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CDs, DVDs Eyed For Long-Term Archival Use
Alien54 writes "Computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are launching an effort to develop specifications for 'archival quality' CD and DVD media that agencies could use to ensure the procurement of sufficiently robust media for their long-term archiving needs (i.e., 50 years and longer). See the press release at the NIST site." The research involves "...enclosed chambers that use temperature and humidity changes to artificially age the media some 20 years in only six weeks."
Age 20 years in 3 months.
That's what waking up at 3:00 in the morning every day to take care of the kid does to you.
"...enclosed chambers that use temperature and humidity changes to artificially age the media some 20 years in only six weeks."
That makes me wonder if they are considering the use of my apartment for this...
A link to where volunteers can submit Celine Dion, Westlife and New Kids On The Block cds to be included for testing would be greatly appreciated
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
artificially age the media some 20 years in only six weeks
that's nothing
This ages braincells a solid 20 years in 6 hours !
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
The researchers are very welcome to use my workplace, it has managed to age me 30 years in as much time as their machines do (at least I feel like it).
Might I also suggest showing the CDs and DVDs our collection of SCO stories? Those get old so very fast. They are guaranteed to feel like its been 20 years already.
If you outlaw the law, only criminals will have laws
...enclosed chambers that use temperature and humidity changes to artificially age the media some 20 years in only six weeks.
Temperature and humidity are definitely not the worst enemies of my CDs. My friends are.
Sounds like my brother's record collection just before he moved out of the basement. I could lend him a CD for a week and, if I ever saw it again, it had mysteriously accumulated a decade's worth of wear and tear.
the best way is to save this data is by arranging a big ass series of beer bottles. 0's = beer bottle upside down. 1's = beer bottle right side up.
I volunteer to help begin the media preparation process. Anyone want to help?
Humidity? Temperature? How lame. :)
Just get the CDs to spin fast enough to make their edges reach near c speed and store the data near that edges and you're safe about aging - a year for such data will last ages for us
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Yeah, my Beatles White Album CD seems to be in perfect nick as well, and that has music from ages back.
this reminds me of a very funny story some 35 years go.
:-)
My dad was a database guy avant-la-lettre : he used to catalogue his bibliografies and other stuff on small cards, and sort them in binders & carboard boxes all over his office.
These cards were kinda expensive though, and ordering them on univ budget took weeks. So when computer punchards started appearing, and programmers were trowing away hundreds of cards every day after compilation errors, my dad had found is never ending source of cards. So after a year or 2, his office was littered with punchcards with text written on the back.
Some time later, a collegue flew over from overseas for a congres. Upon seeing my dad's office and his insane collection of thousands of punchards, he went completely bananas "you've got everything on computer !! How splendid ! Could we please copy your archive to add to our own database ? "
My dad, being a complete computer illiterate was like "duh? sure, if you think it's of any help and if you return the cards"
So the collegue packed a few dozen boxes with cards and flew them to the US. Where they fed them into the poor mainframe....
I still giggle when I picture the problems their IT staff must have had trying to read the damd nonsense, and the look upon my fathers face "well offcourse the data is on those cards ! Didn't you guys turn them around and look ????"
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
Hopefully, someone will finally put the hoards of AOL CDs to good use.
Global warming will end civilisation in a few years, so what is the point?
I stole this
In 296,000 years Voyager-2 will pass Sirius... Do you think the gold video disc on-board will still be readable? :-)
"You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
Age 20 years in 3 months.
Dude, reverse that process and you've got a winner.
The coolest voice ever.
Isn't your number off by a bit? Itsn't the maximum fine something like $150,000 per incrimination? That's more like $4.5 billion. And don't forget, if he ripped them at more then 1x speed, you get to use the rip speed as a multiplier to the fine....and if he ever burned one of those songs, who nelly!
That reminds me of a story I once heard about the early days of university mainframes. At this time, programs were stored in sets of punched cards, along with any data read in or written out. The scheduling of running these programs was the responsibility of technicians who would spend all week placing the programs into the input tray, blank cards for the output tray. executing the program, and carefully storing the results for collection by the user. Before and after each run, the trays were inspected to ensure there was no debris present, as the combination of the high speed motors used to feed the large set of cards into the mainframe and any obstacle would turn the card tray into a rapid fire rail gun. If this happened, the user would have to spend an entire afternoon reordering the cards back into perfect sequence. Most users were patient and accepted that they might have to wait a day or two for their program to be run. Consideration was also given to staff who needed a last-minute task to be run immediately. However, there was one junior administrator who constantly kept rushing in every half-hour wanting to know if his program had been run yet - so the technicians decided to play a practical joke on him. They had a collection of old scratch cards which were totally useless. So on the umpteenth or so time he came in, they said sure, we're just about to run the program, would you like to watch. Instead of taking his set of cards, they took the set of old cards, folded one in half to make a little ramp on the tray, and proceeded to the motor. Needless to say, the look on his face as he saw over 300 cards whizzing all over the room was priceless. Fortunately, they reassured him that his original set of cards was intact and had already been completed.