The secret of lasting information is copying it over and over. Digital information has to be copied from one medium to the newer as long as the hard- and software to read and write it is available. Interconnectivity is necessary. How long do books last? Not talking about American paperbacks but of real, leather bound volumes with acid-free paper, those might last 100-500 years depending on how they are stored and treated. The only information, which will last is the _written word_ but whatever material you print or write it on - it has to be *accurately* copied over and over. Think of the Bible: Professional copyists worked hard to preserve the information and we (at least specialists in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) can still read and decifer the 10000s of handwritten copies nowadays. Why? Because the Hard- and Software to decode it is built into our heads and this hard- and software replicates with the same pace as population replicates! Interconnectivity is included by means of spoken or written word too. This, of course, implies education. Lamento that fewer and fewer people are good readers. Guess to which development of the past 50 years this is due to!? I wish more money would be spent on education than on development of technical gimmicks. Finally: Who or what decides which information is worth preserving?
Hold it a minute! Didn't they claim that SUN was more unreliable because of *hardware* problems? So the Windows NT *software* is more reliable than the SUN *hardware*???? Isn't this like saying: "My family tree is more reliable than your car"? What hardware does Microsoft sell? Are Natural Keyboards more reliable than SUN servers? - Probably... but does NT run on Natural Keyboards?
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I too parsed that as Ebola Sorry
The secret of lasting information is copying it over and over. Digital information has to be copied from one medium to the newer as long as the hard- and software to read and write it is available. Interconnectivity is necessary.
How long do books last?
Not talking about American paperbacks but of real, leather bound volumes with acid-free paper, those might last 100-500 years depending on how they are stored and treated.
The only information, which will last is the _written word_ but whatever material you print or write it on - it has to be *accurately* copied over and over.
Think of the Bible: Professional copyists worked hard to preserve the information and we (at least specialists in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) can still read and decifer the 10000s of handwritten copies nowadays. Why? Because the Hard- and Software to decode it is built into our heads and this hard- and software replicates with the same pace as population replicates! Interconnectivity is included by means of spoken or written word too. This, of course, implies education. Lamento that fewer and fewer people are good readers. Guess to which development of the past 50 years this is due to!? I wish more money would be spent on education than on development of technical gimmicks.
Finally: Who or what decides which information is worth preserving?
Hold it a minute! Didn't they claim that SUN was more unreliable because of *hardware* problems?
So the Windows NT *software* is more reliable than the SUN *hardware*????
Isn't this like saying: "My family tree is more reliable than your car"?
What hardware does Microsoft sell?
Are Natural Keyboards more reliable than SUN servers? - Probably... but does NT run on Natural Keyboards?