[TriLUG] Safest long-term media

[Joseph Mack NA3T]

On Sun, 12 Jul 2009, Carl Crider wrote:

> That job can (and most certainly will be) outsourced. :)

>> how long would it take to read it back?

:-)

I remember paper being suggested in the 80's. Someguy 
(Kurzweil?) had a paper tape writer/reader (a bit like 
punched tape from the 60s except it was printed dots) and 
was suggesting it as a way of exchanging binaries. This was 
back in the days when letters were a standard form of 
communication and you sent e.o. floppies. It seemed like a 
smart idea, and I was all prepared for the changeover, 
except that no-one adopted it.

I didn't realise till last night that you could get 240M on 
a ream of paper. This was quite a lot of storage not so long 
ago, but not anymore when a 16G flash drive is about the 
same price. I imagine the b.e.r. on writing, storing and 
reading from paper is higher than from flash or hard disks.

The next problem is that paper doesn't scale. The amount of 
storage that can be packed in a fixed volume (eg a hard 
disk) goes up by a factor of 10 every decade (it seems) and 
with decreasing cost, we use it all. But the resolution of 
print on paper only goes up slowly, with no reason to go to 
any finer resolution than the eye can detect.

Joe
-- 
Joseph Mack NA3T EME(B,D), FM05lw North Carolina
jmack (at) wm7d (dot) net - azimuthal equidistant map
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