Pascal Schmidt wrote in a message to Charles Angelich:

 PS> Hi Charles! :-)

 CA> I just hope they find something better than water to cool these
 CA> things. Water + electricity = bad (IMO). 

 PS> Water does not conduct electricity too well. ;) The problem is more
 PS> corrosion of metal parts that get into contact with water.

Plastic piping these days seems to be pretty well thought of,  if you're
not having to deal with any serious pressures or temperatures.

 CA> There is also much serious discussion that the mechanical hard
 CA> drive has outlived it's usefulness and should be replaced by
 CA> rows of flash cards (or something similar). I for one won't
 CA> miss the mechanical hard drives one bit. 

 PS> No technology to do that seems ready to do the same job. Flash
 PS> wears off quickly compared to hard disks.

That's about what I thought.

 CA> Blank CDs are often cheaper than floppies so we can get rid of
 CA> those too. 

 PS> Yep, although writable CDs are not much more durable than floppies.
 PS> Gotta keep them away from direct sunlight and damp air.

I can understand getting into trouble with those if you leave them laying
in direct sunlight,  but I am having a bit of difficulty with the dampness
part,  though I've heard of those problems too.  You'd think that plastic
would be sealed from any moisture entering.  Though maybe it's chosen first
for its optical qualities and secondly for any other characteristics...

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