OT: Archiving data (LONG)

On Wed, 31 May 2000 allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote: Everytime this talk of using punched mylar cards to archive data comes up I have to laugh. First of all, do we all realize how many cards it would take to store even one floppy disk? And then, where are all these cards going to go? Where does one store millions of punched cards? Who's going to pay for this? The trick is to apply the solution that makes most sense for today and keep looking for new mediums to transfer the archive to. The best medium I see now is redudndant living systems, and what I mean by that is having the archives stored on a hard drive somewhere (connected to the internet), preferably with RAID, and have mirrors of that site in multiple places. This will allow for universal and immediate access. As systems die, the archive is simply moved on to the next host. Of course the archives could also be dumped to CD ROM every N years. Then, when something comes along to imrpove on CD technology, we move to that. Anyway, it's a matter of feasibility and practicality. Suggesting solutions like punched cards makes no sense when you're dealing with gigabytes of data. Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!