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Off topic: if I wanted to digital store files to pass down to my children that might not be access for decades, what's the best medium to store such data? Flop

Off topic: if I wanted to digital store files to pass down to my children that might not be access for decades, what's the best medium to store such data? Floppy/ZipDrive/CD-ROM/Blueray/USB-A are either obsolete or are on their way out. What's a future proof storage option? (and if you said Cloud Storage {X} - just look at how many services have folded in just the last few years alone). Secondly, what's the best file formats also that will be future proof?

GhettoComputers 5y ago
What kind of files and how much?
IndexCardBox 5y ago
I'd hedge my bets and store it multiple ways in multiple formats. Including physical (print off pictures, diaries, etc. on acid free paper with acid free inks)
mixmastamyk 5y ago
No such thing. Other poster had a good idea, duplicate everything every ten years. I suspect flash drives will have the best longevity in the medium term however.
zamadatix 5y ago
As far as formats stick to either very popular or very simple. E.g. for video in 100 years time there is still going to be a way to be able to decode h.264 videos just because of the shear amount of content from this era that was encoded in it. Alternatively use a format that is so simple it doesn't matter if there is a decoder in 1,000,000 years as it's trivial to make. On the simplicity side take PPM or bitmap images for example, one can get a decoder up and running from scratch in a matter of minutes. The harder half is the storage of the digital information over time. Interfaces, filesystems, formats, and devices are not made to last decades as there is no need for the vast majority of data to sit for decades without being transferred to newer, cheaper, and smaller media. Any solution you come up with to avoid copying will therefore be esoteric and one off, not to mention likely complicated for any significant amount of data, making it hard to guarantee easy enough readability even if it is physically fine in 100 years.
41b696ef1113 5y ago
Rosetta Project[0] physically etches data into an object for long-term durability. Project used text for human readability as it only requires magnification. One could imagine establishing some OCR/barcode system to enable future re-digitization. Evidently there is now a Nano Rosetta[1] commercial project you can use today to have jewelry printed with your information. Alternatively, the Arctic Code Vault project[2] evidently used Piql[3] which claims 1000 year durability. [0] https://rosettaproject.org/disk/concept/ https://rosettaproject.org/disk/concept/ [1] https://nanorosetta.com/ https://nanorosetta.com/ [2] https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ [3] https://www.piql.com/services/long-term-information-storage/ https://www.piql.com/services/long-term-information-storage/

GhettoComputers 5y ago

What kind of files and how much?

IndexCardBox 5y ago

I'd hedge my bets and store it multiple ways in multiple formats. Including physical (print off pictures, diaries, etc. on acid free paper with acid free inks)

mixmastamyk 5y ago

No such thing. Other poster had a good idea, duplicate everything every ten years. I suspect flash drives will have the best longevity in the medium term however.

zamadatix 5y ago

As far as formats stick to either very popular or very simple. E.g. for video in 100 years time there is still going to be a way to be able to decode h.264 videos just because of the shear amount of content from this era that was encoded in it. Alternatively use a format that is so simple it doesn't matter if there is a decoder in 1,000,000 years as it's trivial to make. On the simplicity side take PPM or bitmap images for example, one can get a decoder up and running from scratch in a matter of minutes. The harder half is the storage of the digital information over time. Interfaces, filesystems, formats, and devices are not made to last decades as there is no need for the vast majority of data to sit for decades without being transferred to newer, cheaper, and smaller media. Any solution you come up with to avoid copying will therefore be esoteric and one off, not to mention likely complicated for any significant amount of data, making it hard to guarantee easy enough readability even if it is physically fine in 100 years.

41b696ef1113 5y ago

Rosetta Project[0] physically etches data into an object for long-term durability. Project used text for human readability as it only requires magnification. One could imagine establishing some OCR/barcode system to enable future re-digitization. Evidently there is now a Nano Rosetta[1] commercial project you can use today to have jewelry printed with your information. Alternatively, the Arctic Code Vault project[2] evidently used Piql[3] which claims 1000 year durability. [0] https://rosettaproject.org/disk/concept/ https://rosettaproject.org/disk/concept/ [1] https://nanorosetta.com/ https://nanorosetta.com/ [2] https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ https://archiveprogram.github.com/arctic-vault/ [3] https://www.piql.com/services/long-term-information-storage/ https://www.piql.com/services/long-term-information-storage/