Confirmed: It’s not just an urban myth (as I’ve seen some people claim) that burned CDs and DVDs deteriorate after less than a decade.

This weekend, I tried to read several hundred files from a DVD I burned seven years ago. Approximately 20% of them were corrupt to various levels. Some were totally unreadable, and some were readable but partially corrupt.

These DVDs were not stored in the sun or in the heat. They’ve never been wet and they have no scratches; the media just deteriorates after a while.

If you have any DVD or CD older than 2-3 years on which you have vital files, it’d probably be a good idea to get those files to other media ASAP.

Argh, trying to use Linux commands at the Windows command line today. Too many OSes.

To any browser that does not let me see the full URL: fuck you.

While I was dreading doing yard work today, a duskywings of some sort flew into the yard and started snacking on some weeds.

This gave me the perfect excuse to go retrieve the camera.

What I like about my 100mm lens is that it’s such a great piece of glass that I get to see details using it that I’d never notice with my naked eye. It’s not the most expensive lens I have, but it’s by far the best one as far as optical quality and ease of use.

Here’s the photo of the duskywings – it’s isn’t that great, but I like it because the 100mm allowed me to see the iridescent sheen on the underside of the wings. It’s really beautiful.

And I also thought it looked pretty cool run through Photohop’s oil paint filter, and then having it sharpened heavily.