Sad but true, that was also my first thought when reading this sentence. Especially since he is best known for writing CD/DVD recording software. Small anecdote: this March, I have upgraded my desktop PC, and the new motherboard doesn't have a PATA port, so I haven't been able to use my Plextor CD/DVD recorder anymore for a few months. But I haven't really missed it enough to get me to buy a PATA interface card. And even before, I was only using it to rip audio CDs - I can't really remember when I burned my last CD (or was it a DVD?)...
> buying a portable HDD is significantly cheaper TB for TB but I feel they'll fail quicker
It depends on your usage model. If you "burn" a HDD and store it in a drawer, then pull it back after 15 years, chances are it will work fine - whereas the CD might well have lost a lot of data. It might not be cheaper per TB, though.
I think flash drives and SSDs decay a lot more quickly than traditional magnetic HDDs, and may decay more quickly than CDRs.
As a practical matter, I can generally read 20-year-old CDRs I burned just fine (I have only had issues with cheap CDR blanks, such as Fry’s old house brand); for things I want to last long-term, I use archival grade CDR blanks.
I've been burning to Blu-ray and putting a sha256sum file on the disc with the contents so that in theory, I can check the sums every so often and re-burn them to increase the longevity.
Granted I have not been using archival grade Blu-ray's because the cost to store terabytes is prohibitive.
As an aside, as a favor to your loved ones, I would put only really really important files on a single archival grade CD-R or, at most, DVD-R. This should be a really concise “here is the stuff worth remembering after I pass away” collection of files.
As someone who lost three close family members in the last five years, the last thing your relatives will want to do after you die is go through multiple terabytes of unorganized files to try and find relevant pictures and other heirlooms worth keeping (one relative had a nicely organized folder with relatively few important pictures on his hard disk, so I was able to fairly easily make a DVD of his photography for the family).
My “after my pass away” CD-R has one picture I took per month, starting in the mid-2000s decade when digital cameras started being widely available. There are notes about who is in each picture, where each picture is taken, and other relevant details about the pictures.
I also have 320k MP3 files of the better music I have composed over the years, since I am also an electronic musician.
In terms of open source software, it’s more likely than not that one of GitHub/GitLab/Sourceforge/Bitbucket or even Sourcehut will outlive me; my important projects are on multiple Git hosting services. Even if all of today’s Git repos go down, important software will be uploaded by others to what passes as Git to whatever repos exist in the future (See: The number of open source projects when never used Git mirrored on GitHub)
You make very good points and these are things I've put some thought into (particularly) since becoming a father.
The only stuff I consider really important is the photographs and videos, most of the things before our child(ren).
I think the interesting and most important point I've taken from you here is putting the "what/who/why/where".
We were looking through my childhood photos/videos at my parents recently but had no context for some of them and the people who might have known are no longer with us.
As for code, all of my code is open source when I finish a project (rare) but nothing that the world would miss (so far) so I haven't put any real effort into preserving it.
I think, for keeping pictures long term, the best format is to buy a photo album (but not one with sticky pages -- those go bad) and print out the pictures and put them in the album.
I have a photo album with a number of pictures and handwritten notes about where I was, who is in the picture, and what we were doing.
Second best option is an archival grade CD-R or DVD-R (but not Blu-Ray: There was/is not enough support for Blu Rays, but at one point, CD/DVD support was universal), with the contents clearly marked on the front of the disk so your loved ones can quickly know what is on the disk. Images should all be in .jpg format (converted as necessary), and notes should be in .txt files. (.webp will probably work long term, but I would use .jpg to ensure compatibility, since that is the lowest common denominator format for photos)
Music, if one is a composer, should be either 16/44.1 .wav files or 320k mp3 files; the music files should be in stereo.
I would have videos be 24p (24 frames per second) or 30p (30 frames per second) 720p resolution (hi-def: 1280x720) video in H264 .mp4 format. Be careful: Some open source applications will write a .mp4 they themselves can play, but won’t play (or won’t play well) on other video players. H264 format .mp4 looks to be pretty much universally compatible, however. I suggest keeping the resolution and frame rate down to minimize problems.
>I wish this was true just a bit. Software goes away with the time almost like no other human artifact.
You might be surprised. Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky (recently discussed here) describes in some detail the job position of programmer archaeologist (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_archaeology>).
I wish this was true just a bit. Software goes away with the time almost like no other human artifact.