birding-aus

RE: birding-aus Digest, Vol 48, Issue 5

To: Chris Sanderson <>
Subject: RE: birding-aus Digest, Vol 48, Issue 5
From: Dave Torr <>
Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2010 07:56:30 +1100
Will they be there in 100 years to honour their promise?

On 4 March 2010 00:25, Chris Sanderson <> wrote:

> Hah, the marketing gurus claim 100 years, but then, they have a vested
> interest in making people buy solid state HDDs.  Well, we should throw our
> weight behind the data crystals the Japanese were working on back in the
> 90s.  They would last forever, and the technology is nearly there!
>
> Regards,
> Chris
>
> ps. for those interested in such nerdy stuff:
> *http://tinyurl.com/yzv4ofw
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_optical_data_storage*
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 6:58 PM, Dave Torr <> wrote:
>
>> Sorry Chris - they may be shock resistant but they have limited data
>> retention timeframes - 10 years is reckoned to be reliable, 20 possible and
>> after that who know - you may get lucky....
>>
>>
>> On 3 March 2010 17:47, Chris Sanderson <> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Dave, solid state hard drives, while expensive, have a very long
>>> shelf life.  They are good because there are no moving parts at all, so less
>>> wear and tear on the parts over time.  Something to look into for archiving
>>> valuable data.  I saw a video of a guy throwing a laptop out of a second
>>> story window, retrieving the hard drive (solid state one) from the wreckage
>>> and plugging it into a new machine to demonstrate it still worked.  Not that
>>> I recommend trying that at home, but it's definitely a promising technology.
>>>
>>> This isn't the video I saw, but it gets the point across:
>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4cK0L__B9U
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Chris
>>>
>>>  On Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 4:34 PM, Dave Torr <> wrote:
>>>
>>>>  A bit of research shows that most people estimate that a flash memory
>>>> card
>>>> should not be relied on after about 10 years. This is probably less that
>>>> a
>>>> good quality CD or DVD. Of course there are many factors that change
>>>> this.
>>>>
>>>> On 3 March 2010 17:08, Dave Torr <> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > Flash was never designed for long term storage - all flash devices
>>>> have a
>>>> > finite number of "write cycles" they can support and are vulnerable to
>>>> > radiation effects and other possible errors - the higher the capacity
>>>> the
>>>> > more likely an error is. Perfectly manufactured and stored DVDs should
>>>> last
>>>> > for maybe 20 years or so - note the emphasis on perfect!
>>>> >
>>>> > Basically everything deteriorates and as we pack more and more bits in
>>>> > smaller and smaller spaces they become more vulnerable. This site
>>>> >
>>>> http://askville.amazon.com/data-encoding-CDs-DVDs-flash-drives-deteriorate-time-media-safe-forever/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=8683861hassome
>>>>  interesting comments - not sure how true they are but they are
>>>>
>>>> > certainly good guidelines. And even if your chosen media lasts 50
>>>> years I
>>>> > can guarantee there will be no equipment that can read it after that
>>>> time.
>>>> > Having been in IT for more than 40 years I have seen many technologies
>>>> come
>>>> > and go - early disks were the size of washing machines and held a few
>>>> > megabytes.
>>>> >
>>>> > If you are really concerned back up to something that is a fairly new
>>>> > technology (and of good quality) - and preferably to two types of
>>>> device.
>>>> > Every few years read the backups and rewrite them to new disks (or
>>>> tapes or
>>>> > whatever) again of new technology. That way you may stay ahead of the
>>>> game -
>>>> > assuming that the software still exists to read the data.
>>>> >
>>>> > Sorry to be a pessimist but you can't beat acid-free paper stored in
>>>> good
>>>> > environment - and in several places.....
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On 3 March 2010 10:27, Pat OMalley <> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> The comments on the deterioration of bird photos and records on CD
>>>> and
>>>> >> DVD is depressing. What is the evidence of deterioration on flash
>>>> memory
>>>> >> - is this a more promising medium?
>>>> >>
>>>> >> Pat
>>>> >> www.birding-aus.org
>>>> >> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>>>> >>
>>>> >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
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>>>> >>
>>>> >
>>>> >
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
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