17 Jan
2023
17 Jan
'23
7:49 p.m.
On Jan 17, 2023, at 2:07 PM, Chris via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
The ones that HAVE survived have kept worthwhile data integrity, granted.
There we go. Just find a big mountain and start etching hex code. Or texhtonic plates?
They're pretty big. But those damned earthquakes. On Tuesday, January 17, 2023,
01:32:32 PM EST, Sellam Abraham via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 8:57 AM Chris via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
Old stuff being preserved is often a matter of chance or luck rather than planning.
Consider the Linear B clay tablets; those were preserved because they were accidentally
baked, in the fires that were set when the city was sacked. Papyrus documents were
preserved in Egypt because it's desert, but not in other places that aren't quite
so dry.
As some civil engineer put it, it's not that the old timers built so much better
allowing us to see the buildings they put up centuries ago -- rather, the buildings that
are still there for us to see are the ones that happened to be strong enough. Sometimes
just barely so, like the cathedral in Utrecht (the Netherlands) -- part of it blew down in
a storm centures ago, but about 3/4 of it didn't and is still good today.
paul
The bottom line is you have to dispense with
the fantasy that any media
will reliably keep data for really any length of time.
I don't know, man. Those stone walls with carvings in them have carried
data forward so far for centuries, practically aeons.
Sellam