fti – Page 2

“Meet The Team” – Issue 3

IN A NEW SERIES OF ARTICLES, WE WILL LOOK AT THE INDIVIDUAL ROLES OF A CROSS-SECTION OF DIFFERENT FTI EMPLOYEES. FOR OUR THIRD ISSUE OF “MEET THE TEAM” WE SPEAK TO MR. LOUIS TSU.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

My name is Louis Tsu, I am originally from Cork in Ireland and currently live in Geneva, Switzerland.

WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION IN FTI?

I am the sales manger for the Asia-Pacific region, which from FTI’s perspective is essentially focused on Japan.

WHAT DOES YOUR ROLE INVOLVE?

My role is centered around developing FTI’s marketplace position in Japan, which is the birthplace of optical media technology and where are all the principle global players in the optical media industry are based – this includes Mitsubishi Chemical Medience Corporation (MCM), who are the owners of Verbatim, one of FTI’s key partners in the Middle Eastern region. Japan is where vendors, producers, manufacturers, clients and other important stakeholder groups in the optical media space interact, cross-correlate and form the business basis of the optical media industry on a global basis and my job is to ensure that I have the awareness of the market developments and the relationships in place to ensure that FTI can maximize its reach and influence on the wider industry through our market penetration of Japan. Whilst my role is essentially a “sales” role, the key component to ensuring success for FTI is effective communication, and cultural awareness plays an important part in this. FTI is continuing to work hard on developing effective sales tools and greater infrastructure in Japan to promote greater market penetration, however a cultural understanding of how market dynamics work and an insight into the culture of decision making – which is very different from other global markets and tends to be dictated by market trends rather than by individuals – is central to how I conduct business for the maximum benefit of FTI.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR TYPICAL DAY AT FTI?

In my role, there really is no such thing as a typical day. Being based in Europe, with a central management office in the Middle East and marketplace in Japan, one of the most important aspect to my job is time-flexibility and an ability to seamlessly flip between different cultural business practices, depending on who I am dealing with. The main department I deal with in the central FTI office in Ras Al Khaimah is the Product Management department, and I often have conference calls with my colleagues to discuss latest product innovations, but also to provide feedback on market intelligence on what is happening within the crucial Japanese market. I also have many contacts in Japan that I deal with on regular basis, spread across a wide range of the different technical specializations of the optical media market. Whilst no two days are the same, every day requires me to be an effective communicator and that skill is key to my role.

WHAT ARE THE MAIN CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN YOUR ROLE?

The main challenge I face is to position FTI on the next level with regard to market influence in Japan. I am working with the central team to get improved tools in place to assist with this objective, plus I contribute to the structural set-up of how we intend to develop our infrastructure in Japan to push FTI to higher level of market influence in Japan, which will in turn positively affect our global influence.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE TEAM YOU WORK WITH?

I have worked at FTI now for 7 years, and always remotely, and have a diverse range of experience in terms of being part of and liaising with different teams and departments within the company. One consistent feature I have observed during my tenure is that the company is quite robust in terms of its team composition and the tenure of staff – many people that I deal with have been working at FTI for longer than me and some since the company inception back in 2005, so for someone like me working in a different continent and timezone to the rest of the team, it is good to see that so many of the people I have worked with over the years are still working at FTI, which is a testament to the strong working culture which exists there to this day.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO OUTSIDE FTI?

I am a keen musician and play the guitar and harmonica – and sometimes both together! At a recent FTI seminar in Ras Al Khaimah, myself and some colleagues had the honor of entertaining the wider team with an exhibition of our musical talents when we performed some songs at an FTI social evening. As a resident of Switzerland I take advantage of the great skiing conditions and try to ski regularly, plus I enjoy cooking, wine and spending time with my family.

“Meet The Team” – Issue 1

In a new series of articles, we will look at the individual roles of a cross-section of different FTI employees. For our first issue of “Meet The Team” we speak to Mr. Vishal Sharma.

What is Your name?

My name is Vishal Sharma and I am from Delhi, India

What is your current position in FTI?

I am the manager of the manufacturing department in FTI. I started with FTI back in 2006, shortly after the plant opened, so I now have 11.5 years of service with the company and am one if FTI’s longest-serving employees.

What does your role involve?

My main responsibility to manage the manufacturing and production floor. I manage a large team of people, and I have several managers that report into me who are responsible for different aspects of the manufacturing, however I have the overall responsibility to ensure that production quotas, based on orders coming through from the sales teams, are met on time and adhere to our quality standards.

In addition to this key function, I am also responsible for disc labelling, printing, and the special solutions used for disc manufacturing. Recently I have expanded my remit to also cover warehousing and purchasing, so my role covers many different areas of expertise.

How would you describe your typical day at FTI?

Given the wide range of responsibilities that I cover, I would say that there is no such thing as a “typical” working day at FTI, however I typically like to be in the office early before the rest of the team arrive, so I am usually here by 7.30am. This gives me an opportunity to go through my emails and prepare for the day. Most days involve meetings with the various managers of my wider team where I receive updates on various aspects of the manufacturing operations and provide direction on how whatever issues we could be facing. I also spend some time on most days with the Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Mattia Balestra, whom I report into.

What are the main challenges you face in your role?

The main challenges for me are meeting production quotas for the sales teams and ensuring that the team have the correct mix of skills necessary to keep quality standards at the high level FTI are known for. Both challenges require me to have a combination of flexibility, an innovative approach and total commitment to the company, however I’m happy to say that there is no challenge we have not been able to find a solution for to date.

How would you describe the team you work with?

I would say that there is an excellent spirit and of teamwork within FTI, and the togetherness ethos that we enjoy today is exemplified by the fact that many of my colleagues have worked here at FTI for over 10 years, so there is great synergy and understanding within the team – we are more like a family than a team.

What are the best things about working for FTI?

I would say that the duty of care to employees ingrained in the culture of FTI is one of the best things about working here. The company places a lot of importance on ensuring that the employees are well looked after from a welfare perspective – regardless of what is happening in the wider commercial environment for the optical media industry – and I think that this is one of the reasons why so many employees have been here for so long.

What do you like to do outside FTI?

I am married with one child (a boy), so I like to spend time at home with my family as much as possible. My hobbies include horse-riding, which is something that is a tradition in my family as my Father was serving in the Indian Army and I had the opportunity to ride horses at a very young age. I also enjoy basketball and volleyball, which are sport that I excelled at when I was younger, representing my school and national level in both. I like to follow the Indian cricket team, and to relax I enjoy watching Bollywood movies, especially those which feature the actor Amir Khan. My favorite movie? It has to be the Amir Khan movie “The Three Idiots”.

How National Archives are Going Digital

Paper was one of the humanity’s earliest means of data storage. Since its invention in China almost two thousand years ago, it is still one of the most important materials that we use in our daily activities: it is used as means of payment in form of cash, many important documents are still signed on paper, paper books are still more popular than the electronic ones and at the end of the day, don’t you still scribble your notes on the business meetings in a paper notebook?

Civilization used paper for centuries (and it will likely continue to do so for several more): our ancestors managed to leave us hundreds of thousands historical documents and books. From these sources, we are able to get the valuable information about important historical events and the way our ancestors lived. Paper allows us to see the footprint that previous generations have left in the history. It is a truly unique invention, as important and significant as the use of fire, iron and the wheel.

Nonetheless its undisputed value and role in the history of the mankind, paper have its weak side: it is not able to resist the influence of the environment. Old paper documents may corrode and the information recorded may gradually fade away and disappear over long periods of time. Before the invention of the first printing presses in XVth century, old manuscripts were copied manually in handwriting. Despite the complexity of that process, people understood the importance of preserving the information for future generations and some even dedicated a lifetime to restore the old manuscripts for the future generations.

Nowadays the technical progress allows us to archive the information in a more safe and simplified way: through digitalization and electronic archiving.

The Telangana State Archives and Research Institute of Hyderabad, India has come up with a proposal for a digital library placing online all its documents that include ‘farmans’ and gazettes issued by erstwhile rulers and also a rich collection of manuscripts. The proposal has already been submitted to the State government for approval.

Once in place, the digital library will come as a boon for researchers, teachers, and students apart from the general public who at present have to go through a cumbersome manual process to check the material of their interest.

“Now, whenever a researcher or student approaches us, we take their request and locate the papers and hand them over. With the proposed system, students coming for research can view the information on computers connected to the server,” said a senior official.

The process has already been initiated and the institute has digitized more than 60 folios which are to be made available to the public through the digital library. The digitized content includes ‘farmans’, gazettes and manuscripts that were issued at different points of time by the then rulers. The impressive collection at the State Archives and Research Institute has thousands of documents related to the Moghal rule while the oldest document preserved here dates back to the year 1406 pertaining to Adil Shah.

Every year, researchers from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and Singapore among other countries visit the Institute for research.

Digital archiving has an important role in historical data preservation: as paper manuscripts and important historical documents are decaying under the influence of temperature, pressure and humidity fluctuations, there is always a risk of data loss. Therefore, digitalization becomes a must, rather than an option.

Just think about it: if the medieval monks would not copy the manuscripts back in the day, we would probably never know about some of the major historical events and scientific discoveries.

We at Falcon Technologies International understand the importance of historical data preservation. It is hard to underestimate the importance of these materials in the context of the history of the civilization. That was one of the ideas behind the development of FalconMEDIA Century Archival Disc – an optical media storage device, that is able to store data for centuries. Manufactured with use of gold and platinum layers technology, it is able to serve as a reliable and secure long-term data vault.

Source: Telangana Today

Next Generation of Optical Media is coming with the Archival Disc

Next generation of the optical disc is announced to be launched in the nearest future. The maximum data storage capacity on a single optical disc that is available on the market now is up to 500 GB, and the new format is going to be able to store twice of that.

The discs are called ‘Archival disc’ and it is claimed that the storage unit can retain its data for more than a 100 years.

Higher capacities in optical storage are made possible due to smaller sized pits and marks and shorter wavelength lasers and improved drawing rates. In the case of the ‘Archival Discs’ alternative approach is used: extra data is recorded on the land areas between grooves that are traditionally unused.

Optical discs have great potential to further enhance their recording density and storage capacity with technological advancements in, for example, signal processing technology. If we compare the growth in the recording density of HDDs, optical discs, and magnetic tapes, in 10 years, from 2016 to 2026, the recording density will improve by 7~15% for HDDs and 30~46% for optical discs. For the magnetic tapes, the increase is estimated to be less than 30%. To estimate the longevity of the media, industry standard acceleration tests were conducted. Error occurrence rates were measured in temperatures 30℃ and above and in less than 70% humidity. These tests estimate that the prototypes of the Archive Discs can reliably store data for more than 100 years. On the other hand, hard disks have a lifespan of a few years, and magnetic tapes a dozen or so years.

Because optical discs have a long life, unlike hard disks and magnetic tapes, there is no need to regularly migrate data from degraded media to new media. Moreover, optical discs do not require operations or cooling of facilities that are associated with hard disks, therefore, long-term storing of data on optical discs can reduce power consumed as well as costs incurred. If 1PB (petabyte) of data is stored for 20 years on HDDs, magnetic tapes, and optical discs, with widely available HDDs and magnetic tapes, the costs come out to be around the same, whereas with optical discs, it is estimated that the data could be stored at half the cost.

Another technology used on the Archival Discs is,”Crosstalk-cancelling technology”. This technology cancels crosstalk noise generated by adjacent tracks. This should ensure playback quality without read errors, even with narrow track pitches.

Falcon Technologies International is constantly monitoring the overall trends of the optical media market and tends to allocate its resources towards innovation and improvement of its professional product lines, in particular, the Century Archival, which is a cutting-edge technology, built with Gold or Platinum layer to ensure maximum security, longevity and protection for stored data proven by a number of internal and independent third-party tests.

Source: guru3d

PRESS RELEASE – Falcon Technologies International to begin official roll-out of Verbatim products in the Middle Eastern region.

Falcon Technologies International (FTI) will begin their roll-out of Verbatim-branded data storage, computer peripherals and accessories to the Middle Eastern market on August 29th 2017. The roll-out follows the announcement of an exclusive agreement with Verbatim back in May 2017 to distribute Verbatim products to countries in the Middle East.

The Verbatim product range, which covers well over 100 individual product lines, has not previously been available to customers in the Middle East via established distribution channels and with high-quality customer services, both of which FTI will supply to the customer service experience. Despite being one of the largest suppliers of optical media and other related products globally, Verbatim’s penetration of the Middle Eastern market has up to now has been very limited.

FTI CEO Michael Gutowski said, “FTI are looing forward to utilizing our well-established connections and distribution channels in the region to effectively launch a new and high-quality brand, which compliments well with FTI own-branded products in terms of quality and associated customer service. We are sure that the roll-out of the Verbatim items in our region will have a positive impact on the brand equity of both FTI and Verbatim as distinct brands, whilst also strengthening our combined presence in the Middle Eastern market as one of the key technology product providers to multiple industries.”

Gary Milner, VP Sales & Marketing at Verbatim GmbH said, “The coming-to-fruition of the partnership between Verbatim and FTI, which has been carefully planned over several months, is a very exciting development in our cooperation and we have full confidence that FTI – with their connections, networks and reputation for quality in the region – will provide an effective vehicle to grow both our respective brands and develop a majority market share within the Middle East.”

The future of archiving

We all know content is king but just as important is the need to prepare, protect and preserve the content through viable and long lasting solutions.

Within the video production industry alone, data-heavy content such as HD, 4K and high frame rate videos are exponentially growing by the day. Subsequently, these newly created assets need to be managed effectively, stored safely, and utilised along with the old assets.

Broadcasters, production companies, and other content holders are not only handling large and growing quantities of daily content, but are also much concerned with digitising the massive VTR assets currently sitting on shelves. As it becomes increasingly possible to effectively manage and rapidly search these materials via shared networks, new potential is discovered for the reuse of such assets.

As data volumes rise, so do storage costs – making it essential to implement storage systems that distinguish between hot (frequently accessed), warm (occasionally accessed), and cold (infrequently accessed) data, and se-lecting the best storage media for each. The main obstacle for content owners is to ensure the ability to preserve, access, and re-use their valuable assets without incurring repeated investment, and huge running costs.

The requirements of long term reliability, the ability to maintain large quantities of data at relatively low costs, and the ability to maintain data integrity in “green environments” with limited environmental controls are essential.

Sony is convinced that optical disc storage fills all of these requirements, and is therefore ideal for warm and cold storage. The new technology, with open and non-proprietary formats, involves the use of multiple bare discs contained within a robust cartridge and a dedicated disc drive unit with an associated software driver able to manipulate the discs individually – providing a seamless read/write capability.

The non-contact read/write technology offers the ability to access data with remarkable speed compared to tape data that necessitates the physical fast-forwarding and rewinding of a tape, 800 metres or more in length, until the location of the required data is reached. Also, it’s never going to jam, tangle or snap.

The fact remains that optical discs are considerably more durable than hard-disk storage systems or magnetic tape based media, with a 100-year shelf life expectancy. The system is highly reliable and optimised for long-term archiving. It also succeeds in keeping down total archiving costs, and has a low environmental footprint. It offers accessibility, high speed, and can be scalable to fit the users’ needs which can begin with small archive stored on a few shelves, and expand into a large library as data accumulates.

Whilst the professional AV media industry has moved steadily from its tape based origins toward file based workflows for acquisition, post-production and distribution, the archive domain continues to remain largely tape-based. An alternative modern day solution, the Optical Disc Archive (ODA), has been created helping organisations achieve safe, long-term storage of video, photos, text, and other important digital assets.

Both LTO magnetic tape and Optical Disc Archive are viable cold storage options. The most common complaint from the user community is the constant need to migrate valuable assets from one form of tape media to the next version upgrade simply to maintain a viable archive. This requirement for copy migration every two generations (approximately five to six years), incurs substantial media and labour costs.

By leveraging the proving optical technologies, and inter-generational compatibility of optical discs, ODA technology can store important data safely, eliminating the need for migration every few years. This eliminates the need for media, hardware and software re-investment, as well as the cost of human resources required to perform copying work, resulting in reduced total cost of ownership.

ODA solutions are also ideal for deep archive, whereas data tape does not provide the assurance or meet the need for very long-term archive requirements. It also provides a second copy broadcast archive solution at a remote site and is suitable for business continuity, disaster recovery, post house and production back-up and, for video, film and stock footage archives or AV national archives. The system can also be used for news and sports clips that need to be near-online and as an on-line browse and proxy clip store.

Recently, Sony unveiled the second generation of its Optical Disc Archive System, which doubles the capacity of a single cartridge, and doubling read/write speeds over the previous generation, accommodating 4K video in real time, and maintains backwards read compatibility with first generation optical disc drives.

Optical disc archive can serve as the core of highly productive archive systems capable of managing and storing valuable, high-volume data—including 4K video, future-generation video, older video assets, and multimedia video content.

The technology is future proof and achieves a revolutionary jump in the world of data storage ideal for any circumstance.

Now and in future, this system delivers an efficient, secure, and reliable archive solution. Unlike data tape technology, where you have to migrate your content or you can’t access it as your technology moves on, the Optical Disc Archive media written today, will be readable by the drives of tomorrow.

Bottom line is with the current region pre-dominantly tape based, it is now time to transition towards the future. Optical disc archiving is the way forward – it is a solution that is long term, economical, and ultimately scala-ble to grow with your business.

Written by Nabil El Madbak

Source: ScreenAfrica

When buying Professional Optical Media, pay attention to these points

Choosing the right product is always challenging. With all this competition on international markets, we may find a wide variety of options on the shelves out there: it is always about choices we make. But what defines our choice: is it price, quality, logo, recommendations of friends? Normally it is a combination of many factors that define our choice.

Choices that consumers make are driven by different types of triggers, but when you are purchasing something very specific and technical, it is necessary to be rational, as your choice can actually influence many things in future. It is very true for the market we operate in – data storage and informational security.

Choosing the right optical media may also be challenging, as there are so many manufacturers and everyone claims superior quality and longevity, however not all of them are transparent and honest in what they actually communicate in their promotional messages.

Here are some points worth paying attention to, when choosing the right optical media:

Raw material: Quality comes from Quality!

Reliable sourcing of high-quality raw materials is the fundamental element to manufacture quality products.

FTI uses the best Polycarbonate, internally develops our high-grade dye and utilizes the best material for its Optical Media recording layers such as Silver, Gold and Platinum in order to minimize batch-to-batch variation and reliable definition and selection of archival grade discs.

Lifetime Claims: Check the source!

Some manufacturers claim product durability that lasts for years, even hundreds of years, but do not explain how they came up with their figures or back up their claims.

FTI Archival grade Optical discs have estimated archival lifetimes exceeding 100 years or even 300 years. These lifetime estimations are obtained using recognize and verifiable Industry storage tests so called accelerated lifetime tests. Mathematical models such as the Arrhenius model 1.1 or the Eyring model 1.2 extrapolates the lifetimes observed at high storage temperatures into expected lifetimes at room temperature and enable predictions of how many years the recorded data can safely be recovered when the discs are stored at normal room or office temperatures.

Dye and Recording Layer Resistance: The Best for Less!

The metal layer(s) used must be corrosion resistant to offer robustness against minor included defects over the lifetime of the disc. Gold reflecting layers offer this robustness at an increase in cost over silver.

FalconMedia Archival grade Platinum-alloy solution is the latest development in archival grade optical discs to offer robustness while maintaining the cost advantages of optical disc storage by producing media with all the benefits of Gold media but at a more competitive price.

Quality Control Production Process: History doesn’t lie!

Finally, select a manufacturing Company that has consistently proven to supply reliable quality products. This is the best guarantee that quality control, product grading, process control and product stability are handled in a professional quality-conscious way that ensures every shipment and every disc meets the archival grade requirements.

We pride ourselves on our dedicated technical support and high-quality Control provided to our customers. FalconMedia is such a product from such a Company. FalconMedia is the perfect solution if you want to be assured your data will be retrievable and usable in the years, decades and centuries to come.

Printable Options: Consistency!

All FTI printable layers, regardless of product, adhere to FTI’s internal quality standards to ensure a consistently high-quality product regardless of product line. Our internal testing has demonstrated the following features compared to competitors:

Superior sustainability of printable layers before and after testing
Improved water resistance of the disc
Greater durability due to excellent bonding with substrate
Better results for ink drying

Guarantees: Be Covered!

The Company warrants that the Goods will be free from material defects under normal conditions of use and when used in conjunction with the appropriate equipment.

Customers can return to FTI, within 6 months of receipt of a shipment, products which are alleged to be defective or which do not comply with the order.

Security: No Forgeries Allowed!

In the security Law enforcement and legal world, security is key.

Make sure that your Optical Media is traceable and has a unique number to avoid forgeries and unauthorized copies.

FTI discs have a unique serial number and are 100% traceable!

Falcon Technologies International LLC is continuously performing benchmark and quality control tests under extreme conditions to ensure consistent batch to batch quality and product longevity.

Tests versus competitors have shown that FTI products:

Show up to 25% better results in accelerated aging test in comparison to any other analog products
Perform extremely well compared to notable competitors in standard industry measurements such as Tracking Errors (41% less errors) and Focus Errors (37% errors)
Show an error rate 50% lower compared to notable competitors after 250 hours of extreme environment conditions tests (PISum8)
Have excellent cross-compatibility with the major disc drive manufacturers including Pioneer, TEAC, Asus, Samsung and LG.
The sustainability of FTI discs and printable layers is superior to competitors before and after testing, with a lower possibility of disc failure based on internal comparison tests.
Show minimal disc-to-disc variation on key mechanical deviation measurements (vertical / radial / tangential deviations).

From floppy disks to deep freeze: what’s the best way to store data?

A New York-based team of volunteer archivists and preservationists are working to transfer old VHS videotapes into digital formats. Volunteers meet weekly in a Tribeca loft filled with “racks of tape decks, oscilloscopes, vectorscopes and waveform monitors” to painstakingly digitize cassettes from the 1980s and 1990s. As they note, transferring video isn’t plug-and-go; much tweaking and troubleshooting can be required to get it right. That’s why they’ve only managed to transfer 155 tapes so far – a very small percentage of the total analog format archive.

The group partners with artists, activists, and individuals to lower the barriers to preserving at-risk audiovisual media – especially unseen, unheard, or archived works.

Whatever the content, once it’s digitized, it becomes publicly available via the Internet Archive.

And what about your own tapes? There are plenty of paid services that will help you to digitize old videotapes – or you can do it yourself using directions from open sources. And if you still have a big dusty box of your home video tapes stored somewhere deep in the closet, it may be a good idea to transfer their contents on the new storage mediums. In fact, we have already discussed that in one of our previous articles.

Tape manufacturers predicted 20 to 30 years of life expectancy, but media lifespan depends greatly on environmental conditions. Format obsolescence contributes to the crisis: Umatic and VHS tapes are no longer manufactured and BetaSP will soon be discontinued. Machines to play these formats are becoming more scarce as are the skills to maintain and repair them.

Of course, it’s not only the videotape that’s at risk. Entropy is relentless, and anything recorded on the old storage mediums will eventually have to be transferred and digitalized. Even if the medium remains intact, formats and interfaces become obsolete and disappear. Preserving data for the long term is a discipline worth more attention than we can give it here, but a few tips might be helpful.

Lifespan comparison of different backup storage media

Keep track of how long media is likely to last – but remember that the statistics are controversial projections, and many won’t be so precise. The general consensus is that consumer segment CD-Rs should last 30 to 50 years, DVD-Rs less than that, and CD-RWs and DVD-RWs even less. Similarly, tapes and hard disks can be expected to be readable for 10 to 30 years, while portable disks, USB thumb drives, and other solid-state storage devices may survive for half that time, maybe.

Back in 2005, The New York Times reported that 3.5” floppies have “an estimated life span of 10 years if stored in a cool, dry place with average care and use”. If you’ve still got any, we’ll bet they’re older than that!

With this in mind, regularly copy data to new media, especially if it’s approaching its expiration date. And make sure anything you haven’t saved is “in a cool, dry place,” not your attic or garage. It is strongly recommended to use a specialized archival optical media, like FalconMedia Century Archival, which are able to secure your data for up to 500 years.

Move away from physical formats that are becoming obsolete. For example, many people who used to back up their data on Zip drives, Syquest cartridges, and 1.44MB floppy drives no longer have access to these. Even interfaces can be an issue: external devices often used serial or parallel ports that no longer ship standard on computers (though desktop PC and ExpressCard laptop adapters can still be found). Make sure you’ve migrated your data before you dispose of an old device or format.

A common related issue: data trapped on a working hard disk in a dead PC or laptop. The Guardian serves up some useful guidance on installing the drive in an external USB enclosure and restoring from there.

Migrate data from obsolete programs, or at least make sure you have the tools to do so when necessary. Millions of people still have content trapped in ancient word processing. Tools for viewing such data or move it into “living” software include Quick View Plus and FastLook; for some formats, the free LibreOffice productivity suite or XNView image viewer might be all you need.

TechRepublic offers some useful high-level advice on planning a long-term strategy for protecting your data here.

All this is great as far as it goes, but as the amount of data we’re generating continues to soar, we’re likely to need some radically new. Here are some technologies that may potentially improve data storage in near future:

Analog micro-etching: The Long Now Foundation – which specializes in trying to envision the long-term future and solve the problems it might present – ran a full conference on super-long-term data storage. The solution it found promising enough to test: analog micro-etching onto nickel disks. Eight years later, they had a prototype: a disk containing information in about 1,500 human languages, plus translations of the Book of Genesis in each. Since the information is analog, it’s readable directly by humans (though they will need a microscope).

The Arctic World Archive: Officially opened on March 27 in Norway’s Svalbard Arctic region, the for-profit Arctic World Archive is already housing key documents from Brazil, Mexico, and Norway — safe, theoretically, from natural disaster and warfare. According to a report in The Verge, data is actually imprinted on special film, in huge high-density greyscale QR codes – and the archive is completely disconnected from the Internet to protect against hackers and ransomware.

DNA: According to Science Magazine, researchers have been making breathtaking progress since the first attempts to store data in DNA molecules back in 2012. DNA is ultracompact, and it can last hundreds of thousands of years if kept in a cool, dry place. And as long as human societies are reading and writing DNA, they will be able to decode it – not something you can say with confidence about videocassettes or QR codes.

Source: Naked Security

Back To the Future: XXth Century Formats are Coming Back

We all get nostalgic every now and then. Depending on the age, one may remember the “good old days” of his, which may be 90s, 80s, 70s or even earlier. Every decade of the last century had its own unique features, which are carefully kept in the memories of those who saw them and possibly even was a part of them. And those good old days had good old things, which we sometimes miss so much. From vintage cars to costumes, we love things that take us back to a far simpler era.

Today, our lives are hectic and complex and the gadgets we use – from smartphones to computers – are very complex too.

Music is perhaps the best example for our longing for simple things. The rapid onset of computerization meant that music was easily digitized – put in the form of ones and zeroes. Hence the term “digital”. On the other hand, music was recorded and reproduced in “analog” form until then.

The first mass produced digital music format was the humble Compact Disc, which is now over 35 years old. It was a revolution when it was introduced. Read by an optical laser with no real surface contact, the CD became the fastest selling new consumer format, until that crown was taken by the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) in 1996. The DVD itself is based on the 12 cm CD platter.

The birth of the Internet or more specifically, the World Wide Web saw the emergence of music formats such as MP3, a compression method that reduced the digital bandwidth needed for storing and streaming music. MP3 received a big boost with the introduction of the original Apple iPod in November 2001.

The storage capacity of the iPod Classic topped out at 160 GB, which effectively meant space for thousands of songs on one device. Today, every smartphone is practically an iPod.

MP3 did popularise music, but at the same time, nearly killed it. MP3, whose patents expired recently, was not an audiophile standard (unlike CD) at all. The sound quality was low and online piracy dealt a blow to legal music providers, at least until legal services such as iTunes came along.

CD and MPs became so widespread that they almost caused the death of the two existing music formats. (In the video sphere, DVD ensured the rapid demise of Laserdisc and much later, VHS). Sales of vinyl records and audio cassettes (the digital equivalent of audio cassettes, the Digital Audio Tape and the Digital Compact cassette, never really took off) plunged to an all-time low as CD and MP3 sales and downloads skyrocketed.

Everyone thought that both formats would die a natural death in a few years. After all, both formats were as old as time – the rudimentary form of the present Long Playing (LP) record was invented by Thomas Edison way back in 1877 and the audio cassette was invented by the Dutch electronics giant Philips in 1962. Pre-recorded cassettes came to the market in 1965.

But then, listeners realised the digital music lacked the warmth associated with analogue music. They felt it was lifeless, cold and distant. They somehow wanted to get closer to the heart of the music.

The answer: go back to basics. Yes, today, there is a remarkable resurgence in vinyl and audio cassette sales as people are rediscovering the joys of these two undying music formats.

The discs themselves can be manufactured in transpartent versions or with multiple colours, adding further value. One company even released an LP with embedded dinosaur bones. Collectors the world over gladly pay a premium price for vinyl because MP3 or online streaming services can never really offer these options.

The last seven-eight have been promising for Vinyl, a relic from the past. Sales of vinyl records have gone through the roof in both the US and UK, with Amazon being the number one seller.

The situation is not much different in other markets. Even in Sri Lanka, a music label has re-introduced vinyl albums by popular singers.

Vinyl accounted for 76% of total album sales worldwide in 1973; by 1994 this had dropped to 1.5% as compact discs (CDs) took over. Now things have come full circle as sales of vinyl in 2016 reached a 25-year high with consumers young and old once again embracing analogue physical formats of music.

More than 3.2 million LPs were sold in the UK last year, a rise of 53% on last year and the highest number since 1991 when Simply Red’s Stars was the bestselling album.

This was also the first year that spending on vinyl outstripped the amount spent on digital downloads. This is the ninth consecutive year that vinyl sales have grown around the world and this year will be no exception.

Every new album is now being released on vinyl and music lovers are lapping them up despite the higher prices. New vinyl record pressing machines have been installed around the world to cater to the increasing demand. There are already predictions that digital downloads of music would disappear altogether as people switch to streaming (which is now seamless thanks to faster Internet speeds), CD and Vinyl.

Pre-recorded audio cassettes are also about to make a comeback. At the moment there is only ONE large scale audio cassette replicator (National Audio Company, USA) left in the world and it cannot keep up with the demand. NAC alone will churn out more than 24 million cassette tapes this year.

Among the Amazon listings for audio cassette albums and performers are: Guardians of the Galaxy Original Sound Track, Beach House B-Sides, Caribou by Elton John, Cranberries, Ed Sheeran, Iggy Pop and Bob Segar greatest hits.

Cassettes, which enjoyed their heyday due to the Sony Walkman, may come back with an even bigger splash this time. Cassette sales are up by 82 percent worldwide for the year, and even Top 40 hit maker Justin Bieber is releasing albums on tape.

There is a general feeling that people are looking to get beyond the digital playlist.

Digital streams cannot carry complete album artwork, liner notes, lyrics, or back cover credits. A physical disc or tape is something tangible you can hold in your hands, share with a friend and once brought, it is yours to keep and enjoy. (On the contrary, you never really own digital content). Surprisingly, the very revival of the two formats is being led by the millennials who grew up with digital.

They realise that life means more than ones and zeroes and want to get a more intimate music experience. By the way, the surge in print book sales is also attributed to the younger generation. This is a good trend – music is meant to be not just heard, but felt as well.

Source: Sunday Observer

PRESS RELEASE – Falcon Technologies International and Verbatim sign exclusive distribution agreement for the Middle Eastern region.

Falcon Technologies International (FTI) has announced the signing of an exclusive agreement with Verbatim, the storage media giant owned by Mitsubishi Chemical Media, to distribute Verbatim products to countries in the Middle East.

This agreement comes after several years of mutual collaboration between the two companies, and allows FTI to distribute the full range of Verbatim products as well as products from Freecom, a brand also owned by Mitsubishi Chemical Media that specialises in high-end external SSDs and hard drives. The deal was finalized and signed during the recent FTI Customer Seminar 2017, which was hosted in Ras Al Khaimah (UAE) on April 4^thand 5^th and attended by many leading players within the global optical media industry.

FTI CEO Michael Gutowski said, “FTI are both honored and excited to have reached an agreement with Verbatim to exclusively distribute their brands within the Middle East. Our cooperation over recent years has been beneficial for both parties and has given us insight into the mutual emphasis and care that both our organizations place on innovation and quality, so we feel there is a strong synergy of values between FTI and Verbatim. We very much look forward to building upon our partnership and further developing the business footprint of both FTI and Verbatim within the Middle East”.

Gary Milner, VP Sales & Marketing at Verbatim GmbH said, “As the world’s leading Optical Storage brand, we have felt that there is a substantial opportunity to gain additional market share in what is a highly dynamic region. By partnering with FTI, we believe that the combination of our product innovation and FTI reputation for quality will be a new powerful force in the region, delivering unprecedented levels of customer service and availability – not previously seen before for the Verbatim brand.

We feel that FTI are a great choice of strategic partner as we seek to raise our profile in this region, not just because of their local market knowledge but also due to their shared commitment to delivering the best quality optical media solutions to customers all over the world.”