Good coincidence in my nosing around today. This post on boingboing sent me (eventually) to a related couple posts on Mark Pilgrim’s new-to-me blog. Reader’s Digest version – Mark is moving to Ubuntu Linux after 20+ years of Mac use because of frustration with closed file formats:

I’m creating things now that I want to be able to read, hear, watch, search, and filter 50 years from now. Despite all their emphasis on content creators, Apple has made it clear that they do not share this goal. Openness is not a cargo cult. Some get it, some don’t. Apple doesn’t.

Here’s the bit of coincidence – I’m 30 or so pages into a new book by Charlie Stross – Glasshouse – and one of the bits of future history revealed early on is that the period from 1950 to about 2040 is a dark age – no one can figure out what went on back then, because no one can decipher the data format/media format/etc. mess (BTW – so far the book is a rippin’ yarn).

This issue isn’t a new one by any means – Neal Stephenson talked about it in his 1999 essay “In the Beginning was the Command Line”, and I worked in a place where we kept archived 7-track tapes in the tape vault (for legal reasons?) long after the last drive that would read 7 track G200 tapes was long gone. Still, it’s one of those things that makes you go, “hmmm…”.