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I hope to get this someday even at crazy prices. Permanent cold-storage of digital data can 'kinda' be done with M-Disk Blu Rays, but that is estimated good for

by smush 7y ago

I hope to get this someday even at crazy prices. Permanent cold-storage of digital data can 'kinda' be done with M-Disk Blu Rays, but that is estimated good for 1000 years...which probably translates in reality to 100 or less years. DVDs, HDDs etc. have severe bit rot in comparison to that and are all likely to be gone within a decade +- a few years depending on medium and storage. This glass? Write it and don't physically smash it and it should be good to go for the rest of your life +, if the claims in this article hold up. Then digital data will have a cold-storage equivalent to a piece of paper. Stick it in a box in the attic, get it out in 80 years and as long as its not smashed or burned it should be GTG.

omarhaneef 7y ago
I am confused by your comparison of M-Disk Blu Rays (estimated 1000 years, but actually only 100 years) with the glass (rest of your life+). Are you anticipating living a lot longer than 100 more years? And even then, isn't the M-Disk a better tech by your math?
- jszymborski 7y ago
  Presumably, this is to store things that future generations might also want to have.
- smush 7y ago
  The M-Disc claim of 1000 years is based on a few estimated tests and while they mostly hold up, we have objective proof that glass left alone over 1000 years does not change to the point that if you wrote something on year x, time-travelled with your reader to year 1000x , the reader would be unable to read it. I don't expect to crack 90 years myself, but my great-great-grandchildren might want or need whatever data there is on that glassdrive, even if it is only pictures and not something important like legal documents. The 'rest of your life+' claim is simply my shorthand for saying that while the glass will likely last for thousands of years, how long the readers exist that can read that particular glassdrive and interpret its data (ANSI or Unicode text, PNG or PDF display capability) may or may not last as long as the glassdrive itself can (see Voyneuch manuscript which exists, but we no longer can read and interpret it).
  - mywacaday 7y ago
    I am aware of a company that user to sell a long term DVD like storage disk that they claimed would last for 100+ years, 5-6 years in disks started to lose data, I now take lifetime claims with a big pinch of salt.
    - smush 7y ago
      Exactly. But glass is glass, so the amount of believing we have to do with a pane of glass / quartz with this system is much less of a leap than with a pressed circle someone made in cheap-as-possible-for-profit-margins-increases factories, organic dye or not.
    - chihuahua 7y ago
      Indeed, I think of those claims as a mixture of optimism, wishful thinking, and marketing drivel. How can someone claim that it lasts for 100 years, unless you have tested that claim by waiting 100 years and then verifying that the data is still there ? After many years of experience with CD-R and DVD-R, one can say that those disks are good for at least 3 years. But we can only say that because lots of people have successfully read CD-Rs that were 3 years old. Also, they can sell those "100-year" disks with these claims, and when customers lose data after 5-6 years, the company just says "oh that's too bad, maybe you stored them where the temperature fluctuated by more than +/- 0.1 degrees Celsius ?" and you have no recourse other than not giving them more of your money in the future.

by smush 7y ago

omarhaneef 7y ago

I am confused by your comparison of M-Disk Blu Rays (estimated 1000 years, but actually only 100 years) with the glass (rest of your life+). Are you anticipating living a lot longer than 100 more years? And even then, isn't the M-Disk a better tech by your math?

jszymborski 7y ago
Presumably, this is to store things that future generations might also want to have.
smush 7y ago
The M-Disc claim of 1000 years is based on a few estimated tests and while they mostly hold up, we have objective proof that glass left alone over 1000 years does not change to the point that if you wrote something on year x, time-travelled with your reader to year 1000x , the reader would be unable to read it. I don't expect to crack 90 years myself, but my great-great-grandchildren might want or need whatever data there is on that glassdrive, even if it is only pictures and not something important like legal documents. The 'rest of your life+' claim is simply my shorthand for saying that while the glass will likely last for thousands of years, how long the readers exist that can read that particular glassdrive and interpret its data (ANSI or Unicode text, PNG or PDF display capability) may or may not last as long as the glassdrive itself can (see Voyneuch manuscript which exists, but we no longer can read and interpret it).
- mywacaday 7y ago
  I am aware of a company that user to sell a long term DVD like storage disk that they claimed would last for 100+ years, 5-6 years in disks started to lose data, I now take lifetime claims with a big pinch of salt.
  - smush 7y ago
    Exactly. But glass is glass, so the amount of believing we have to do with a pane of glass / quartz with this system is much less of a leap than with a pressed circle someone made in cheap-as-possible-for-profit-margins-increases factories, organic dye or not.
  - chihuahua 7y ago
    Indeed, I think of those claims as a mixture of optimism, wishful thinking, and marketing drivel. How can someone claim that it lasts for 100 years, unless you have tested that claim by waiting 100 years and then verifying that the data is still there ? After many years of experience with CD-R and DVD-R, one can say that those disks are good for at least 3 years. But we can only say that because lots of people have successfully read CD-Rs that were 3 years old. Also, they can sell those "100-year" disks with these claims, and when customers lose data after 5-6 years, the company just says "oh that's too bad, maybe you stored them where the temperature fluctuated by more than +/- 0.1 degrees Celsius ?" and you have no recourse other than not giving them more of your money in the future.