Storage is not just for computers any more.
When CD's came out the vinyl record disappeared, you can still get
record players.
Computers have become so tied up with the whole multi-media thing that
they NEED to maintain compatibility with people's CD and DVD
collections. My DVD collection is only about 100 or so, but I know
people with over 500 DVD's and countless CDs. The cost of conversion is
prohibitive and unless compatibility is maintained then take up of any
new technology will be slow. Manufacturers don't want this so for a
minor increase in cost they will build in the compatibility - until the
content suppliers come up with a new way of licensing the content (and
that is happening as we speak too).
For the record I back up to CD, DVD and keep a hard drive copy. Every
12 months or so I go back and randomly check the CD's and DVD's to make
sure that they are still readable. My early digital stuff is on 2 CD's
rather than a CD and DVD, but it is on one gold CD and one silver CD,
because no one could tell me what the difference between them was.
Leon
http://www.bluering.org.au
http://www.bluering.org.au/leon
Jostein wrote:
Very interesting indeed. Long-life media is a good start.
If even the minimum estimate of 80 years holds, media lifetime will not be the
limiting factor.
Second question: Will there be any CD-R readers to go round in 80 years from
now?
Personal computers have been with us for 25 years, and we've already passed
through several generations of storage media that can no longer be read by
mainstream computers.
Jostein
Quoting Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
This looks interesting:
http://www.imaginginfo.com/article/article.jsp?siteSection=3&id=1641
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