Data preservation (was: Re: Is ProDOS supported in OSX?)

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Scott Alfter wrote:

<snip>

>As for other people/organizations and their data, if it's a sufficiently
>large amount (like all those 9-track tapes that NASA has accumulated), it
>isn't always feasible to keep migrating the data to newer formats. 

I've thought a bit about this...   If there is any desire to keep the data
in usable form, then it is necessary to copy it periodically.  This would
be true even if it were to be copied to new 9-track tapes!

There are really only two choices:  continuously copy the data to new
media, or kiss it off as lost forever.

The good news is that the capacity of new media is increasing
exponentially, so you can fit your warehouse full of 9-track tapes
into a bookcase.  ;-)  The capacity of the most advanced reel-to-
reel 9-track tape (6250 bpi) is about 180MB, so more than 30
tapes could be stored on one single-layer DVD.

Now _that's_ data compression!  ;-)

Because of this "consolidation" phenomenon, the task of re-copying
the old data to newer media every decade or so eventually becomes
trivial.  (Of course, all the "new" old data will keep everyone busy.)

I heard an NPR story a couple of months ago about a team at the
Smithsonian that is copying old sounds--wax cylinders, movie
soundtracks, records, etc.--onto fresh media to preserve them.

They must have a peculiarly fatalistic view of their task, since
they chose...78 rpm accoustic recording (not even electronic!)
for their archival medium.  Their theory is that after all ist kaput,
an interested party could still play the recordings by spinning
them on a pivot and sticking a pine needle in the groove, or
something!  ;-)

What a singularly stupid idea, when the originals could be
captured by a non-contact laser sensor and the information
contained therein could be trivially preserved forever, without
further degradation, by digitizing the information.  To be fully
disaster-ready, you duplicate the digital data in a dozen
places on the earth, and, of course, regularly update the
media.

In the event of a global melt-down, a future civilization would
have to progress far enough to build the equipment to read the
media to get access to the predecessor civilazation's literature,
but that seems a reasonable motivation and reward.  ;-)

Of course, we should aim to get a few of those copies off the
planet, as well--say, to the Moon and Mars.

In the meantime, they slave away, playing (and no doubt
degrading) the originals into a horn to make new scratches
on a 78 rpm disk...

"What fools these mortals be."

-michael

Check out amazing quality 8-bit Apple sound on my
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/