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The demo video uses a low power torch, focuses on a single point on every other card, but moves around on the Totenpass, and they cut away while it's still cool

The demo video uses a low power torch, focuses on a single point on every other card, but moves around on the Totenpass, and they cut away while it's still cool enough the person recording can momentarily touch it. Gold is a fantastic element in that it's extremely non-reactive, and therefore resistant to most other things. The problem with gold though is that it melts at relatively low temperatures and is pretty soft. Alloying with nickel gives it hardness and raises it's melting point, but it's still well within the range that you could just straight up melt this using a MAP gas blow torch like is used for plumbing or really any significant fire event. Additionally, the other downside of gold is that is scratches very easily. Their FAQ makes it clear that this is still a problem for Totenpass. The only advantage I see to a Totenpass over and M-Disk is that a Totenpass doesn't require any specific hardware to read, but both after being created require archival quality storage and care to prevent damage to the media. You know what else doesn't require specific hardware to read and survives a long time with archival quality storage and care? Acid-free paper. And it's a LOT cheaper than Totenpass. Is this a joke, or do they actually think there's a market for this?

300bps 5y ago
Is this a joke, or do they actually think there's a market for this? I see ads for emergency rations and even saw an ad for a while marketing a rugged USB memory stick that contains all of Wikipedia on it in case the Internet and society breaks down you can still look up how to do stuff. If people are buying that stuff, they'll buy this I guess. Doesn't mean it's practical but they'll buy it.
- woodrowbarlow 5y ago
  > a rugged USB memory stick that contains all of Wikipedia on it fyi, in case anyone doesn't already know, wikipedia allows anyone to directly download their database. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download
  - YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
    Until 2012 you could also download the whole set of used images in wikipedia which is only 145GB but now there seems to be no download option anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics
csa 5y ago
> Is this a joke, or do they actually think there's a market for this? Given that the testimonial is from “Chad”, I have to think that there is a bit of joke in here. That said, maybe this was a weekend project they made, and they can monetize it relatively easily (not sure how, but I guess it is possible).

300bps 5y ago

Is this a joke, or do they actually think there's a market for this? I see ads for emergency rations and even saw an ad for a while marketing a rugged USB memory stick that contains all of Wikipedia on it in case the Internet and society breaks down you can still look up how to do stuff. If people are buying that stuff, they'll buy this I guess. Doesn't mean it's practical but they'll buy it.

woodrowbarlow 5y ago
> a rugged USB memory stick that contains all of Wikipedia on it fyi, in case anyone doesn't already know, wikipedia allows anyone to directly download their database. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Database_download
- YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo 5y ago
  Until 2012 you could also download the whole set of used images in wikipedia which is only 145GB but now there seems to be no download option anymore. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics

csa 5y ago

> Is this a joke, or do they actually think there's a market for this? Given that the testimonial is from “Chad”, I have to think that there is a bit of joke in here. That said, maybe this was a weekend project they made, and they can monetize it relatively easily (not sure how, but I guess it is possible).