FW: [Fwd: RE: [LINK] Damn! That fake "CD sales fell by" number ag ain...]

[Daniel Rose]

Looking at the bigger picture for a minute:

We have had CDs as a stable technology for twenty years or so, and VCRs for
about the same.

CD-Burners have been around for about ten years, but only popular for around
five.

If we are, as it seems, steadily removing all these devices and the cassetes
and discs to replace with DVDs, that's a lot of plastic and "wasted"(?)
manufacturing effort.  Just how many CDs and tapes are in the world?

Old VCRs also have the Short play/Long play incompatibility, so many
otherwise working short play only VCRs can be found at the tip.

Now we are looking forward to the blue laser technology which will allow
more storage on a disc, but this will need a new player, so in a few years
will all the new movies be released in the new format?

CRT Monitors are falling out of favour for the LCD screens.  This is good
for power consumption, but otherwise working CRT screens are being turfed in
favour of new LCDs.  I got two 21" Screens, a Sun and an IBM, for $110 each.
That's nice, but ridiculous when 15" TFT screens are $350.

Examples also include 

Analog -- Digital TV
Analog -- Digital -- 3G Phones
Laserdiscs

It seems to me that with each generation, the total volume of units is
greater than earlier -- eg, there are more digital than analog phones, and
more CD-drives than there were record turntables.

It also appears that the lifetime of each generation is shorter.  Looking
forward maybe fifty years, what on (or off!) earth are we to do with all
this toxic waste?

I have taken an interest and it seems that currently a large proportion is
shipped to the third world and forgotten about.  One province in China is
swimming in old high-tech junk and has sweatshops using acid to extract
elements, but I can't see this as a sensible procedure.

I must admit I have a (tiny) personal stake in this, I have a shed full of
old gear and in Canberra the official disposal point wants to charge me $17
to drop off a CRT monitor, even if it's working perfectly.


Regards,


Daniel Rose
Helpdesk
National Library of Australia
Ph 6262 1599

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Lister [mailto:tal at pacific.net.au] 
Sent: Sunday, 15 February 2004 09:04 AM
To: The Link Institute
Subject: [Fwd: RE: [LINK] Damn! That fake "CD sales fell by" number
again...]


-----Forwarded Message-----

> From: Tim Lister <tal at pacific.net.au>
> To: Jan Whitaker <jwhit at melbpc.org.au>
> Cc: SSG Webmaster <webmaster at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au>
> Subject: RE: [LINK] Damn! That fake "CD sales fell by" number again...
> Date: 15 Feb 2004 09:03:40 +1100
> 
> On Sun, 2004-02-15 at 08:16, Jan Whitaker wrote:
> > At 07:37 PM 14/02/04 +1100, you wrote:
> > >Richard, post these figures to the ABC show that stuffed up - they 
> > >listen quite often, and maybe you can do some good.
> > 
> > Interesting you say that.  I wrote him privately and asked if he 
> > ever
> > submitted these sort of contrary findings to other media outlets and to
ask 
> > where the QA is in media.  I didn't get a very good answer, just that he

> > writes in his column.
> > 
> > Is this something the political parties would put out to counter the
> > rubbish?  The press just seems to continue the myths!
> 
> we try - if they say anything, it tends to be that we give ecstasy to 
> kids, release David Oldfield's budgies, and start bushfires.
> 
> but we get lucky sometimes - persistence is the key.
> 
> Tim Lister
> South Sydney Greens
> (02)9557 4050
> webmaster at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
> http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
> "Think Globally, Act Locally"
Tim Lister
South Sydney Greens
(02)9557 4050
webmaster at ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
http://ssg.nsw.greens.org.au
"Think Globally, Act Locally"

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