Re: [ARSCLIST] Preservation media WAS: Cataloguing still :-)

[Bob Olhsson <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jerome Hartke wrote:
>The problem is that all of these require head-media contact when reading
>(playing) content.

Contact isn't required. There is no head contact in any rotating head device and early video tape designs even used compressed air to keep the tape away from the guides. In the case of hard drives, there is also no contact.

The elephant in the room is the fact that historically it is chemical instability that has brought most media down and there is no way to test for its effect ahead of time. In the case of audio recording tape, the stuff from the mid '60s and before that was supposed to turn to dust within five years still plays while the newer stuff that was supposed to last 50 years requires extraordinary measures to restore. Longevity tests are really a lie because they only test some very limited environmental factors.

Simple chemistry is far more stable than complex chemistry. Binary code is outrageously inefficient from a thruput standpoint and demands far more complex media in order to be practical. If the average corporate executive really knew how fragile and potentially unstable digital media is, I think they'd freak.

-- 
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
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