Digital BW, The Print

David wrote:
> 
> 
> The degredation of CD/DVD media has been known for a while. There are
> archival quality gold reflective layer CDs and DVDs that you can use.
> According to manufacturers, they will last up to 200 years.
> 
> The life span of regular CDs and DVDs (like you buy cheap at Staples)
> are much less -- I've heard 50 years on the high end, but down to 5-
> 10 years on the low.
> 
> The only thing is, in 75-100 years will there be the hardware around
> to read these disks, or will it be like Beta video tapes and 5 inch
> floppies.

Betamax and 5-inch floppies had fairly short lifetimes, yes.
However, cassette tapes, though in decline, are still a fairly
useful format nearly 45 years after introduction.

CD/DVD may have a longer useful life as a format; since new
formats have been developed compatibly, 120mm optical discs
may be with us for longer.  Already, the Compact Disc itself
has been around for just about 25 years, and a Blu-Ray or HD
DVD player will still read them.

But, as I mentioned in a previous note, the notion of archiving
data is much more than creating a single physical item and
storing it forever.

Dana