Recently I came across an article about a friend of Vinpower that still has a robust business selling floppy disks (see link to article below). Of course, the first thought that comes to mind is, who still uses floppy disks? Interesting enough, there are still many industries that built incredibly complex equipment 30, 40, even 50 years ago, that are still operational today. For instance, aviation equipment, military installations, nuclear armaments, medical installations, and more. These devices still require floppies to insert feature updates and other digital inputs from time to time. In most cases, like the nuclear arms, the fact they use such dated technology actually makes them safer because they are not susceptible to online hacking or remote entry.

With that in mind, there are certainly equipment built in the late 90’s and 2000’s that upgraded from floppy to optical disc (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) and will also have long lifespans requiring optical discs for upgrades and updates. Although, optical discs will certainly maintain an even greater influence well into the future due to its naturally embedded benefits, like being write once, large capacity, easy to store, archival grade, low maintenance, and much more. That means that optical discs cannot be altered, hold a tremendous amount of data, less sensitive than magnetic or tape storage, maintains data for a long time, and doesn’t require electricity or power when stored. That makes optical discs ideal for industries that need to be able to rely on a technology to last as long if not longer than the product(s) that rely on them.

Here’s the article about the demand for floppy disks:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/1990s-relic-floppy-disks-get-second-life-california-warehouse-2022-10-20/

For more details on these products or any items that Vinpower offers, please visit www.vinpowerdigital.com, or contact a Vinpower representative near you.

The not so old adage that anything posted online will remain there forever, is not as ironclad as it sounds. In fact, recently, our industry discovered just how untrue that statement could be. One of the biggest forums for CD,DVD and Blu-ray drives, which thrived for over 20 years, suddenly and unexpectantly disappeared. A few months ago, the “www.Club.myce.com” forum was no longer accessible and all tests, reports and much more from the last 20 years have simply been lost to the metaverse. You may be thinking, the loss of the Club myce forum doesn’t affect me as only a limited number of people were still actively participating in the forum. However, it’s more a symbol of a larger possibility. It shows us that any content online could be lost at a moment’s notice, just because the owner of the servers holding the content decides to remove it or there’s some type of catastrophe wiping out the data center(s) containing that content.

The point being, it’s never a good idea to rely solely on one type of backup solution, but especially not an online cloud that you have no control over. That’s why physical media, in particular, optical discs, are still one of the best solutions for storage of digital content. Only optical discs are write once, so the content on them can’t be deleted or altered in anyway. Plus, optical discs typically have an archival life of 50+ years and the content on them can be transferred nearly an unlimited number of times without any degradation or loss.

If you have critical data that you want to ensure you always have access to, your best bet is to keep at least 1 set of backups on optical discs. You can still maintain content in the cloud, but don’t think just because it’s on the web, that it will be there forever. One day, it could be gone and you will have no control. Instead, take control and keep your own copies.

To learn more about any of Vinpower’s line of products, visit www.vinpowerdigital.com, or speak with a Vinpower representative in your area.

If you’re like me, you have shelves or possibly boxes full of CD’s you’ve collected over time and now they just sit there collecting dust. It’s not because you don’t enjoy the music any longer, but it’s just not as convenient anymore. What if I told you there is an easy and automated way you can rip your entire CD’s collection onto your computer or a portable hard drive quickly and accurately? It’s true, using the low cost Vinpower RipBox or the high production Cronus systems, you can set the discs into the input bins, walk away and let the systems do the work. Come back and find all the discs you loaded ripped needing to babysit or monotonously loading each disc 1 at a time into your computer drive, if you even still have one.

In fact, all the content will retain all the crucial metadata, like the artist name, song title, album title, and so much more. On top of that, you can save the files onto any type of format you’d like, including the more common .mp3 or for true audio files, onto lossless audio files like flac or .wav, to retain that authentic uncompressed sound as it was meant to be heard.

Maybe you already ripped all your CD’s a long time ago into iTunes or similar software, where they were all ripped as the extremely compressed files, losing a lot of the original sound quality the artist and producers worked so hard to create. Now you can easily and cheaply rip all the discs again into a high quality lossless audio file, like flac or .wav. Now you can once again listen to the music in its original uncompressed state for a more dynamic listening experience.

For more details on these products or any items that Vinpower offers, please visit www.vinpowerdigital.com, or contact a Vinpower representative near you.

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The younger generations are always told to respect their elders because they have wisdom and life experiences that they can pass on. Hopefully then, the youth can capitalize on that historical outlook and create new and improved opportunities for themselves and those to follow. The same is true in technology, where each predecessor passes on experiences to help improve the newer iteration. Yet, that doesn’t mean in with the new and out with the old. There is still nostalgia and critical use for the older technology and ensures a long and useful life to come.

For optical discs, it holds the benefits of both old and new technology.
Being a physical media, means that it’s not dependent on internet capability or the cloud for access. Yet, being a digital format, means that the content is not only in its highest quality, but also allows a greater range of content to be stored on it. So, while the older vinyl and cassette tapes have a nostalgic appeal, they are still limited in their offerings. Yet, optical discs can offer all the benefits of digital streaming, yet provides a safety net of protection should the streaming content be corrupted or disabled.

As in life as in technology, don’t disparage someone or something because it’s been around for a long time and there’s a newer version. Best to embrace that past as we continue to develop the future.

To learn more about this item, or any of Vinpower’s line of products, visit www.vinpowerdigital.com, or speak with a Vinpower representative in your area.