17 May
2014
17 May
'14
8:42 a.m.
On May 16, 2014, at 11:05 PM, Toby Thain <toby at telegraphics.com.au> wrote:
On 16/05/14 4:14 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
I didn't say "working" :-)
The Antikythera Mechanism has the last laugh here, anyway.
Well, a computer is a digital mechanism. So is a clock. And clocks can certainly be kept
working for hundreds of years. Not to mention the work of the Long Now foundation, which
aims to push that to thousands of years.
Interesting notion ? a Long Now computer design.
paul
On 15/05/14 9:19 AM, R SMALLWOOD wrote:
I disagree. It would be impossible IMHO to preserve a computer for 500
yaars. ICs will fail whether powered up or not. EPROMs will suffere from
bit rot. You have to look at the motivations behind those
who run museums.
Firstly only a small fraction of what they have is ever seen.
They are hoarders and misers of the worst kind.
That is not entirely fair. The best museums will preserve their pieces
for 500, 1000 years hence (and hopefully longer).