Milleniata mDisc

[fl]

Anyone had a chance to try one of these out?

http://www.informationweek.com/byte/rev ... /231500076

[Perfect Record]

Manufacturer claims 1000 years life, though kind of hard to prove. Reminds me of a funny beer billboard I saw saying: "tastes the same as it did 150 years ago, though rather hard to prove."

BTW, I dug out some of the very first CD's that I burned on HP blanks using a Sony 820 drive. Amazing how low the error rates are. The discs look like gold, though I don't know for sure whether they really have a gold metal layer.

[maikol]

Claiming 1000 years of life time is great, but how can I be sure that there will still be a player available for these disc in as little as 30 years ?

[fl]

At our local AES section meeting the other night - analog tape restoration with Richard Hess - there was quite an intense discussion about what would be the best medium for archiving: a backup tape medium?, hard disks?, optical discs? It seems there is no clear answer other than revisiting the archives every few years, making new copies and/or transferring to current medium of choice. Richard made the point that unless you have at least two drives (of whatever medium) you have no way of proving that what you write on one can be read anywhere else.

Someone mentioned that another manufacturer - was it MAM? - is now using inorganic, or mineral based dyes similar to the Milleniata. Certainly, if the weak link as far as durability and data security is dye degradation, then this is a welcome development all 'round. The question remains, however, just how much "life" there is to an optical disc format. Every time I burn one, I think about the millions that must be in landfill, or floating around the Pacific, because the other type of obsolescence - human need - is more fickle than any medium's longevity.

When my cassette deck packed it in, I was amazed at how difficult it was to find a replacement. I imagine that working DAT machines are also getting scarce. With all the developments in digital audio storage over the last three decades, are any of them suitable for truly long term storage?

At least the Milleniata idea suggests that optical discs might have a better shot at being a longer term solution - provided, of course that the means to play them survive as well. Maybe Edison's cylinders weren't such a bad idea...