Doug wrote:
>
> On Sun, 17 Jan 1999, Sam Ismail wrote:
>
> > Paper will last longer than anything we've been discussing so far (save
>
> Where did you get that idea? Paper will disolve in just about any
> solvent, including water, and is subject to tearing. Again, if we're
> talking about preservation in controlled environments, a CD-ROM kicks
> paper's butt.
>
> What makes some of today's technology fragile is simply the density, or
> equivalenty, the lack of redundancy in a given area. A plain old EPROM
> should be fine for 100 years if you include 100 copies of the information
> within it.
CD-ROM _may_ last longer than paper, but CD-ROM isn't human-readable.
There were comments that the Dead Sea scrools were on parchment rather
than paper. True. There are Egyptian papyri that are older than the
Dead Sea scrolls (some retaining quite a bit of color).
And yes, there's the chiselled stone media. If somebody can get me a
good source for affordable media, I'll start work on a printer (I
think the headstone folks have some items that could be built into a
prototype).
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram_at_cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Firearms can be hazardous to your health -- and get away with it.
Received on Mon Jan 18 1999 - 15:50:24 GMT