-=> Jay Emrie said to Greg Mayman
 -=> about "VEHICLE LED'S" on 09-30-03  21:09.....

 GM>Can anyone claim that sort of life for a CD-ROM?

 JE> Nope, no way! they haven't been around that long! :_)

Usually the testers conducted accelerated life tests.

I know this is done on a lot of solid state stuff, usually
heat/cold cycling, and are able to predict pretty accurately what
the mean life is going to be.

With CD-ROMs this either hasn't been done -- which seems too
strange to be true -- or the results are so terrible that they
won't release them.
 
 GM>Or will anyone still have a CD-ROM drive in 40 years? And the
 GM>software to read the data?

 JE> Very doubtful.

My thoughts exactly.

OTOH I saw a movie the other day that had been resurrected from a
very damaged print dating from 1932.

Apart from some gaps where the backing material (nitrocellulose
most likely) had totally collapsed, the rest was surprisingly
good quality, including the sound.

So there is at least one medium that has a fairly high data
density, that shows a relatively long life with reasonable care.
I predict that some of the modern b/w movies prints on mylar base
will still be around in 100 years, and so will projection
equipment for them.

It's a pity that I won't be there to see if I'm right 

From Greg Mayman, in beautiful Adelaide, South Australia
   "Queen City of The South"    34:55 S  138:36 E

... Your happiness is intertwined with your outlook on life.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30

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