I have 2 Western Digital 2TB MyBooks that are mirrors of each other and a 2TB MyPassbook that I move around a lot. The MyBooks are 6 & 7 years old, the Passbook is 3. I went through too many LaCie drives in the 1990s and early 2000s (as volume and capacities slowly increased) and every single one of them died what I thought was a sad and premature death. It taught me the necessity of redundancy.
I started using M-Discs that are supposed to last a millennium (some of us won't live to see about that), but only as a last resort. I have 2 WD drives that I read and write to all the time. They're 8 years old and still hearty as ever. The price of externals drives has dropped considerably over the years. They're worth the investment.
Same here with the LaCie drives. I have none left. They seem to have an almost deliberate lifespan. Since I went to Western Digital, none have failed in 7 years.
The cards themselves are durable. When the internal circuits of the card wear out or get burnt is when they give out. I've had a few last 4-5 years and burn out and I've had one that's over a decade old that's just fine. I think they like the companionship of being in box together.
A Polaroid "Swinger" from the mid 60s. Really belonged to an older neighbor, but her brother and I adopted it as our own.
Didn't really get into photography until two decades later with a Yashica rangefinder.
I use Nikon Transfer to upload photos from a point and shoot (Sony DSC series). The Nikon software was fine with El Capitan, but can't find the camera with Sierra. So, I copy them by dragging and dropping, but it means opening windows and manually deleting files from the SD card etc.
SD cards do wear out. Every addition and deletion moves information around. Eventually the itty bitty circuits wear down and don't communicate with each other as well. Kind of like synapses in our deteriorating brains.
I've had a couple of cards for nine or more years and they'
ve been fine, but a few have simply ceased to function - devices no longer recognize them. They're definitely cheap enough now that they're easily replaceable.
An expert can better explain how they decay, but, alas, they don't last forever.
On proofs it's OK. On purchased prints, it's not. The prints become the purchaser's property. Old photographs often had "watermarks" because they were etched into the negatives. The technology is a bit more advanced now…
Tweaker, with rare Twerks. I like to shoot what I see - and leave the world in it largely as it is...
The newest Mac Books (Air and Pro) only have a USB-C port. It's brand new! Another step in progress that makes us all buy new adapters for all of the external pieces we use. As elegant and efficient as Apple's machinery is, they don't seem to care much about ANY kind of retro-functionality.
I also bought a refurbished Mac Book Pro directly through Apple.
It was shipped to an Apple Store near me and arrived in 2 days. Had it 2 years now...
I have several recording of them together and apart. One is called "a Salle Pleyel" - a place in France where they each play a solo set, then do duets.
Originally released on Pablo Records circa 1973. Fantastic.
Nice concept. Nicely executed.