🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sat, 20 Jun 1998 10:12:53, staplei@planet.ari.dpi.qld.gov.au 
(Ian Staples) wrote:

> krw@ibm.net (Keith R. Williams) writes:
> 
> >    [concerning floppies]  It's just not a reasonable media for
> >storage anymore, if it ever was.  BTW, I tried to read a few six 
> >month old TR1 tapes a few nights ago too.  They're no better than
> >floppys.
> 
> I've mentioned the 5.25" floppies that were still good after 8 years
> storage here in a nominally air-conditioned building (it only fails
> twice a year -- at the beginning of summer and at the beginning of
> winter :).
> 
> Referring now to magtapes [you're not *that* Keith Williams are you? ;-)]

There are *lots* of people with this common name.  If you'd care 
to email me I'm sure we can straighten out your phone book.  ;-)

> it seems that at least the mainframe versions are pretty reliable,
> provided their storage is good.  The files I copied from the JCU PDP-10
> system in late 1989 came off two tapes: one written at UQ on their
> PDP-10 in Dec '73 and the other written at JCU in 1975, I think it was.
> The tapes had been simply stored at JCU for the intervening 14-16 years.
> I recall that there had been some concern that they may have "printed
> through" from being unused for so long.  But the annual(?) maintenance
> ["cleaning" -- whatever that involved] was apparently sufficient to
> avoid the problem.  All the files were recovered without loss (or even
> minor problems) and transferred to the floppies.

I'm referring to PC quality magnetic media.  No one pays $.10 for
a mainframe disk.  

> I'm wondering how long those CD-Rs will last under "normal" storage.
> The hype suggests they will have good longevity, but there seem to be
> some ifs and buts attached to that -- keep them out of the light,
> handle them *very gently*, etc., etc.

Keeping them out if light is easy.  The sun never shines here, 
so...  ;-)  Seriously, we'll see.  I'm not happy with Diskette 
media anymore.  When 3.5" media came out it was fairly good.  It 
was a damned site better than the 5.25" garbage.  I think the 
problem is that the quality slipped along with the price.  The 
drives aren't anything to write home about either.

----
  Keith R. Williams
  krw@ibm.net