[Rockhounds] Numbering on minerals

[Jim Daly]

A valid point, applicable to any data storage. You have to be aware of changing technology, and transfer records to a more modern medium while you still have the equipment to do so.
  I'm now in the process of copying music from my vinyl records to CD while I still have a working turntable!
  Jim Daly

Erich Kern <efkern at earthlink.net> wrote:
  

As someone on this list pointed out many months ago, the long-term problem with electronic records, whether written or photographic, is retrieval from the electronic media, whether CD or memory stick, fifty years from now. 

For example, remember those 8 inch floppy discs used with the Radio Shack computer of 25 years ago? Had you saved data on them how would you retrieve it now? Going back thirty-five years to 12.5 mm magnetic tape, how would you read it? I vaguely remember NASA having this difficulty with archival data tapes from the 1960's. 

Paper records may be old tech, but they require no hardware to retrieve the data. 


       
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