Good content trapped in old technology

Through the Web Ink Now blog, which I check on only occasionally, I found this post questioning whether advances in technology are a threat to great content wrapped up in older formats. The author, Andy Monfried, uses an example of a bootleg concert on DVD and asks ,

Does Technology own the content of the future?

Will future generations ONLY EVER get a chance to see, and witness things recorded in "High Definition" or HD quality - or some other futuristic format?

Will incredible content, NEVER GET SEEN, because it was recorded BEFORE TECHNOLOGY advances?

With IPODS....Home Theaters....and, new gadgets coming out, will anyone want to hear my AUDIENCE COPIES of bootlegs from the Grateful Dead? (Meaning, someone who recorded a DEAD show, with a microphone and was NOT plugged into the soundboard...)
Will, technology render them useless, and nothing more than garbage, to future generations, even though the content is TOPS?

Will old content NEVER GET A CHANCE, to become someone in the future's, favorite musical choice?

Now, I'll skip over the issue that these are bootlegs, because I do think this is an interesting question. But it is not a new one. How many cassette tapes do you have cluttering some drawer, never to be listened to again? You may have purchased (or "stole") that music again on CD or computer file (MP3, etc) but my bet would be that you didn't replace all of it. I went through some of my parents' old books and although I read a few, some of them were too musty to bother with. The format, or the technology, can certainly be a limitation for the content it carries.

On a related note, a former colleague of mine, defending the practice of copying MP3 files from Kazaa and other file-sharing sites a few years ago, made a good point about the number of times he bought the same song. He owned it on a record, then on cassette, and then bought it again on CD. He paid three times for the same content, just in different formats. Are we buying the content or the format?

Crappy technology

I was listening to a Slate Magazine podcast in my commute to work today (you know, because I am so hip) on auto-flushing toilets. That's right, toilets. There are examples of the poor, overuse of technology everywhere. Even in the bathroom. The podcast/article starts:

My office shares a men's room with everyone who works on our level. The bathroom sports three stalls, each of which is outfitted with the most uncivilized technology of the modern age—the hands-free, automatic-flush toilet bowl.

High-tech auto-flushing limits your ability to flush when you need to flush. The author, Nick Schulz, makes the point that the auto-flush toilet is incapable of doing three very important things: flush the toilet before you sit down, flush the toilet while you are seated, and give the ole' double flush if the first flush didn't do the job. After analyzing the pitfalls of the auto-flush, Schulz brings us back to what really works: a manual flush:

As it happens, there is an almost perfect technology already in existence: the foot-pedal flush toilet.

Here is the article on the web: The Crappiest Invention of All Time.