historic drystone sheep dykeAug 14, 2023
It’s cool that you can just pick up and read a book from 100 years ago with no special tools or procedures or conversion software
Show threadKarl AuerbachAug 14, 2023

@hannah The US National Archives would violently agree with you. They have to deal with everything from punched cards with round holes (really!) to 7 track magnetic tapes to Zip drives and punched paper tapes (lots of formats.)

It is amazing how unstable a lot of modern media is - like DVDs. I tend to put my longest term stuff onto spinning disk drives with SATA interfaces. I haven't had problems with those (at least not since the old problem with head-to-platter "sticktion" was resolved.)

Show threadRiley S. Faelan
@karlauerbach: SATA is already well on its way of becoming obsolete, to be replaced by PCI Express. @hannah
Aug 18, 2023 at 12:00pmWeb
Show threadKarl AuerbachAug 18, 2023

@riley @hannah I've been shot in the back so many times by interface changes that I can no longer count 'em.

I use SATA for my ultimate backup onto spinning drives because I can get a USB-to-SATA widget and I figure USB will be with us for a long time.

(I use spinning drives because they seem to be one of the longer lasting media types, at least if stored in a decent environmentally protected space. Of course, I also make backups onto other kinds of media and in other locations.)

Show threadKarl AuerbachAug 18, 2023
@hannah BTW, I see from your profile that you are a "aspiring Social Justice Witch" - My wife is sort of the same, she named her car (Tesla) "Social Justice Warrior".