Re: Visual Studio 2008 Question

I live with a person who has her PhD in Archives (officially: Library and Information
Science). The problem of media migration is one of the massive bottlenecks in long-term
storage. In her past career(s), as a research bibliographer, librarian, and archivist,
she regularly handled books 500 years old, which are in perfect condition.

The Smithsonian, as part of their Sound Archives project, has decided to store tape
recordings, wire recordings, etc. on what are essentially phonograph records. This is the
only medium they felt had any long-term survivability. Tapes had gone through so many
changes (1/2", 1/4", 1/8", open-reel, cartridge, etc., 15 inchers per second to 1-/78"
ips, acetate, mylar, metallized, high-coercive force, DAT...) that they couldn't even
manage their tape libraries, not to mention wire recordings and other technologies, that
they had to say "How can we preserve sound for centuries?" and went back to engraved
grooves in a plastic medium.

(I'm trying to track down the actual citation, including the photo of someone holding a
new-format phonograph record)
joe

On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 11:19:32 +0100, Daniel James <wastebasket@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article news:<kmn4d49bgav2m62itjm9l8f6ct7b4rmol4@xxxxxxx>, Joseph M.
Newcomer wrote:
I never heard it referred to as DVD-RAM, even when we were using it.

I think the name DVD-RAM is a bit more recent -- Panasonic/Matsushita
used the same phase-change optical technology on at least two different
formats of storage before the DVD-RAM came along.

One that I have used was a SCSI drive taking 1GB (2x500MB,
double-sided) optical disks in cartridges superficially similar to
DVD-RAM cartridges but slightly larger. I still have about a dozen of
the disks (which cost about a thousand pounds in total) but nothing to
read them with as the drive packed up years ago. These would have been
available in the late 1980s, when you tried this technology.

These were replaced by "PD" ("Phase Change Dual") drives, which were
smaller cheaper drives that could read/write single-sided 650MB
phase-change optical disks and could also read CD-ROMs. The PD
cartridges are the same size as DVD-RAM cartridges, and the disks can
be used in the first generation of DVD-RAM drives.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-change_Dual

I had two PD drives, but they have both failed (probably only need
cleaning and/or re-alignment). Fortunately I also have a
first-generation DVD-RAM drive (and have long since copied any data
worth keeping to other media).

This sort of story underlines the difficulty (and the importance) of
keeping any sort of long-term archive of data. It's not that the media
themselves fail (IIRC the original phase-change disks were guaranteed
to hold data for a period in excess of 30 years) but also -- and even
more so -- that the equipment needed to read the disks does not last
the time, and becomes unavailable, impossible to repair, etc..

I've recently been clearing out old letters and photographs from my
late mother's house and have found a number of negatives from the 1920s
and 1930s that are still in perfect condition. I wonder what the
chances are of anyone being able to read a DVD-RW containing my recent
photographs in 70-80 years time?

Cheers,
Daniel.

Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: newcomer@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm
.

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