Re: CD Life?

[written_by -at- juno -dot- com]

> I just read a story in the paper the other day about how this 
> archival
> library has had to replace a whack of information stored on CDs, 
> because
> they've developed some kind of creeping rusting-mold situation that 
> is
> eating the surface of the CD away. 

Weren't we once told that compact disks would last forever? That
scratches will not hurt the data? I have some first generation music CDs
that I can no longer play.

Fact is, we just do not know what problems await us 20 or 30 years from
now. It is entirely possible that defects will be discovered down the
road that were not anticipated when the disks were manufactured. Perhaps
one day, all CDs from a particular manufacturer will simply not work.
Lots of data is stored on really cheap CDs these days.

Fortunately, the growth of the Internet has given us access to equipment
that makes it possible to read all sorts of odd and obsolete media. The
list is extremely long. Hundreds of ways to record and store data were
developed and lost to history. Two of the best (in my opinion) are the
fountain pen and the typewriter. Carbon ribbons produce print that has
longevity and the fountain pen and ink have an equally stellar track
record. 

I can still "read" Edison cylinders, IOTA tapes, records, RCA capacitive
video disks, laser disks, paper tape from my old Morse Code trainers,
Dictaphone belts and even wire recordings. Before the net, it was hard to
locate the required equipment, so much of this data was simply tossed
out. Today, it is "easy" to find a player or reader for almost anything. 

For most people, the loss of a drive means that they will simply toss the
disks. It is not that they can't find a way to read them, it is that they
do not care to. How many people no longer view their 35mm slides because
their projector blew up? 

Perhaps they simply decide to toss the slides after having them copied to
a CD, and then their disk becomes damaged, and they have lost everything.
At least film or prints from your computer printer will last. Well, in my
experience they can. 

I have proposals I wrote many years ago and filed away in a file cabinet,
and I can "read" this data. Some are yellowed with age, but readable. I
have magazines going back to the first issues of Collier's or National
Geographic, and I can still enjoy them. 

I can take your images or prints and make color separations on black and
white film using archival techniques. They will be around 200 years from
now, barring severe damage or a fire. If you have a few corrupted bits or
bytes on a disk, you are done for. 

Perhaps the best LT storage might still be ancient and analog.  The
picture of Shorty the dog that hangs above my desk is perhaps 10%
scratched and damaged, but I can still see the image. If 10% of the
digital file becomes damaged, the image is probably lost. 

If you want a print to last for hundreds of years, you can have a dye
transfer print made. The process was discontinued decades ago, but the
quality is vastly superior to any color printing technique used today. A
fact, not a guess. As is the Technicolor process for motion pictures, by
the way

(SNIP)
 
> I remember when music first started coming out on CDs, and everyone 
> was
> scoffing at me because I was skeptical, saying that vinyl was 
> better.. i was
> treated like a stubborn luddite... and now that we've all been 
> pretty much
> forced to abondon vinyl, LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENING!??!?!? 

In many ways vinyl is better. A few scratches does not mean loss of the
entire disk. My Beatles albums will still play if they are scratched.
Damage a CD or a floppy, and things are much different. I can play a
warped LP. Will a warped CD play?

> The bottom line is: nobody can accurately predict how long CD format 
> will be
> relevant. Rest assured, though, that if (when) CDs get replaced with 
> the
> next new technolgy that  is supposed to be THE standard forever, 
> there will
> be tons of people who will gladly accept your money to convert all 
> your
> archives. 

Absolutely correct. We just do not know. What I do is backup my files on
a CD and on another HDD. Current projects also go on floppy disks. I have
had crashes before, so I take a little time and make sure that I have
several backups.

I'll leave you with this. I collect antique calculators. Primarily
Marchant and Rapids. Marchants are large and heavy beasts with perhaps a
thousand moving metal parts. Before the Internet, having them repaired or
finding parts was next to impossible, because people stopped using them
when electronics came along. The repair people either died off or stopped
bothering because there was no market for their repair services. 

Taking apart a machine with so many mechanical parts is costly and the
knowledge to do so correctly no longer exists in most places. My father
repaired them, so I have a decent understanding of how they work. I am
most likely the only person in my town that could repair one if asked.
For most people, these machines are just junk. 

However, in my collection are a few "modern" machines that use Toshiba
Core Memory Boards. Little ferrite cores with copper wires running
through them. I can still read and write to this memory, because the
Internet gives me access to needed parts and equipment. Perhaps we might
always be able to find a way to read data. Unless the data is severely
corrupted, that is.

The problem is that the data is still lost forever because many people
will simply not take the time to recover it or find a proper tool to do
so. So they toss it out.

Bob

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