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Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:11 am
by Kaeru Gaman
a problem with printouts is the ink.
todays cheap standard ink has a really short lifespan, there are CDs avaliable that last longer.
make sure to buy expensive document-safe ink when you want your printouts to last.

... and if you want real lifespan, mill the text into titanium and cover it with quartz glass.

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:28 am
by Digital Wargames
We won't know that for another 60 years yet. They may well live that long.
You will still need something capable of reading them in 60 years :(

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:30 am
by Kaeru Gaman
Digital Wargames wrote:
We won't know that for another 60 years yet. They may well live that long.
You will still need something capable of reading them in 60 years :(
if in 60 years no machine to read the disk existed, no machine to run the code on would exist, either.

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:30 am
by Digital Wargames
... and if you want real lifespan, mill the text into titanium and cover it with quartz glass.
One could always chisel it in stone :lol:

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:34 am
by Kaeru Gaman
Digital Wargames wrote:
... and if you want real lifespan, mill the text into titanium and cover it with quartz glass.
One could always chisel it in stone :lol:
in fact that was no joke...
they build "timeballs" where microscopic text is carved into the metal lower half and covered with a crystal glass upper half.
they withstand earthquakes and infernal burns and last over 10.000 years.
you need only to know the font, the language and use an optic microscope...

if this civilisation collapses and falls back into stoneage, the next high culture could find and decipher them.

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:35 am
by PB
Nobody's mentioned microfiche. :)

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:42 am
by Digital Wargames
PB wrote:Nobody's mentioned microfiche. :)
That is a format that needs to die. I spent way too much time dealing with it back when I worked as a historian for the Smithsonian.

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:44 am
by Digital Wargames
hmm... I could get the source from one of my favorite retro games tattooed on myself

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:35 pm
by Kaeru Gaman
nice idea... then I could make a lampshade out of it.

brgds
Hannibal

Posted: Sat Jul 25, 2009 1:43 pm
by Digital Wargames
BTW Zooker - This is your old, old, buddy White Eagle.