of people (and I've seen this first hand, doing education and charity work in rural areas) believe that democracy means you are free to vote for the guy who you're told to vote for by your local chief. Until true individual democracy is understood and embraced, these people can't change their fates. Hope can only exist when the people you trust to provide things actually come through. All the sales of red ipods in the world don't mean jack shit when the government spends the money on Sarafina 2.
... and that is a function of education. The governments of developing countries -- including Namibia and SA -- need to get serious about spending on education, and about attracting knowhow. That realisation is sinking in, but it will take a while. Europe had to go through several bouts of the black plague and the 30 years' war to get where it is now.
Don't even get me started on red shit. This weekend I got in a row with some sales tart who was trying to convince me that buying a red motorola would make so much difference to people in africa. The dumb bitch had a nice set of sanitised statistics but didn't know a damn thing about aids in africa. She didn't know the good old SA health minister [sackmanto.co.za], she didn't find a thing wrong with Pope John Paul II's actions in the arena (the new bloke wants to canonise him - I want him posthumously tried for genocide!), she didn't know shit. I ended up telling her that learning about about the conditions and actual problems in Africa would make far more difference than standing their in her whore skirt selling red phones for profit.
Hehehehe. I've personally phrased it less harshly, but I'm right there with you.
But coming back to the point: I'd still rather live in Namibia than New Jersey.
I agree with you, more or less, albeit with reservations.
I live in Namibia myself, and there's no denying the fact that the government is run by a certain proportion of ne'er-do-wells and scallywags, but I have to say a majority of the people here do try to do well by themselves and others as best they can. And government incompentence and corruption is simmering quite nicely could just as easily describe the current US administration, no?
These places have potential -- Zimbabwe, too -- but in order to realise that potential, the population needs to be pulled out of the rut they're in, whether it's self-imposed or not. Lots of people around the world have empty bellies, and people like that, who have nothing to lose, are more likely to strap themselves to something unfortunate than someone who's got something to go home to, even if it is as simple -- and hollow -- as hope.
Something as simple as being here, working here in a 'normal' job, paying my taxes and -- above all -- raising expectations makes a small, but cumulative difference. Other people can purchase all the [product]red iPods they want; I occasionally give free rides to malaria-stricken ovaHimba for hundreds of kilometres. What makes more difference? To the Himba in my truck, the free ride to the clinic.
Or something. Mod me sappy. But don't knock it till you've tried it.
And another thing: 3rd-worlders have a strange perception of the 'developed' world. Nothing is more effective at reminding them that '1st worlders' are people too -- and dispelling certain Nike and Coca-Cola-fuelled myths -- than being prepared to get our hands dirty and treating them as equals. 'Cause like it or not, they are.
Disclaimer: not actually American, though I did live there from 1981 until 1988.
Not always the easiest place to live, but rewarding a lot of the time: Southern Africa. And I am not referring to "We'd like to be State 51 please, if only you'll bring back the 1980s" South Africa, I am referring to southern sub-saharan Africa.
Whether you're here on a volunteer basis or you have a 'proper job' (like myself), there is a definite need for clued-up tech people to share their knowledge, and to help pull this place out of its rut. No need to be a charity: I get a salary and everything...
And do your research: not all sub-saharan countries are corruption-plagued dictatorships. Well, no more than the US anyway...
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Is there a specific reason you don't want to just print the pictures on photographic paper? It's a pretty efficient storage medium, doesn't need an encoder, and crucially doesn't need a decoder either...
I'm echoing the suggestions to store the images in an analog format. Best bang for the buck in terms of archival storage.
Specifically, I'd suggest negative film, black and white, selenium toned, archivally stored. Glass is good, modern film stock no less so. Maco in Germany produces a film stock that is rated for 500 years under ideal conditions with appropriate development and sufficient fixing; 25 years should be a breeze.
If you need to store colour, shoot separations with registration marks, clearly labelled. In the Future(tm), these can then be scanned and the channels combined in whatever imaging software they will be using.
Film, aside from its physical longevity and resistance to decay, has a very specific, simple advantage: it is *immediately* clear what the item is, and how to use it. You don't have to include instructions, hex dumps, computers, or anything else. You look at a neg (or a positive transparency), and it's pretty obvious how to derive an image, because the image is, you know, visible.
Caveat: I'm an analog photographer. While digital photography has its uses, none of them tally with what I do.
You haven't spent much time in African traffic, right?
Windhoek's traffic is ~50% comprised of taxis, and they sure as tickets damage the road and other vehicles. I feel safe because I drive an Uri. Lokal is Lekker. :-)
Not entirely true.
At least with hospitalityclub.org, there's a kind of ad-hoc peer-reviewed identity checking. Example: you stay at my house. I check your passport/other ID and verify your identity. I can then say on your profile that you were my guest, and that I verified your identity. Likewise, you can check my identity and post on my profile that you checked it. Couchsurfing has a comparable mechanism.
If I hypothetically found you to be a creep, I can say so in the 'I was Harmonious Botch's Host' section. It seems to be a surprisingly effective way of keeping out the creeps. Because if you want to stay at my house, you send me a message through the site, and I can check to see what peoples' general opinion of you was. If I don't like what I see, I can say no.
Individuals are responsible for the risks inherent in letting people stay over, but IMO that is the case whether you met them online or in a bar while backpacking in Kathmandu.
Likewise, people are responsible for their own safety, whether they're staying on a CS/HC member's couch, whether they take an overloaded matatu from Nairobi to Mtito Andei, or whether they stay at a Club Med resort. Someone young/naiive enough to stay in a dangerous place will be in danger irrespective of how they got there.
Peer review doesn't work for everyone; I know of one HCer who photographs guests, photocopies their passports and makes 'em sign a waiver.
Oh, we're on the same page here; the Z-man must not become president. But on a purely anthropological level, I find the level of fanatical support he enjoys in the face of overwhelming evidence that he is a loony fascinating.
Sort of like That Other Guy.
Ach, NJ is nice enough to look at in certain places. Just being a foreign teenager in blinkered middle class suburbia sucked. There are now other things I object to about the notion of living in the US.
Au contraire ... I live in Africa, and I get my /. fix every day. Sittin' right here on my 64k backbone ... all that bandwidth humming away...
No arguments there ...
Believe me, I recognise the stupid. Our particular former president is not much of an improvement, and he's not altogether gone yet either; the current guy is doing an *okay* job -- nothing stellar, and no Nobel Prizes.
The racial stigma you're referring to is the one that bugs me most; I came here; the sins my forefathers committed are not even applicable here. I had to fight for my job, but i got it in the end on the strength of being willing and able to train 'native' Namibians, which I am doing in addition to my main job.
Crime's an issue here too, but it's being taken seriously, and while I can't see great strides yet, they will come. Or not.
... and that is a function of education. The governments of developing countries -- including Namibia and SA -- need to get serious about spending on education, and about attracting knowhow. That realisation is sinking in, but it will take a while. Europe had to go through several bouts of the black plague and the 30 years' war to get where it is now.
Hehehehe. I've personally phrased it less harshly, but I'm right there with you.
But coming back to the point: I'd still rather live in Namibia than New Jersey.
I agree with you, more or less, albeit with reservations.
I live in Namibia myself, and there's no denying the fact that the government is run by a certain proportion of ne'er-do-wells and scallywags, but I have to say a majority of the people here do try to do well by themselves and others as best they can. And government incompentence and corruption is simmering quite nicely could just as easily describe the current US administration, no?
These places have potential -- Zimbabwe, too -- but in order to realise that potential, the population needs to be pulled out of the rut they're in, whether it's self-imposed or not. Lots of people around the world have empty bellies, and people like that, who have nothing to lose, are more likely to strap themselves to something unfortunate than someone who's got something to go home to, even if it is as simple -- and hollow -- as hope.
Something as simple as being here, working here in a 'normal' job, paying my taxes and -- above all -- raising expectations makes a small, but cumulative difference. Other people can purchase all the [product]red iPods they want; I occasionally give free rides to malaria-stricken ovaHimba for hundreds of kilometres. What makes more difference? To the Himba in my truck, the free ride to the clinic.
Or something. Mod me sappy. But don't knock it till you've tried it.
And another thing: 3rd-worlders have a strange perception of the 'developed' world. Nothing is more effective at reminding them that '1st worlders' are people too -- and dispelling certain Nike and Coca-Cola-fuelled myths -- than being prepared to get our hands dirty and treating them as equals. 'Cause like it or not, they are.
Disclaimer: not actually American, though I did live there from 1981 until 1988.
Not always the easiest place to live, but rewarding a lot of the time: Southern Africa. And I am not referring to "We'd like to be State 51 please, if only you'll bring back the 1980s" South Africa, I am referring to southern sub-saharan Africa.
Whether you're here on a volunteer basis or you have a 'proper job' (like myself), there is a definite need for clued-up tech people to share their knowledge, and to help pull this place out of its rut. No need to be a charity: I get a salary and everything...
And do your research: not all sub-saharan countries are corruption-plagued dictatorships. Well, no more than the US anyway ...