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Ask Slashdot: Best Way To Store Data In Hard Copy?
First time accepted submitter bmearns writes "I have some simple plain-text files (e.g., account information) that I want to print on paper and store in my firebox as a backup to my backup. What's the best way to encode the data for print so that it can later be restored to digital form? I've considered just printing it as text and using OCR to recover it. The upsides are that it's easy and I can even access the information without a computer if necessary. Downsides are data density, no encryption, no error correction, and how well does OCR work, anyway? Another option is printing 2D barcodes. Upsides are density, error correction, I could encrypt the data before printing. Downsides are that I'll need to split it up into multiple barcodes due to maximum capacity of popular barcode formats, and I can't access the data without a computer. Did I miss any options? What do slashdotters suggest?"
The Egyptians used hand written papyrus and we still have copies to look at. The laser printed paper copies of the Book of the Dead simply didn't survive.
Google for OCR-A and OCR-B as TTF. There are freely available versions. I use them for mailing labels, along with PostNet bar codes to make it as easy as possible for the Post Office.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
QR codes. You can encrypt these. If you print them e.g. on plastic foil, they'll last close to forever. Of course, you will need to keep a piece of hardware that can read QR codes.
I would, however, take another route, although outside of the scope of your question. It is something I already do for files that are very valuable to me: I put them on magneto-optical disks. The things last forever and withstand the roughest of treatments. Writing and reading are slow, but that is a downside I just accept. I still have a database ( invaluable to me ) I acquired in the middle '90s on magneto-optical disk. It survived: a fire; spilling of liquids, including dog pee; some mild X-ray radiation; an inadvertent stay in our home's trash can; being jumped upon by a kid; and a 20-foot fall.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
And as long as a decent font for OCR is used - like OCR-B then it should be feasible.
The reason for doing it - well, if you want to preserve something for a few decades then it's printing on lint paper and using ink that can survive a long time. The latter is probably the hardest since nobody really knows which kind of ink used in computer printers that's able to survive for centuries.
My suspicion is that the dot matrix printers are better off than lasers and inkjets.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
In terms of their ubiquity in modern marketing, QR Codes are a slightly annoying solution in search of a problem; but as an engineering approach to the sort of problem the OP described, they're fantastic. There are many free and open source QR Code generation utilities and libraries, and the QR Code spec itself was patented, but freely licensed for public use by the Toyota subsidiary that invented it.
QR codes include error correction, and can encode binary data on the order of a hundred times the density of a regular bar code.
Why, the answer is simple, there is no standard for Digital backup. zero zip. There are only two methods of time test backup.
1) Text printed on no acid paper.
2) Microphish. or film.
I suggest you print it with ocr readable characters with a pigment based ink. If you are that serious about backup, take it to a printer and have them printed with good ink on the best paper you can find. store the copies in two separate locations.
Remember every one, there is NO standard on digital backup medium.
Text printed correctly on zero acid paper or film is the only time test way.
IMHO
How many accounts can anyone have that they actually need to have bar codes or some other such nonsense to be able to regain entry to them? Print out you account information, user names, passwords, etc., and put the printout in your fire-resistant safe. If your house burns down, or some other calamity happens, and you need to regain access to all of your accounts, then you'll just re-enter tha passwords for each one. This can't possibly be more complicated than setting up some OCR / Barcode / Rube Goldberg solution.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
Engraved to stone. Guaranteed for centuries.
I think using a proprietary standard for this has potential for disaster in the long term. QR codes would be much better. Scenario: the author of "Paperbak" discovers a huge improvement in his algorithm and deprecates the old version. 20 years into the future somebody needs to decode their stuff, and they search for the source code to "Paperbak" and realize that the only version they can find on the future internet is the "new/improved" version that can't read their stuff. So they are just the lucky owners of some paper decorated with a very specific arrangement of dots.
With QR Codes, on the other hand, it is difficult to believe that the knowledge of their format will be lost in our lifetimes. They have their own Wikipedia entry describing their structure, for example.
No need to worry about ink: even the cheapest and nastiest laser printers use toner, and a mixture of thermoplastic and carbon black thermally fused to your paper isn't going anywhere(in fact, if you use lousy enough paper, some lucky future archeology intern may have the... unmixed pleasure... of picking the little plastic character glyphs out of the pile of dust, trying to keep them in their original order!).
His data-restore needs probably don't extend to truly epic lengths in any case, so it shouldn't be a big deal.
http://www.pgpi.org/pgpi/project/scanning/
Modern barcodes like PDF417, QR, and Data Matrix have robust error correction built into their spec and can take a lot of damage. If you're really wanting to print stuff on paper as a backup, these are definitely your best bet.
Personally, I'd just encrypt and shove into a few different off-site backups.
Here's a link for Paperbak: http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
This is a backup to your backup, so digital means must have failed before you'd consider using it. Text is low density, but it has an advantage that any encrypted barcode or other high tech means do not have -- it can be read by human eyes. When you're huddled in a rough lean-to roasting a feral cat over the campfire amid the wreckage of civilization, you will still be able to read your backup. That might come in handy.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I'm thinking tatoo might be a good medium. Depends on your storage needs and the size of your back.
I know you're joking, but if you're trying to archive things like this, it's a good idea to include the documentation for how to generate and read the codes your using.
This is silly.
Without a computer he will have no need of this data. It's account data! What good is that without a computer? (Left unsaid is what kind of accounts we are talking about. If computer accounts you simply don't need it. If financial accounts you might temporarily need to work with paper till you restore the computers).
Why not a second or third or fourth backup at a different location all in common computer readable form?
Planning to scan in paper is far more complex than just a conventional backup on common media with a copy off site.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Sadly, many of my old dot matrix and teletype printouts have faded as much as any other liquid ink I've used. It depends entirely on the ink in the ribbon. The liquid ink present in ordinary ribbons was often of wildly varying quality, and most people who bought those ribbons in bulk sought out the cheapest possible ribbons. I wouldn't bet on their longevity.
Laser printed pages consist of carbon in plastic, and there's no reason they shouldn't last a century or more, as long as certain conditions are met: if the toner is properly fused to the paper, if the paper doesn't degrade beneath it, and if the facing page doesn't adhere to the toner.
1. Your printer should have the right temperature set in the fuser, and that's probably not even adjustable to you. If the toner comes out dusty or smeary, it's too cool. If it comes out brown and crispy, it's too hot :-) You should recognize it immediately if the print quality is poor.
2. Store the paper properly. Heat is your enemy: don't let it get too hot, and don't store anything you want preserved in sunlight. Don't let it get damp - mold will destroy paper. Don't use crappy paper that will disintegrate - acid free is always the recommendation for long term storage. Horizontal stacks of paper will apply a lot of pressure to the sheets near the bottom of the stack, vertical hanging files reduce this pressure.
3. Watch out for printed sheets facing other printed sheets, (like double sided printing) where the toner from bottom side of the upper sheet can stick to the toner on the top side of the lower sheet. A horizontal stack of paper, especially in a hot environment, will apply a lot of pressure that cause the toners to fuse together where they touch. I've also had problems with toner adhering to vinyl sheets commonly found in 3 ring binders or binder covers.
John
...post on Dan's Data already?
He covered most options available for what you want back in 2009, and apparently he did an update in 2011.
http://www.dansdata.com/gz094.htm
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Do a screen shot of it, overlay it with a picture of you and your girlfriend or boyfriend having sex and upload it to a revenge porn site, then publicly complain about it having been uploaded without your consent. That guarantees it will be available from any computer for at least 100 years.
For account numbers and passwords, this is a good solution. But IMO, it isn't a good enough solution. A better solution is print them twice. Put one copy in a waterproof, fireproof safe. Put the other copy in a safe deposit bank across town. This is to protect you from the possibility that your whole house and all your computers become inaccessible while you are away from home. (http://www.capitalbay.com/headline/339999-as-landslide-swallows-five-homes-in-wealthy-northern-california-neighborhood-residents-struggle-to-find-the-root-cause.html), (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/07/07/199688745/runaway-train-explosion-still-ablaze-in-quebec).
And since you've got that safe deposit box, it's a great place to put original birth certificates, copies of insurance policies, property deeds, auto titles, and a SSD containing a backup of important data from your computer. A monthly trip to the bank to swap out your backup drive is also a good opportunity to check if your paper docs are up to date. If you don't have very much data that you think needs backing up, you can use a smaller, cheaper USB drive.
It can actually be a risk, if the fuser doesn't get the toner hot enough, long enough, to fully infiltrate the paper(without burning it, obviously, which is presumably what drives conservatism on that score).
Very high humidity at print time can be a problem: It's rarely this dramatic; but I've seen a few cases where paper, left unattended and non climate controlled through a ghastly humid summer, to the point where it starts to get vaguely limp, billowing steam as it passed through the fuser stage. An interesting spectacle; but, needless to say, not good for adhesion(the characters themselves, while delicate, were largely intact, and could be poured off the paper), since the enthalpy of vaporization of water was sinking significant heat at point of contact. Sometimes the classier laser printers have humidity sensors in the print path to compensate; but air conditioning still isn't a bad idea, if only for the poor humans.
Actually, fire safes are a lot better for paper than CD/DVD media, which will be destroyed faster than paper chars.
He is making a valid point.
Soon IDE will be a thing of the past, and maybe SATA will be replaced with something better... maybe native USB3.0 to the disk?
When I cleaned out my garage I found some old floppies (5.25" and 3.5", including compilers and OSs that cost me quite a lot), some DAT tapes, some Jaz disks, some zip disks, some audio cassettes and some MFM disks too.
All of which are pretty much junk.
An interesting aside - when I looked up the specs for a 20Meg MFM disk I found I was surprised that a then current PC was able to read the entire contents in less than half a minute. If only we could do that with today's 3TB drives...
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Spoken like somebody who was born in the plug and play PC age...
The MFM controller actually controlled the disk positioning, and so you need to know the physicals of the device to access it, hopefully avoiding trashing the disk.
You can buy fire safes that are rated for 1, 2, ore 3 hours of fire which will maintain internal temperatures no hotter than 125F
This would work well with the archival DVDs, since the disk is made of Polycarbonate (thermoplastic polymers) that has a melting point of 311F (155C)
While it's true that paper will ignite up at 424.4F (218C) it starts to yellow and char starting down at 302F (150C) which could interfere with OCR.
There's no reason he couldn't burn an archival DVD and print a paper hard copy; then keep them both in the safe.