bitrot

Article at Wired about how despite the belief that CDs and DVDs are indestructible (and this was one of the reason companies charged so much for them), they’re slowly deteriorating and becoming unreadable all on their own.

A lot of my old CDs are unreadable because for many years I had a habit of leaving them caseless on the floor of my car. But I accept that loss: I am a slob, so I lose CDs. But random deterioration just from poor manufacturing? That sucks.

Fortunately there’s a solution to both bitrot and my slovenly CD habits: rip every single CD to iTunes and the iPod. Backup frequently. But the originals away in the attic. Yay.