A frightening little bit of technology

[Chuck Guzis]

On 6 Sep 2007 at 11:44, Al Kossow wrote:

> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140155187682
> 
> How to make an unreliable medium even LESS reliable.

Well, I don't know.  In the universe of "read-and-write unreliable 
media", floppies rate as pretty darned reliable from the standpoint 
of "How many years can elapse between writing and reading before the 
medium becomes unreadable?"

Hard disks seem to develop problems regularly (bumpers turning to goo 
etc., not being able to locate the correct controller to read the old 
stuff), tapes seem to have all sorts of problems from QIC cartridges 
shedding to the wonderful experience of oxide sticking to the next 
layer on 1/2" 9-track tape (it really makes a mess on a 200 ips 
streamer).  MO carts that fail mysteriously or problems locating the 
appropriate drive.  I don't know how USB flash will fare in 30 years.

Punched cards are still pretty good.  I can still read the first 
floppies I wrote over 30 years ago just fine--and have 3.5" diskettes 
more than 20 years old that read just fine.

Basalt tablets--now there's a reliable medium.

Cheers,
Chuck