Thread: 200 years---

You'd think that after perfecting the flux capacitor he wouldn't have bothered with archival media.

Cheers
Simon

In 2005 I went to a major geophysical conference in Houston. It was the 75th anniversary of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, and as such a lot of exhibitors had displays that were historically related.

One such company had a very interesting display of data storage media used in the geophysical industry (only went back 50 years - before that there was only one medium - paper), with examples of all media used in each decade. (The company's business is transcribing data from obsolete formats)

The interesting thing was that each decade showed ever more numbers of different media - even the 2000's had more than the 1990s, despite the fact that they were only halfway through. The frightening thing was that there was only one medium from the 1990s still in widespread use by 2005 (CD). During the conference there was an announcement that equipment for one of the media most widely used in the 1990s (8mm helical scan tape - exabyte) had ceased production.

These discs may last for 200 years, but the probability is that you won't be able to tell whether they do or not, as there will be nothing available to read them long before that. When did you last try to recover data from a 5.25" floppy? Or an 8" floppy? Or a nine track half inch tape? Or a seven track half inch tape? Or a 30cm videodisc? Or ......

John

I've heard of an excellent long-term storage media. From what I read it's made out of some kind of plastic alternative that is cast from a pre-macerated solid. The burner scribes a track in a contrasting colour to the media that is easily reread an almost infinite number of times.

The interesting thing is that the track is written not as a straight continuous line, it has wobbles and dips in it which the data is stored.

The reports from lab testing imply that the media has a storage life possibly ten times that of the current CD/DVD state of the art.

Best of all being non-magnetic, non-electronic media it is significantly more robust than hard drives or static ram.

Guess I better start saving up for it.

Cheers
Simon

I bet its damaged by heat----

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

I bet its damaged by heat----

------ and sounds very familiar!

John

But really, Vellum is the way of the future!

Cheers
Simon

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

I've heard of an excellent long-term storage media. From what I read it's made out of some kind of plastic alternative that is cast from a pre-macerated solid. The burner scribes a track in a contrasting colour to the media that is easily reread an almost infinite number of times.

The interesting thing is that the track is written not as a straight continuous line, it has wobbles and dips in it which the data is stored.

The reports from lab testing imply that the media has a storage life possibly ten times that of the current CD/DVD state of the art.

Best of all being non-magnetic, non-electronic media it is significantly more robust than hard drives or static ram.

Guess I better start saving up for it.

Cheers
Simon

Is that Long Playing or Extended Play

Originally Posted by abaddonxi

But really, Vellum is the way of the future!