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Archive.org Deploys Macromedia Software Titles

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the rip-mix-burn dept.

Jon-Erik Hexum writes "Now at the internet archive, the new software section contains over 10,000 CD-ROM titles donated by Macromedia. In an interesting discussion, the Software Archive is struggling with deciding on the best method for preserving CD-ROM images for the long term."

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Use the Public by Jason1729 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The best way to preserve this media would be over a distributed network. People sign up to voulenteer space on their computers and then download only the media they want to archive. To retrieve the information, have a simple search client that will show you who has that information...Oh wait, that's just a P2P network.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes

  2. I'm obviously out of the loop here.... by CSG_SurferDude · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm obviously out of the loop here....

    What the heck are on those 10,000 cds (cd's?) anyways, and why is it so cool? Games? MP3s? Movies? Pr0n?

    --

    LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!

  3. Distributed Data by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Not a bad plan, though. Though I would go one step further and convert any data still readable into a format that includes a description of itself. This would mean that every video/audio/image should have it's own decoder attached. HTML files would have the HTML spec. This may seem like a huge waste of space, especially on smaller files, but it is worth it for the time saved reading files later on. Of course, you need something that can always read the description, but one standard program could function for all files in this format instead of countless files. Now, this doesn't help for executables (currently, anyway) but could improve data retention.

    As storage availabilities and requirements rise, an encoder/decoder for many formats would become trivial, notable exceptions being made for massively integrated applications (*cough* Office *cough*)

    After all, how do you think Star Trek managed to take 50,000 year-old data crystals and read the files stored on them, or interface with Borg computers? : )

    --
    That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  4. Cool CD-Roms by Psychic+Burrito · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Here are a few cool CD-Roms I've found, just to give everybody some idea what kind of stuff can be found: ("cool" or at least not extremely boring :-)
  5. DNA isn't that reliable by Squirrel+Killer · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you want to preserve something forever, encode it in a DNA form (I think that most of DNA code is inactive, so there are plenty of space), grow an live thing from it, and while descendents last, your software will survive.
    Except that there's two problems with that, given the fact that DNA doesn't always replicate exactly. (IANA Biologist)
    1. Mutations - Happen all the time, look at albinos.
    2. Introns - Mutations are limited in practice because of introns, sections of DNA that don't encode proteins. IIRC, introns are a huge portion of all DNA, and mutations within them go completely unchecked. (Since they don't encode anything, mutations in introns don't express themselves, and thus don't effect the living creature positively or negatively.)
    While it's a neat idea, I wouldn't but any more trust in DNA than my stack of C-64 disks, especially over several generations.

    -sk