a hard copy

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Anonymous

#512921 Mon, 12 May 08 08:10 PM

Hi,

He shuffles through the footage to find any evidence of who shot her. He finds something interesting and prints out a hard copy of what he found.

What does 'hard' mean in 'hard copy' here?

Thanks.

Anonymous

JCDenton

#512940 Mon, 12 May 08 09:44 PM

Hi,

In IT world "Hard copy" means permanent copy of something like photos, word documents on media, proper for personal use...(paper for example)...On the other hand, "soft copy", is essentially unprinted copy of something. This copy can be viewed through the software applications (Word, Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat Viewer), but you can't hold it in your hands, like the in the case of "hard copies", exported on media. (paper, CD)

regards

JCDenton

Joined on Tue, Jul 3 2007

Europe

Full Member (387)

Regards

Clive

#512964 Tue, 13 May 08 12:10 AM

Hi guys,

In my experience, a 'hard copy' always means something printed on paper. I wouldn't call a CD a hard copy.

Best wishes, Clive

Clive

Joined on Thu, Oct 28 2004

Canada

Veteran Member (19,459)

El tango argentino es un pensamiento triste que se puede bailar (The tango argentino is a sad thought which can be danced) Enrique Santos Discépolo

JCDenton

#513046 Tue, 13 May 08 07:43 AM

Hi Clive,

People sometimes puts copies burned on CD's into the group of hard copies, because it's an permanent copy designated for personal use. I read it at several discussion phorums and sometimes I heard it from my pen friends from US. Of course, an own copy (photos, documents) burned on the CD is in the electronical form, which would shift this copy into the group of soft copies. Anyway, once you burn it on CD, you'll no longer be able to edit it, it's an permament copy....Maybe that's the reason, why people says it.

But mostly, yes

hard copies = printouts

soft copies = electronic form of printouts.

JCDenton

Pter

#513057 Tue, 13 May 08 08:24 AM

I don't think I know anybody who would regard a copy on CD as hardcopy. (Well, unless the material is printed physically with ink on the surface of the CD! But I have never seen such a thing.) I guess none of your pen friends in the US works in IT.

You need a software, although maybe as simple as a notepad, to read the files in a CD, and by definition, this is soft copy. CDs are not permanent, especially those you burn with your own CD burner. The data become unreadable easily if you do not take good care of them. Try putting them under direct sunlight, you'll lose your data in a couple of months. Even if you do take good care of them, you'll still loss your data on some low quality CD/DVD in two or three years. Don't count on them as your only archived copy especially for your valuable photos or videos.

Pter

Joined on Wed, Nov 28 2007

Hong Kong

Full Member (416)

Regards

Anonymous

#513092 Tue, 13 May 08 12:40 PM

Thank you all for offering your useful information.

Anonymous

JCDenton

#513462 Wed, 14 May 08 09:41 AM

Pter
I don't think I know anybody who would regard a copy on CD as hardcopy. (Well, unless the material is printed physically with ink on the surface of the CD! But I have never seen such a thing.) I guess none of your pen friends in the US works in IT.

You need a software, although maybe as simple as a notepad, to read the files in a CD, and by definition, this is soft copy. CDs are not permanent, especially those you burn with your own CD burner. The data become unreadable easily if you do not take good care of them. Try putting them under direct sunlight, you'll lose your data in a couple of months. Even if you do take good care of them, you'll still loss your data on some low quality CD/DVD in two or three years. Don't count on them as your only archived copy especially for your valuable photos or videos.

Hey, and how about to put the CD in the microwave! No, I have better idea,
how about to put it in the fridge or icebox. This would destroy the data within
the few hours...lol

I just said what I heard and read at some warez phorums!
Nothing more, nothing less. That it's possible to come across with it
in this context, even if it's little unusual. Anyway in 99.99% cases

hard copies = permanent printouts of the displayed data on something...
soft copies = something in electronical form.

howg.

JCDenton

Regards

Pter

#513467 Wed, 14 May 08 09:58 AM

Hi JC,

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I didn't mean to argue about anything or the definition of what is permanent. I just want to take this opportunity to remind everyone who is reading this thread the risk of using CD/DVD for archiving, though this is somewhat off-topic. Losing memorable photos or videos on CD/DVD is a real danger that many people do not recognise. One of my friends did put his CDs near a window with direct sunlight.

And yes, w4r3z ph0rum5 h4v3 4ll s0rt5 0f funny En9l15h!

Pter

JCDenton

#513481 Wed, 14 May 08 10:28 AM

Hi Pter,

No problem, ok...:-) And you're right. Archiving of the important data on DVD/CD can be little risky. Anyway two weeks ago I was with my gf on the wedding of my friend. And I lost all photos from this event because of the crash of my hard drive...:-(...Bad for me that I didn't burn that photos on CD...:-))). Anyway, do you know a good software for the file recovering???? I tried "recover myfile" aplication, but it didn't help...Half of the photos aren't readable...damn!

thx in advance.

JCDenton

Weddings

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