The Logic Off Topic list

>This is a mail from Marvin Humphrey in reply to Dennis Gunn's mail:
>
>Dennis Gunn:
>
>               > Which kind of suggests that Marvin's idea of 
>archiving to HD is not
>               > so farfetched at all doesn't it.
>
>               Wait one cotton-pickin' minute. I did NOT 
>suggestarchiving to HD. It's a
>               bad idea, and with each year that passes after the 
>archivegets put away, it
>               becomes a worse idea. I illustrated WHY it was a bad 
>idea,by showing what
>               kinds of massaging become necessary as media ages, and 
>implying that such
>               massaging would be impossible with hard drives.
>
>               Then I went on to argue why digital storage in general 
>is unstable and
>               unforgiving, referencing Shannon and the theory of the 
>"noisy channel", and
>               a remarkable though somewhat technical article that 
>talks about the need to
>               design error correction algorithms after analyzing the 
>types of noise that
>               are likely to afflict a given channel. That's on the 
>OT list, for those who
>               care.

Yes, after I hit the send button I realized you were just noting that 
some people do it, not endorsing the practice.  Not being to big on 
math I am sure the Shannon article would shoot right over my head.

But, no matter what, since the industry is on a pretty straight 
course in the digital direction, the problem of digital storage is 
going to be something we are all definitely stuck with from here on 
out.  And not just for audio.  So out of curiosity, and leaving 
possible future compatibility issues aside for the moment, do you 
think a disengaged hard drive on a shelf would be more or less stable 
than DVDs or CDRs or for that matter tape as a storage medium?   As 
long as the bearings can last OK on the shelf it seems like a HD 
might more stable than a reel of tape.  It would mainly be a matter 
of how long the bits could keep their magnetic alignment I wouldn't 
it?

Don't get me wrong though  it is purely a neutral or anyway 
conjectural question because personally I have no real idea.


-- 


                                 Dennis Gunn
                                 Mightyjohn@...

                  check out  MIGHTY JOHN HENRY's album "hot air head"
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