Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives

[steven austin <stevena@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just happened to be reading about nuclear weapons last night!

Apparently, a large-yield air-burst nuclear weapon under optimum
conditions and at the correct altitude would produce an EMT that would
be effective continent-wide. Short of a Faraday cage or a conductive
mesh shielding, we kiss our electronics goodbye. The writer was
convinced that the larger weapons were designed with this effect in
mind.

Of course, if your archive is on a military base, at the Pentagon or in
Washington DC, this extra bit of anxiety would hardly register.

I think I see the discussion swinging back to shellac discs. And I still
believe biological data storage devices (the minstrels and troubadours)
deserve a reappraisal.

Steven Austin

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Scott Phillips
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 12:33 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives

..anyone consider what would happen to all the computers and hard disk
controllers if an EMT pulse from a nuclear weapon when off ???

-----Original Message-----
From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
[mailto:ARSCLIST@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Mike Richter
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 2:21 PM
To: ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Audio storage on external hard drives

At 10:48 AM 2/23/2005 -0700, John Poirier wrote:

>3. I just bought a 1GB USB memory stick for C$120.  This sort of thing
>is getting cheaper very quickly.  How long will it be before they
>replace CDs as what I think of as a last-resort backup?

Last month, I paid half that for a 1.5 GB; I suspect that by now the
price is even lower.

I would like to see data on life expectancy before trusting it to
archive, though I recognize that it has none of the familiar failure
modes. At the least, I would look for ECC if it were a primary storage
device.

Last, I note that CD as backup has largely been replaced by DVD - less
expensive, faster and less bulky. Of course, there are even fewer data
for DVD than for CD on longevity.

Mike
--
mrichter@xxxxxxx
http://www.mrichter.com/