Yes, all those CDs and DVDs you started collecting after you threw out your records are also on their way to obsolescence, the in-between period before you can no longer find the equipment to play them.

You may think I am being overly early in declaring them on their way out, however studies show that younger people are buying less CDs and are moving toward other forms of storage, such as portable devices.

CD sales are expected to drop further this year, down 20 percent in 2008, marking the gradual shift away from physical media to downloadable formats, according to a Forbes.com article. Meanwhile US sales of digital music are estimated to grow by 28 per cent.

The issue brings out a common problem that has beset us ever since humans began recording sound and later, moving pictures.

As each new audio or video format comes on to the market, current ones begin their journey into obsolescence.

Typically, each format is supported by equipment manufacturers for between 10 and 20 years, according to PrestoSpace. The European Union (EU)-funded project aims to help archivists automate the process of saving all the valuable information, and heritage, saved on obsolete formats.

Normally, once the devices to play old formats disappear, the content they hold becomes irretrievable.

However PrestoSpace's researchers have documented ways for archivists and others to digitalise information so that a computer can read and store it.

Once digitalised as computer language the content becomes independent of format and can then be stored and retrieved without the need for a specific device.

Advice and management tools to help you make the conversions before it is too late is available at http://prestospace.org/

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RoboBraille is wonderful, free, e-mail-based service that translates text into Braille and audio recordings for the blind and visually impaired.

The project was financed by the EU, but is available worldwide to those who need it.

What is important is the service only requires from users the ability to send an e-mail.

As the name says, the service automates the translation of text documents into Braille and speech and is free of charge to all non-commercial users.

To use the service, users must go to RoboBraille site (www.robobraille.org), and chose what translation service they want. A specific e-mail address exists for each of the services.

The service will translate documents into contracted Braille, into speech, into visual Braille, between different character sets, and partition documents into smaller parts.

It can translate text written in English, Danish, Italian, Greek and Portuguese into Braille and speech. Text-to-speech translation is also available in French and Lithuanian.

To translate a text in English to Braille just send a Word document attached to an e-mail to britspeech@robobraille.org. Once the e-mail is sent, the translation robot takes over.

RoboBraille claims to be able to return a simple text in Braille in under a minute. An audio recording of a book can take up to 10 hours.

The translation is returned by e-mail, which needs a Braille printer or a tactile display so the person can read it.

A tactile display is a device connected to a computer that can scan Braille text and then allow a blind person to read it using a series of pins that are raised or lowered to represent the characters.

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Adobe, the makers of Photoshop, has put up a website that allows users to store up to 2 Gb of images online. You can also tweak and manipulate the images using Adobe's online tools.

All this is free, but since Adobe is calling the Adobe Photoshop Express site 'beta', I bet the company might start charging something later on.

Still for now, if you need a place to park and share all of those images this could be a good spot (www.photoshop.com/express/landing.html).

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Google Earth is doing its bit to bring home to us the plight of refugees stuck in camps worldwide.

The site combines satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to show the plight of refugees in United Nations (UN) camps and aid projects.

The new project is called "Google Earth Outreach". While it is useful for us to see just how many refugee camps there are (too many), the new programme is also meant to give UN workers the ability to highlight the conditions of refugees and programmes to help them in any area of the world.

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While the nomination deadline for government's 2008 TechAwards passed yesterday, it is still not to late to enter the TechArt exhibition. The judging of the art will start at 5pm on April 23.

You have until then to enter your piece, according to the entry form available at www.techweek.bm, so get out those digital brushes.

Send your comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com