Thanks For the ... Eight-Track, Uncle Alex 633
Uncle Alex writes "My niece just turned one year old and her parents have asked that, instead of the usual gifts, we each contribute something to a time capsule to be opened on her 17th birthday. Multiple members of my family want to contribute digital data — text, video, music files. They came to me (the closest thing to a geek our family has) wondering: what's the best way to save the data to ensure she'll actually be able to see it in 16 years? Software might be out of date, hardware may no longer be used... any suggestions?"
Netbook (Score:3, Insightful)
With the cut price components used these days... (Score:2)
... I wouldn't want to lay money on the electronics still working in 16 years time (gone off electrolytic capacitors being the most likely) and thats before you have to worry about the mechanical components of the hard drive seizing up through lack of use not to mention the data becoming corrupted as the magnetism on the disk slowly changes. And similarly even if you use a netbook with an SSD theres a good chance it would have lost or corrupted enough data by then to make it crash prone or even unbootable.
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My impression is that build quality on 1987 386s was better than on current equipment. In particular, grandparent's comment about electrolytic capacitors points to major quality issues [wikipedia.org] they've been having recently.
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"My impression is that build quality on 1987 386s was better than on current equipment."
Indeed they were. Back in those days a PC was an expensive business item as was built accordingly. These days they're just disposable commodity items built to a price. Expecting them to function perfectly in 16 years time is IMO a touch optimistic.
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A standard harddisk survives 6-10 years of continued _use_. Storing it is perfectly safe. If you are really worried buy a modern SCSI drive, they should be able to survive the 16years even if it is running the whole time.
Keep it simple (Score:5, Insightful)
Get a plain writing book with acid-free paper and each write a personal story, message, commentary etc. Attach photos on stable stock paper together with personal items such as a slip of wallpaper or slither of wood etc. from her first bedroom, a dried flower from the garden, small items that conjure up the day/year she was born etc.
Store in a sealed box in a dry, safe, dust-free environment
Much more unique, personal and tactile. /Even geeks need to know when to stop
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Re:Keep it simple (Score:5, Interesting)
Why put data in a capsule? (Score:5, Insightful)
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A step further, fork out for some hosting, pay 20yrs in advance, set up a web page that has a "enter the password here" kinda thing, then put the password on a piece of acid free paper with the URL (don't forget to buy a domain).
But if thats too much effort, you could, i dunno, write something on paper, sticks some photos in it, and maybe some memorabilia.
Paper. (Score:4, Insightful)
Write it down.
I can still read a book a hundred years old, I can't read a C64-floppy twenty years old.
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Multiple members of my family want to contribute digital data â" text, video, music files.
right, write it all down... in binary.
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Your point being?
What is writing? Encoding of information. Nothing else. You take information, you formulate it in words, you use an alphabet of letter (or symbols representing syllables or words, depending on your alphabet) and you write those down.
The most sensible way to long-term store this kind of information would actually be a printout of the hexdump along with a format description how it can be decoded again.
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Point in being: don't go all fancy with audio and video. A message from person to person gets across centuries by writing extremely well.
Density (Score:4, Funny)
What is writing? Encoding of information. Nothing else.
What is paper? An insufficiently dense medium for encoding huge volumes of data such as audio or video, even with a 75-square-inch block of QR Code on each page. Nothing else.
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use the internet (Score:2)
Why bother finding a medium and risk damage to it? Just upload your content somewhere (or multiple places) it can't get lost. Or have the waybackmachine archive it. Then put the link(s) on a piece of paper, laminate it and you're good to go.
Slashdot account (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Slashdot account (Score:5, Funny)
They're not worth as much as you think...
Re:Slashdot account (Score:5, Funny)
Damn...
Re:Slashdot account (Score:4, Funny)
They're not worth as much as you think...
Oi! I paid half a million dollar for mine on eBay!
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If it's data (Score:2, Informative)
Then it should be stored redundantly in several locations, online and off-line and should be checked at several points.
An actual time-box is not a good idea at all since all tech has a risk of going bad even if not used.
Standards!!! (Score:2)
For the data format: stick to documented standards. ASCII or UTF-8 Unicode will do great for the text of a document; (X)HTML is likely to be available too; PDF maybe. For pictures I'ld bet on JPEG or an uncompressed RGB format, for moving images on MPEG2. There is nothing wrong with storing files in multiple formats for redundancy.
The medium is another issue. Would a CD-R be readable after 15 years? A CD-RW may be more reliable, but can you find a CD-ROM player at that time? A USB stick or SD card are "new"
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Considering DVD players are backwards compatible with CDs and the Blu-Ray type things are backwards compatible with DVDs and CD's I'd say yes there would be a method to read a CD 15 years from now.
Physical media? How noughties (Score:2)
If stored properly, I would expect a conventional 'archival grade' DVD to be readable - at least have recoverable data - in that time. However, in 16 years few teenagers or even private households will have any use or exposure to physical media of any kind - blue-ray, DVDs and CDs relics of pre-wired times on par with 78rpm discs and dead sea scrolls. Only greybearded nerds and specialty data recovery / conversion places will probably even have operational, attached optical drives. Teenagers certainly won't
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Expect intellectual property zombies to have agents monitoring such recovery processes and possibly interfering with any licensed content you might choose to include.
So you're predicting that within the next 16 years the film and music industry will begin using the undead in their war against copyright infringement? A bold prediction my friend...bold indeed.
Port your favorite.. (Score:2)
x86 emulator to the Apple IIc, then put one in the box. It's the only way to be sure.
16 years (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, think what was around 16 years ago (1993) and project forward:
The compact disc had been invented for a little over 13 years and was still going strong (and would do until five-ten years after that).
Thinkpads were available with CD etc. (although we're talking 486's here because the Pentium was JUST coming out)
So if you dug up an old 486 with some CD's now, how hard would it be to get running? How hard if your particular units didn't work? Not very.
Now project 16 years into the future - buy yourself some *new* reliable technology (CD was in its infancy as a computer format in 1993). Make it as standard and popular as possible. Throw in a device that's still likely to be passed around on second-hand websites like eBay just in case. Hell, I can still buy ZX Spectrums for little more than a few dollars, and that was 25 years ago. Hedge your bets... use a Blu-Ray AND DVD for everything you want to put in there. Throw in some Windows / Linux / Open Source / freeware to read the data (don't do a BBC Domesday project and have to decode the software as well as find the hardware).
If you wanna be ultra-sure... throw in a Gumstix or something small and capable of playing the media (you could use USB memory in this case, or CompactFlash or similar). Hardware easily survives 16 years if you look after it or don't touch it. The data media may not (especially writable media) so project it forward with each transition of your own personal data.
And most importantly - backup, backup, backup. Include *two* of each device, and two copies of the data in two different media, on two seperate discs/flashs and keep a copy on your home machine to "upgrade" to the next new format.
Re:16 years (Score:5, Insightful)
First, when I think about what I was doing in 1993 and you point out it was 16 years ago, you just make me feel old.
Thanks a lot.
Second, I wouldn't project the pace things changed in the last 16 years to the pace they're going to change in the next 16. Half of that time was still before the massive explosion in computer usage. 16 years ago computers were a "nerd" interest. Some of us had Internet, and some colleges had it available to students, but most people were using BBS's or other dial-up destination services. Computers were uncommon.
Today, new technologies come and go in the matter of years. Technology uptake is multiples faster than it was 16 years ago. Even basic things like interface types are starting to vanish. Firewire? SCSI? Parallel ports? Floppy drives? CDs are starting to fade, less than ten years after the use of them for recordable storage became practical. Even DVD recording is starting to fade because media has gotten too big for DVDs.
I wouldn't assume for a moment that any hardware or media today will work on a computer 16 years from now. USB 3/4/5 may have some backwards compatibility, but wireless connectivity and higher bandwidth standards will show up, and there will be a point that going 3-4 revisions back on a standard just won't happen. Your USB flash drive won't work anymore. Bandwidth into homes and dropping flash prices will almost certainly eliminate optical storage by that time. They're already too small for backups, and useless for most people for music playback. My video camera *today* can shoot video big enough to fill a dual layer DVD in 15 minutes.
IMO, putting digital content in a time capsule is a waste of time. The odds are SO low that it'll be readable in 16 years without someone tracking down very old hardware to use, I think they're better off putting physical things that mean something in there.
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I'm sorry, but the computer explosion started around 1993. :) And about technologies.. the REAL floppy drives was dead in 1993. Actually, two generations of floppy drives were dead..
- Furthermore, disk drives. They were no longer huge behemoths, but small nifty ones.
- Remember 8250 UART serial ports? Long dead.
- Remember 2400bps modems? Long dead. How about accoustic couplers?
- We had pensioned CGA and EGA - and gone for VGA by 1993. SVGA came soon afterwards.
New technologies came and went darn fast
There is no such thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Recently it was mentioned on a documentary I've seen: 10,000 years of evolution, and the best thing to conserve information we came up with was stone tablets.
It's unfortunately true. The more sophisticated our means of storage are, the more brittle and frail they are. Essentially, you would have to bury not only the medium but also the means to play them back. The tricky part is finding out "where to stop".
"Thanks for the 8track" was a quite good tagline for this problem. 20 years ago, an 8track would have been the thing to store information on. Today, you would have a hard time finding a player. And the problem gets worse with every year. Magnetic tapes, VHS or Beta, dominated the video market for over two decades. DVD didn't dominate for one. BluRay is probably going to be replaced before long. The time between generations of players is shrinking quickly. Soon we'll see, if you're not an early adopter, you're already lagging a generation behind.
The most sensible way, and a worthy geek project too, would be to create a playback device made entirly from standard off the shelf parts that you may sensibly assume to be still available in a few decades, put the packing list along with the content you want to preserve into the box and make sure you also store your content in a way that survives the test of time.
You only have to bridge about two decades. It would be a very interesting project to try something like that with the goal to make information last millenia.
If you can't remember that far back, wikipedia it. (Score:5, Informative)
20 years ago, an 8track would have been the thing to store information on.
20 years ago CDs were almost 10 years old, and 8-track was already "20 years ago, and you'd have a hard time finding a player".
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10,000 years of evolution, and the best thing to conserve information we came up with was stone tablets.
It's unfortunately true.
It is really, really not true. Have you ever stopped to consider
Now stone, I grant you, gets past the second of these conditions better than clay. However, it fails the first condition even more spectacularly than clay does, since stone tends to get destructively recycled
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For those who don't remember this technology, mylar tape is punched tape like ticker tape. Ticker tape is the paper version. If the machinery is no longer around to read it, it can be read by hand. Most Mylar tape has 9 rows of holes. The small holes near the center are the clock. The other 8 bits were ASCII. If memory serves me, there were 3 bits, clock, then 5 bits. The clock was off center so the tape could not be threaded in upside down or tail first from a tape that was not rewound.
A quick google
The media question is easy... (Score:3, Funny)
The files are a little tougher, but it's hard to imagine
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Hmm, flash memory degrades over time but a hard drive wouldn't?! How do you think data is encoded on the platters of the hard drive?
All of this has been asked before [slashdot.org], and will be asked again.
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gold! (Score:2)
just carve stuff on a piece of gold and use the cravings for cheesecake! Your niece will thank you for it trust me!
Analogue! (Score:3, Interesting)
The most sensible thing would be digital files, with a maintenance schedule -- migrate to a new medium every so often.
However if the requirement absolutely requires that a physical medium is locked up or buried for 17 years, then I'd go for analogue media with tangible encodings:
It may not be easy to play the vinyl or the 8mm film in 17 years -- but it will be possible, and decay is less likely to be catastrophic.
Assume advanced teck in the future (Score:2)
Save the players, not just the medium. (Score:2)
Just make sure you put it all (computer AND media) in a consistently cool, dark, and dry place. Temperature variations and strong light are the most likely culprits for ruining media (and anything else, for that
CD's are still around but to be sure... (Score:3, Informative)
whatever you do ... (Score:2)
3,5" floppies (Score:2)
Stone Tablets (Score:2)
As I understand it, microetched stone tablets are being researched as the most effective long term storage medium, of course it might be a bit difficult to read...
it's only 16 years (Score:2)
It's not that hard to find working equipment from 1993 today. I suspect it will be pretty straight forward to read a CD-RW or USB stick. Not convinced that 16 years is a short while, how about this? Fry's still sells floppy disks [frys.com] for some bizarre reason.
Maybe pack a small computer (take the 3V coin cell out) would smooth things along. Although should be easy enough to find on a classified ads (if craigslist is still around) or online auction (if ebay didn't collapse under its own stupidity by then). HDMI sh
This Topic (Score:5, Funny)
"For my clients, I always suggest the use of stone and / or clay tablets for all mission critical data archive projects, regardless of size or scope. Bablyonian and Greek models of data retention from as far back as 4,500 years ago are (in many cases) superior to the models we commonly use today, with much of the physical media having survived electrical storms, tornadoes, floods, fires, and wars on every scale imaginable with a data corruption rate of zero and without the benefit of a climate controlled room, dedicated security staff, or even a closet for media storage. Imagine the elegance of a 84'3/4 STROM (Stone Tablet Read Only Memory) machine hooked up to your Slackware Archive server for performing restorations, and the ST Binary Writer you have networked to your backup systems and kept physically over by the quarry... nice! The TCO for slab is far less than that of tape archives, considering you can store the media in a pile of mud and hose it down when you are ready for a restoration."
M
Oil Barrel (Score:3, Funny)
Make sure you bury one barrel of oil with it.
It won't help you with the message, but should pay for 4 years at a moderately priced college.
Dildo? (Score:4, Insightful)
I love /. tags!
you're doing it wrong! (Score:5, Insightful)
My niece just turned one year old and her parents have asked that, instead of the usual gifts, we each contribute something to a time capsule to be opened on her 17th birthday. Multiple members of my family want to contribute digital data - text, video, music files.
Data doesn't go into time capsules. There's absolutely no reason why you couldn't share that text, video, or music with her at any point over the next 17 years. And she'll likely be exposed to it anyway... Music will be playing on the radio, books will be available, folks will share family pictures and videos...
It might make sense to include a photograph with a note on the back, or a couple-page letter to her... But you don't just stuff the capsule full of digital data. That stuff would be better archived on a live computer and updated over the next few years.
What you put into a time capsule are physical objects. Think back to 17 years ago... What would be more fun to stumble across - an mp3 of I'm Too Sexy [youtube.com] , or a working minidisc [wikipedia.org] player?
What physical objects are new/cool/important/meaningful right now, that may not be later? Maybe throw a pair of her baby shoes in there... Grab something small off your dining room table or out of your front yard... Maybe the cell phone you just replaced... A couple ticket stubs to something that just opened... Toss in a cheap mp3 player (something that takes disposable batteries, like AA/AAA) loaded with some current songs on it...
In 17 years, when she opens it, you'll be able to say "Those shoes were on your feet 17 years ago. I talked on that cell phone 17 years ago. That's what we used to listen to music 17 years ago." And she'll be able to pick the things up, handle them, feel them, turn them on, see how they worked, compare them to whatever is current. Instead of just firing up a home-made version of I Love the '80s [wikipedia.org]
Wrong age (Score:3, Interesting)
Don't give it to her when she's 17. It will mean very little to her then. Give it to her at the birth of her first child.
Proper Environment is Critical (Score:3, Interesting)
First off, you need to know what you're placing in the container to determine how big it needs to be. The next is to ensure that you have multiple packs of Silica Desicent to handle any extra moisture (corrosion reduction). In regards to the container itself, it needs to be waterproof and possibly air tight but not gas proof as you'll eventually need to purge all Oxygen from the container using Inert Dry Nitrogen. Then simply don't open it until the designated time (birthday gift is a great idea). Another way of introducing Dry Nitrogen into the case is the use of Liquid Nitrogen and allowing it to evaporate. The advantage is it will drive all of the oxygen out of the case and ensure a very slight overpressure, which helps keep moisture from entering.
not that anyone will see this or care (Score:3, Interesting)
ironic how this story is almost 12 hours old and this comment is outdated but:
Use an iPod and a plug. The interface is simple and electricity is pretty much the same as it was in 1920. Solid state drive and built in interface make it the clear winner (and I am not a mac fan, so take it as you will). Ps at least one person in her "time capsule celebration" group will know how to use it.
Re:Pretty easy (Score:5, Funny)
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Of course, you could use paper ... but then you take the risk that people will still be able to read 17 years into the future!
I was about to suggest the same thing with flip books and printed scores but your point is very valid.
Maybe with an English to SMS-lingo (what is it called in the US, texting lingo ?) converter ?
Or you could include a language method with ideograms ?
{EYE} {BIG DOT}
{EYE} {BIG DOT} {MOVING LEGS}
On second thought maybe not.
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I would burn the video files to Bluray (primary disc) and also DVD and CD (backups). I suspect these formats will still be around 16 years from now - or at least some kind of disc player with that backwards-compatibility. I also suspect the lower density discs like CD will survive longer. I've experienced this with my own machines where the 3 1/5" floppies died, but the low-density 5 1/4" disks still worked.
And yes text files and photos should be printed to paper. If the discs self-erase (the dye fades)
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Archival grade isn't prohibitively expensive and should last a bit longer (some claim 100 years or more so they should last atleast 15 years). CD would probably be your best bet if all data fits on it, since newer media players for Bluray/DVD/HD-DVD/etc all seem to remain backwards compatible with CD.
How long do things like USB sticks last?
If you want to be difficult, you could also develop a simple protocol for printing and scanning binary data on paper, then print a definition of the protocol and data. Be
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I never understood that. I can understand the purple-colored dye fading if it's exposed to light (same as a rug or painting fades), but if it's stored inside a dark Caselogic notebook, why would it fade? It should be just fine.
I guess you could also throw-in a USB flashdrive for backup. That ought to last 15 years, but the question is - Will it still be readable? What if USB ports disappear like PS/2, Centronics, and serial connections have disappeared? For example I have an ancient 80s printer that st
Re:Pretty easy (Score:5, Informative)
What if USB ports disappear like PS/2, Centronics, and serial connections have disappeared?
This is a non-issue as you have described it. I just built a brand new computer 5 months ago. I was not interested in any of those items listed, yet it has a parallel port, a serial port, and two PS/2 ports. It's actually unfortunate that they don't make a RS-232 flash drive because the serial port is not going anywhere for a very long time. You might need to purchase a special card in the future to have it, but it is far too convenient and easy for use with industrial controls to ever die out.
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Even if there's no serial port, many motherboards still come with a serial header; the white header on the bottom of this board [newegg.com] is for a serial port.
Re:Pretty easy (Score:4, Insightful)
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>>>I've got some DVDs purchased over 10 years ago that still seem new
DVD-ROMs or DVD-Rs because they are not the same thing. The ROM uses pits pressed into the disc and theoretically will last forever as long as the pits remain undamaged, but the -R uses a purplish dye that fades with time.
Re:Pretty easy (Score:4, Funny)
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USB 3.0 is coming in a year or so, and it's still maintaining backwards compatibility with the older revisions, so it seems reasonable that computers 17 years in the future would be able to support them, since USB technology is already 13 years old. The bigger problem would be the file system on the drive. Is FAT16 still supported by default on the major operating systems of today?
Re:Pretty easy (Score:5, Insightful)
If I were going to pick a random filesystem that will be readable in 15+ years for such a project, I'd probably put my bets on ISO9660, especially since this is a read-only storage situation.
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Yes, I have ISO file systems that I burned on CDs 15 years ago and current computers have no difficulty mounting them. I would still choose that over UDF (ISO 13346) on DVD for two reasons: lower density recording is typically more tolerant of physical degradation, and the video industry seems more likely to abandon DVD for higher capacity media than the music industry to abandon CD.
The formats for individual files are important too. On those oldest disks, I can still view the HTML, images in JPEG and
Re:Pretty easy (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Pretty easy (Score:5, Interesting)
Most flash drive manufacturers state that their drives are not good for archival storage. They expect to lose data before 10 years have passed.
This is absolutely correct, no flash memory. Unlike hard drives (and tapes, for completeness), which store data as magnetic regions, flash memory stores actual electric charge. While the magnetic domains on an HDD are permanent (unless overwritten or degaussed), the small charge in each flash media bit will slowly leak away. The drive should still be usable, it just won't have your data on it anymore.
A portable hard drive might be the best solution, for its small size and relative permanence of data. Perhaps even an iPod, preloaded with music that it can play, pictures and video it can watch, and files that (assuming USB and the files system are still around) will also be available. One iPod with everyone's files could be a good split, and a great trip down memory lane. Just be sure to pack in a USB wall charging socket, just in case.
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You're missing the real point of his question. I think he's really asking how to make his Time Capsule zombie/meteor/nuclear bomb-proof.
Divorce? (Score:3, Funny)
"what's the best way to save the data to ensure she'll actually be able to see it in 16 years? "
You're missing the real point of his question. I think he's really asking how to make his Time Capsule zombie/meteor/nuclear bomb-proof.
And divorce-proof.
"Oh darling, when you were just twelve months old your mother and ... Damnit! If it wasn't for you I'd have never had to get married to that ... $%^#&#@%$".
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This is what happens when you marry for superficial reasons like, "She has a big rack" or "He buys me things." People ignore the practical stuff like - Can you sit in a room for hours, just watching boring TV, and tolerate one another's annoying quirks? If you can then you can build a marriage that will last forever (or at least 'til death).
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Tossing out the TV would save a lot of marriages. Folks don't talk anymore, they drool into the tube for hours on end. Plus, people see things on TV, decide they need that in their life, and throw away perfectly good relationships because of some cheesy screenwriting. Of course, it doesn't help marrying someone for superficial reasons...like Ron White says, you can buy a bigger rack, but you can't fix stupid. :)
~
As for the topic, I'd go with archival CD/DVDs (read-only) for the things you can't print, th
Re:Divorce? (Score:5, Insightful)
Or even better, do you have the ability to do things without each other. Staying in a room together without annoying each other for hours is fine, but marriage is being stuck in a room together for years. Sometimes you have to leave the room, be your own person, and then come back to the room.
Re:Pretty easy (Score:5, Insightful)
Keep copies of all the software needed to play those video files *cough* vlc *cough*, and a means of running that program - maybe a whole OS in a raw hard disk image or something, so you can mount it in a virtual machine in 16 years. I'm sure some nerds will want to emulate x86 processors long after ARM has taken over.
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Save it on a harddisk. Preferable on an external one with ethernet access. You will still be able to use ethernet in 16years while USB might have become uncommon. I have 12 year old harddisks that are still active and working. With continued use half of them have died in that timeframe, but I assume that if they had been unused most would have made it.
Why give stuff that will bore her to death? (Score:3, Interesting)
Memorabilia from 16 years ago is going to be completely banal to a 17 year old. Think about memorabilia from 1992 being "opened" in a time capsule by a 17 year old today. Gosh, a VHS tape of "Unforgiven," and a tape of "November Rain" by Guns 'N Roses. This is not exciting.
Better might be to put in stuff that's 18 years old now. (That is, when she's seventeen, it will be from as long before when she is born as she is old). That might have at least a little bit of nostalgia value in 16 years.
File form
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Hell, leave something that will be a collectible then...?
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Why not just leave a couple bottles of good scotch....
If they're old now, drink 'em now. If they're young now, they're not going to improve in the bottle. A bottle of 10-year-old single-malt, stored sealed in the bottle for 35 years, is not 45-year-old single malt. It's a bottle of 10-year-old single-malt in a really dusty bottle.
That said, after the zombie apocalypse, a good bottle of pre-apocalypse scotch might be quite valuable, either for trade or as an incendiary grenade. So this may be good thinkin
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As odd as it may sound, this may be one of the more sophisticated ideas.
Yes, many services fold over times. Just use all of them. At least one will probably survive. It might pay, though, to keep monitoring such services and move the data if you happen to run out of backups. But that, essentially, perverts the idea of a time capsule. The interesting part of opening such a thing isn't just the old info, it's the very idea that these old parts have been sitting there for years/decades, untouched and stored.
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Bad idea.
Data on USB sticks decays in several years.
Re:Think back 17 years (Score:4, Informative)
I still have music CDs that I purchased in the 1970's that are still usable :)
1982 at the earliest.
But there is a difference between a pressed CD - which can last for a very long time - and a CDR which decays surprisingly quickly.
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So he could have used CD 17 years ago.
Will CD ( for data storage ) really be readable in 17 years ?
I tend to agree with other poster - the mainstream equivalent of the CD in 92 is probably the USB drive.
Mainstream enough yet not old enough to survive a few more years.
Also there is a big difference between commercial CD and burned ones.
I did the exercise a few years back and I already had to try a few computer before being able to read the backup made circa 2000.
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That's impressive considering the first CDs were only available in 1982 or 1983. Must've been a pre-order...
Re:Think back 17 years (Score:5, Informative)
I still have music CDs that I purchased in the 1970's that are still usable :)
A pretty good trick since they weren't commercially available until late '82 :)
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Encrypt it with something which will still be well-known in 16 years - AES-128, for example - and put the key in the time capsule (pencil on paper then laminate; or stamp into metal) along with some copies of media. Keep some encrypted copies out of the capsule and use them for regular integrity checks and duplication.
Re:Geek pretentiousness (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you realize that you're a looking at it with 20/20 hindsight? Yes, the 3.5" floppy did all right but loads of other media did not. I've used 8" floppies, 5 1/4" floppies, Iomega zipdrives, several sorts of tape drives, half a dozen different memory card standards... none of those were seen as fringe technologies at the time.
In other words: No, all technology will not be an arcane relic in 16 years but _many_ technologies will be. The trick is choosing the right one.
Re: (Score:2)
Floppies are probably a bad example. NASA has famously had lots of grief trying to find equipment to decipher their archaic floppies from the beginning of the space shuttle project. Today I would be hard pressed to find anyone with a working 5.25" drive capable of reading my old late-80s highschool documents. I doubt the discs are actually physically readable by anoyone. With the dwindling interest fewer and fewer specialty places will support the tech and so it will become ever more expensive to recover da
Re:Print it! (Score:5, Funny)
Or get the entire package, transform it into a single file (by whatever means necessary) and print the binary code of that file in 2D barcode, in plastic sheets.
It will last well over five thousand years and no matter the difficulty of reading it, it will always be at least possible.
If you expect your niece to become a vampire or somehow surpass the expiration date of plastic, you can pay a little to get the 2D barcoded plastic sheets engraved in metal sheets or tablets.
Follow those steps and your niece's time capsule might become the rosetta stone for an intelligent being aeons away.
Re: (Score:2)
Clearly you need to include some sort of hand cranking device... Just in case civilization collapses and the electrical grid was taken out and they need to repopulate the world with little Billy from next door.
Re: (Score:2)
If DVDs are anything like CD-R they will have hard time surviving just 5 years, let alone 16. So stay away from writable optical media. Getting a DVD professional pressed might make it survivable (like a bought movie).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
flash memory will not last that long, the charge will leak away... the drive will probably still be usable, but the stored data will have *gone away*
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, she'll have around $2000 then. In 2025 dollars. While I'm sure she won't be complaining about free money, it's not like it's going to be a heck of a lot of money.
If you want to get something along the lines of a long term investment, I would recommend an ounce of gold. Perhaps get a bullion coin like an American Eagle or Canadian Maple minted in the current year. One will run you a bit less than $1000 currently. I would expect it will appreciate better than the CD will. Or at the very least it wi