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From: Bernd Paysan <paysan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
Subject: Re: Publishing Scholarly Work on the Web -- opinions?
Organization: Bernd Paysan, 81477 Muenchen, Germany
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 22:51:13 +0200
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Message-ID: <324849C1.14DC5178@informatik.tu-muenchen.de>

ale2 wrote:
> Shouldn't optical storage of information (cd's ect.) last in principle
> for 1000's of years even if the machines which read the information
> don't?

No. CD-ROMs will last until the aluminium reflection layer "rusts" away
(aluminium doesn't last forever, use gold instead ;-), or the
polycarbonate becomes blind. Ok, and for archiving, you'll use writable
CDs, which have organic material that often doesn't last the few weeks
it takes to arrive at the customer. The only long-term archiving media
for digital information I know is DNA. And DNA-"readers" exist since 4
billion years and most likely will exist another 4 billion years ;-).
Well, they don't convert it into something computers can use...

-- 
Bernd Paysan
"Late answers are wrong answers!"
http://www.informatik.tu-muenchen.de/~paysan/

