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Thanks For the ... Eight-Track, Uncle Alex
Uncle Alex writes "My niece just turned one year old and her parents have asked that, instead of the usual gifts, we each contribute something to a time capsule to be opened on her 17th birthday. Multiple members of my family want to contribute digital data — text, video, music files. They came to me (the closest thing to a geek our family has) wondering: what's the best way to save the data to ensure she'll actually be able to see it in 16 years? Software might be out of date, hardware may no longer be used... any suggestions?"
Of course, you could use paper ... but then you take the risk that people will still be able to read 17 years into the future!
Open an account for her right now and place the username password combination in the time capsule. Once 17 she will then be able to ask slashdot how to read all the ancient media and have a geekish low account number when viewed fro 16 years into the future.
Yeah, and there's absolutely no chance that google won't exist in 15 years....
Manuals are your last resort only
USB is like... the best standard ever. Just have everyone throw everything on a flash stick. In 16 years, if there is not just yet another faster version of it that is backward compatible with all the old ones, then you can personally come over here and slap me with a rolled up newspaper.
.jpg, .mpg, and .mp3 ever not being supported. Those are standards which are also more likely to be updated than ditched, I think.
The files are a little tougher, but it's hard to imagine
of course not. gods are eternal.
weinersmith
"what's the best way to save the data to ensure she'll actually be able to see it in 16 years? "
You're missing the real point of his question. I think he's really asking how to make his Time Capsule zombie/meteor/nuclear bomb-proof.
And divorce-proof.
"Oh darling, when you were just twelve months old your mother and ... Damnit! If it wasn't for you I'd have never had to get married to that ... $%^#&#@%$".
Or get the entire package, transform it into a single file (by whatever means necessary) and print the binary code of that file in 2D barcode, in plastic sheets.
It will last well over five thousand years and no matter the difficulty of reading it, it will always be at least possible.
If you expect your niece to become a vampire or somehow surpass the expiration date of plastic, you can pay a little to get the 2D barcoded plastic sheets engraved in metal sheets or tablets.
Follow those steps and your niece's time capsule might become the rosetta stone for an intelligent being aeons away.
"For my clients, I always suggest the use of stone and / or clay tablets for all mission critical data archive projects, regardless of size or scope. Bablyonian and Greek models of data retention from as far back as 4,500 years ago are (in many cases) superior to the models we commonly use today, with much of the physical media having survived electrical storms, tornadoes, floods, fires, and wars on every scale imaginable with a data corruption rate of zero and without the benefit of a climate controlled room, dedicated security staff, or even a closet for media storage. Imagine the elegance of a 84'3/4 STROM (Stone Tablet Read Only Memory) machine hooked up to your Slackware Archive server for performing restorations, and the ST Binary Writer you have networked to your backup systems and kept physically over by the quarry... nice! The TCO for slab is far less than that of tape archives, considering you can store the media in a pile of mud and hose it down when you are ready for a restoration."
M
Why not tattoo the text on her body? Paper can get lost! Ok, use a mirror so that she can later on read the message without any difficulty.
What is writing? Encoding of information. Nothing else.
What is paper? An insufficiently dense medium for encoding huge volumes of data such as audio or video, even with a 75-square-inch block of QR Code on each page. Nothing else.
Make sure you bury one barrel of oil with it.
It won't help you with the message, but should pay for 4 years at a moderately priced college.
Cruise TT
I'd suggest storing a certain clip from Rick Astley on a DVD :)
http://xkcd.com/573/