Preservation of correspondence

[Jules Richardson]

Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 5 Feb 2007 at 20:23, Jim Leonard wrote:
> 
>> You should read up on DVD technology.  DVD-ROM has 1.32x the 
>> Reed-Solomon error-correction of CD.
> 
> I don't see the correlation.  What good is better error correction if 
> it's built on a less reliable technology?

Well said :) If the optical media were enclosed in a case (CD caddies, 
anyone?) then at least it would go some way toward preventing damage from 
scratches, fingerprints etc.

I've seen CD media that's only four years old, has been dry-stored in original 
cases and away from light which has huge rot spots all over the discs - so it 
seems that deterioration can easily happen naturally even in good conditions 
with certain discs.

Then of course there are huge potential incompatibility issues between the 
media, the drives, and the authoring process. It seems there's no way of 
knowing that a disc written in one drive will be at all readable in a 
different drive - not something you want for backups!

All of which raises interesting questions for preservation; we know that the 
average person makes no backups - but even if they do, they're likely to be on 
CD these days, which raises interesting questions as to how much will have 
survived 20 years down the line. I don't believe that the level of recoverable 
data will be as high in 20 years as it is now for 20 year old floppies...

cheers

Jules