So I guess we shouldn’t have been that surprised (although we were) when he announced he would be out of the office for a while and when asked where the answer was, “Haiti.”

Events unfolding in Haiti are controversial. It’s a corrupt, lawless country made worse by a most tragic natural disaster. Recent days have raised questions about what can be done, who can help, how that assistance can be doled out to those who truly need it, and the dangers inherent in that process.

McInnis is in a unique position to help because he owns a powerful airplane that can land and take off on a short runway while carrying cargo. When he got a call asking for help shuttling supplies from Florida into a rural area of Haiti, he promptly said he would.

Some of us thought he was certifiable. Really? Haiti? What about fuel, accommodations, sanitation, or the occasional flying bullet. But David stopped us all with one quiet answer, “It’s an opportunity to serve.”

And with that he was out the door. Since it’s a cross-country flight just to get to the jump-off point in Florida, they stopped in Seattle to pick up a full load of rescuers also anxious to get there to help.

To David and his faithful pilot, we send loads of good thoughts and admiration.

We look forward to hearing their stories and seeing pictures when they return. Meanwhile, David is sending the occasional dispatch via Twitter at http://twitter.com/giantcranberry.

CD/DVD experiential life expectancy is 2 to 5 years even though published life expectancies are often cited as 10 years, 25 years, or longer. However, a variety of factors discussed in the sources cited in FAQ 15, below, may result in a much shorter life span for CDs/DVDs. Life expectancies are statistically based; any specific medium may experience a critical failure before its life expectancy is reached. Additionally, the quality of your storage environment may increase or decrease the life expectancy of the media. We recommend testing your media at least every two years to assure your records are still readable.

From The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Web site (Item 6 in the FAQs)

Who knew? Certainly I didn’t. For some time now, DVDR manufacturers have been leading us to believe that by replacing the silver reflective layer with gold, they have somehow increased the life-span of your data on their DVDR discs. Most of us really don’t have the time to dig into the technology behind optical storage media to know if that premise makes sense. The discs cost more, come with a claim of preserving your files for 80 to 100 years so what’s there to doubt?

Unfortunately, there are many things about DVDRs that can be considered weak points in the design. Any one of these weak points can easily and silently put your important files in jeopardy. Most notably:

1. when silver was used as the reflective layer, it was prone to oxidizing which defeated its ability to reflect. This problem was solved for conventional disc design by replacing silver with gold.
2. your data is stored on a layer of organic dye as it reacts to the laser beam when the disc is burned. This dye, being of an organic nature, breaks down even in the best of conditions. It is very susceptable to exposure to light and temperature.
3. the beam used to burn the data onto the dye layer is also used to read the data back, causing additional degradation of the data layer every time the disc is read.

Recently, people have begun going to their DVDR archives to access their important files and are discovering this unexpected data loss. A writer for the New York Times told of his experience and people commented in droves about their experiences as well.

Feel free to share your experiences in the comments here.

“CD/DVD experiential life expectancy is 2 to 5 years even though published life expectancies are often cited as 10 years, 25 years, or longer. However, a variety of factors discussed in the sources cited in FAQ 15, below, may result in a much shorter life span for CDs/DVDs. Life expectancies are statistically based; any specific medium may experience a critical failure before its life expectancy is reached. Additionally, the quality of your storage environment may increase or decrease the life expectancy of the media. We recommend testing your media at least every two years to assure your records are still readable.”
National Archives Website

Sadly, most people don’t know this. Tell your friends before they lose their important memories. Let them know there’s a better, less risky way to preserve their family history.

Sheesh

I cannot imagine the angst that I would feel if I were to discover my address book, photos and other personal files on my phone were lost and irretrievable. This would be especially painful if I was led to believe a third-party service had been backing up my information using online storage yet were now telling me my data is gone.

Such is the reality for T-Mobile Sidekick cell phone users. They have recently been advised to not allow their batteries to run down or their phones to shut off because if they do, all is lost and irretrievable. Holy cow!

The Sidekick cell phone has been widely used for years and one of the substantial benefits has been the automatic back up service. Sidekick users were ensured that even if they tossed their phone into the river or under a car tire, as soon as they fired up the replacement Sidekick, all contacts, photos and other personal files would magically appear.

In today’s digital world we need to proactively protect what is important to us. This includes digital files like family photos, family videos, business documents, etc. It’s incidents like the Sidekick debacle that should give us reason to pause and reconsider how exposed to losing very important memories and information we are allowing ourselves.

What’s the lesson to be learned here? I think it has to do with how much we should depend solely upon third-party solutions for archiving our important files. If your family photos, address books, etc. are important to you, then take responsibility for archiving them in ways you can be assured will be recoverable when needed.

We’re proud to provide the Cranberry DiamonDisc™ as an excellent option for for archiving your important personal and business data so that it can be immediately recovered without dependency on others and without fear that the media will fail.

More about the Sidekick debacle:

• CNET News: Sidekick users share their horror stories
• Engadget: T-Mobile: we probably lost all your Sidekick data
• Gizmodo: T-Mobile Sidekick Out(r)age: Your Data’s Probably Gone Forever
• Washington Post: Sidekick Users See Their Data Vanish Into a Cloud

The team at Cranberry has their fingers in many things, including social media online services, brick and mortar retail, archival storage media and much, much more. As a result we are delving into these spaces with a unique perspective that makes it easy to think disruptively (read outside-the-box).

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