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Format Longevity: Compact Cassettes
February 04, 2024
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   I swung by a record shop while returning home from an appointment,
yesterday.  They had a pile of tempting goodies and an armful left
with me.  Leaving the vinyl for another post, two cassettes listed
dates that called for attention.  The newest was made in 1995 and
works like new.  

   The oldest is more interesting, having been released twenty years
prior in 1975.  The reels were a bit stiff from disuse but came
around after jogging through a few rewind and fast-forward cycles.
Despite being 49 years old, the album is playing perfectly well as I
type this phlog entry.

   One might wonder how many USB thumb drives, SD cards, hard drives,
solid state drives, or CDs will still be usable half a century from
their date of manufacture.  Given the time to go before anyone can
find out, one might also wonder if the file types on those formats
will still be readily readable by common software.

   To say nothing of the timeless appeal of a tape deck's clicks and
clunks as controls are pressed and things move about.  Or the subtle
motion of the spinning reels through the viewing window.  And
certainly no digression of the minor joy of pawing through a cassette
rack, looking at album art, and unfolding J cards.  Maybe even
finding que notes tucked into the case to help get a favorite track
going right away.  All the documentation up front rather than hidden
in some hidden, sterile metadata.


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kimek
[gopher://sdf.org/1/users/kimek]