Re: history

[jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

"[R. E. Stannard Jr.]" wrote:

> Which brings me to point two: the life expectancy of digital storage
> media. I had assumed until this week that floppies were forever and CDs
> more so. I learned to my dismay, even before the messages here, that tape
> is SUPERIOR (more lasting) than floppies or even CDs. My wizard teenage
> informant says the latter are only good for a few years -- not even a
> decade.

This didn't sound right to me, and seems to be a matter of some dispute. See
the following article, which came to my attention recently.


http://peripherals.about.com/compute/peripherals/library/weekly/aa041701a.htm?PM=n10041801a



> If this has been published widely, I've missed it or read the wrong
> press. I had assumed deep-sixing in electronic form would outlive
> yellowing paper. Now I'm given to understand the medium is eroding right
> from under it. This is evidently such a throwaway age that archiving
> information isn't seen as a serious matter.
>
> I admit it ... I'm a milliwatt user among gigazillas here. But I'm
> distraught at the thought that my father's memoirs, lying unedited on 5.25
> disks written on an old KayPro in WordStar and whassitsname operating
> system are not just a problem of finding an old machine that will run
> them, but actually may be evaporating as we dither.
>
> Why isn't the lastingness of the medium a major item of discussion on all
> the computer magazines?

Good point. It has been discussed, just not all that often or that loudly,
and not necessarily in computer publications. There was another somewhat
longish piece on this very issue. I think it ran originally in the NYT --
possibly reprinted in the Wash. Post &/or Int'l. Herald Tribune -- sometime
within the last 4 years. (I may still have a paper copy of it somewhere.) It
was an overview and prognosis on the whole archival storage dilemma, and the
implications this held for a civilization. In a nutshell, it said that
storage technologies have become very transitory . . . which we already knew,
but going into a lot more detail, talking to key people at universities and
the Library of Congress, etc. For example, some MO (magneto-optical) storage
media are conservatively rated as being good for 30 years. However, it is
quite likely that in 30 years you would have a hard time finding a working MO
drive of a compatible type to read it with. This is to say nothing of any
drivers or software that might also be required, which would have to be
runnable on whatever CPU is powering your workstation at that time -- not a
slam dunk by any means. And, if memory serves, there were other daunting
issues that increasingly came into play as the time horizons lengthened.


Jordan