The question is an interesting one as when you look in to the technology available [...]]]> Last week I spoke about a gentleman I met who was creating a family time capsule and had come to me to ask the most effective way of achieving data that he wished to be available past beyond his lifetime.

The question is an interesting one as when you look in to the technology available you realise that many forms of media are simply incapable of storing important data for more than a couple of years.   By way of example, a couple who videotape the early years of their child on to a DVD disc may be disappointed when ten years down the line the data has been destroyed by way of natural degradation of the media.

The last article already discussed the pros and cons of Hard Drives, Optical Media, Flash Drives, conventional Paper and Tape drives and so this week conclude with the remaining options I would consider:

Solid State Drive – An SSD uses solid-state memory (similar to that used in a flash drive) to store data and is most commonly used as a direct alternative to a hard drive, especially in notebooks where their small weight and size along with fast access times make them ideal.  Unfortunately, they suffer the same major problems as flash drives in that JEDEC, the leading developer of standards for solid-state storage specify that data retention of an idle drive should only be considered to be around 10 years.

The Internet – The Internet is theoretically the most robust way of backing up data; an online server is typically backed up daily, monitored 24/7 and in the event of a problem with the hard drive housing your data, a redundant mirrored backup drive would immediately take over.  If looking to store data that will be used in your lifetime this would be a suitable option however if the intention is to preserve data for future generations (such as the time capsule idea that inspired this article) then this method could be ill-advised.  For example, if you backup data using a free online storage account then there’s nothing to say that the company won’t either go out of business or begin charging for the service in the future – these are both circumstances that would lead to the deletion of your data.

Magneto Optical – Although it is certainly a niche product, Magneto Optical might be your best solution if long term data storage is your goal.  Originally introduced in the 1980’s, MO drives are slow and currently have a maximum capacity of just 9.1GB however with their slow speed comes a ruggedness that allows manufacturers to provide their discs with a 100 year data retention claim, often with a warranty to match.  High end drives are expensive but you could enter the market with a 1.3GB drive for around £100.

Of course, when devising a long term archival strategy we assume that hardware will be available at the time that it needs to be played back.  This is a serious consideration when we’re talking about storing the data for best part of a century but in our own lifetime it won’t necessarily be a problem – the first video camera my family owned used the 8mm Video8 cassette tapes and although 20 years down the line I don’t own a compatible reader, I could obtain one if necessary.

Along with choosing the most suitable format, ensure that you keep copies on several different media types and in several different locations, thereby increasing your chances that one media type in one location will survive the test of time.  If possible, check on the media every couple of years and transfer it to  newer and more suitable media types.

Doomsday Project [...]]]> The world of technology is full of bright new ideas that promise to change the way we live; however, for every success there are numerous failures.  Some technologies genuinely surprise us when they fall by the wayside, but others we realise were doomed to failure from the very beginning:

Doomsday Project – The BBC Doomsday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers, Philips, Logica and the BBC and was designed to mark the 900^th anniversary of the original doomsday book.  It was compiled over a period of three years and was published in 1986 after having over one million people contribute to the project.  The material included maps, colour photos, statistical data, videos, virtual reality tours of major landmarks and the entire 1981census.

This information was stored on specially adapted laserdiscs with the intention that future generations could then look back on the material in years to come, however the laserdisc standard never lasted and, as such, it is close to impossible to find a machine nowadays capable of reading the code.  Eventually a project was started to emulate the old system and publish the information to the Internet however the gentleman who was reverse engineering the project suffered an untimely death and as a result the Doomsday Project website remains offline.

The Internet Connected Fridge – Although it is too early to say that such an invention will never take off, the Internet Fridge has spent ten years in the making and doesn’t show any real promise of becoming mainstream.  Personally I’ve never liked the idea of my fridge managing my kitchen inventory and then automatically buying my weekly shopping online.

I’d like to think that even in this modern day society individuals would want to go out and select their own weekly produce based on what’s freshest at the time rather than having their fridge do it for them.  It’s also a little surreal when a machine decides that because you had strawberries and cream after tea this evening that you would necessarily want the same thing delivered to your doorstep the following morning.

The Paperless Office – For years there has been talk of the paperless office; a world where everything is digital and printers are verging on redundancy.  Fortunately for our business (however somewhat unfortunate for the environment) the real world situation is that the modern day office is far from paperless.  I’m not sure what it is but there is something a little reassuring about paper; if faced with a fifty page report it is bizarrely easier to read it off sheets of bleached bark than off a state of the art liquid crystal display.

Video Phones – The longest video phone conversation that I have ever had lasted two seconds, and that was simply to test that my mobile phone SIM card supported 3G.  There have been real attempts to push video calling on to the general public and it is one of the main sales pitches of the mobile operators when touting their new high speed networks however the service still struggles to find an audience.   There are now no real technological barriers preventing all of us from video calling, however the simple truth of the matter is that people don’t want to see who they’re calling.