Hi Roy.

 RJT> around here on 8mm,  old home movies from an earlier generation,
 RJT> and some of it has been put on VHS

 JB>> but I'm not sure that film lasts longer than CDs...

 RJT> No?  I would think so,  but I'm not sure.

special environment controlled storage is needed to keep film for a long
time. CDRs could probably last a long time in a controlled environment
too.

 JB>> I've gota 1" one here (part of an old video camera)

 JB>> maybe just a row of LEDs? or even a scanning laser.

 RJT> Maybe a laser printer element?

yeah or something with a lower power like a laser pointer... :)

 JB>> -- another idea was a paper backup - encode data in bit-patterns
 JB>> using a laser printer, but at 600 DPI you can get about 1
 JB>> meg/page

 RJT> There were a couple of attempts that I can remember from the
 RJT> early computer magazine days when they were trying to get away
 RJT> from having page after page of source listings,  which people
 RJT> were supposed to type in -- that was an error-prone process.  I
 RJT> don't think that any of it really caught on,  though

ISTR a programable calculator that could be programmed by barcode.

 RJT>> I wonder what sort of resolution you could get with binary data
 RJT>> on fine-grained B&W film

 JB>> it'd be better than TV .... maybe 100 bits per milimetre-hmmm
 JB>> that's only 2540 dpi... maybe much more.

 RJT> You sound pretty optimistic here.  If you ever do get to playing
 RJT> with the idea I'd be interested in hearing how it turns out

theorecically.... when you said "you" I didn't take it personally :)
ISTR "imagesetter"s get 2400 dpi for photo-etching offset printing plates.

fine-grained film can resolve points in the order of the wavelength of
visible light that's how holograms work.

as for how to record holographic images-I 'm not shure. but that'd be the
way to do it... it gives redundant coding - you'd not lose data to a small
scratch on the media.....

 -=> Bye <=-

---