I'll chase down the Nature article -- looks interesting; most smog dust I've come across is grey/black not yellow.
Anecdote: The auto industry seems stuck on sheet steel for bodies. Hudson Italia had a total run of 26! I knew somebody who had the job of testing an "Iron Mountain" operation for its security -- he no problem walking out with corporate vital records -- just another anecdote. North pole is ice pack -- it all melts and drops your stuff into the sea. South pole ice sheet moves slowly -- be sure to mark your spot. Cheers, Gene On 10/20/2012 8:43 PM, Logan Streondj wrote:
On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 12:41 AM, Ben Goertzel <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Perhaps you should etch your blog on a metal disk, like the Rosetta Disk ;-) http://rosettaproject.org/disk/concept/ ... ben g Yes I was at least partially inspired by their project. However the kind of resolution they have is not available off-the-shelf. It's somewhat unfortunate that they don't have a forum on their site, and so it's not possible for people that are interested in archival and longevity to get together there and suggest more "every-day" solutions. quote And cast some copies into space, so that it will survive even the potential end of the planet !!! quote ben g from Well that isn't currently affordable either, and copies in space aren't very accessible for reference. Also there is the danger of burning up at re-entry. A remote storage location I was considering was the poles, they are very cold which is good for archival purposes, and also are much more accessible. It's one of the reasons I'm interested in living on a boat. Maybe can have some analog of Iron Mountain in Canada, perhaps "cold mountain" and could even do those.. cryo-preservation of people, with lower cost. On Sat, Oct 20, 2012 at 7:28 PM, Eugene Surowitz <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: A car frame or a statue are examples of bulk usage and isn't actually what I was talking about. A car body on the other hand is a different kettle of fish as is the use for the pages of the notebook in question. Cars have a short half-life so the problem is rarely noticeable particularly with the frame. Those are thin shells. Corrosion occurs on both sides and at any crack or penetration. The surface sealing effect of interacting with air is what gives AL its reputation for corrosion resistance -- AL actually depends on it for the protection. The alloy really matters also. Things that bend will tend to break the seal -- also road debris scratches and tension around fasteners -- where cracks like to start yielding corrosion paths. The comment came from a car restoration show about an AL bodied car that was built in small numbers with few surviving vehicles; it was probably a Hudson Italia -- American Hudson with an Italian built body. other than being anecdotal evidence.. "built in small numbers, few surviving vehicles" well that seems predictable, lots of vehicles are impounded.. The statue may be aluminum but it looks coated with a yellowish material. I assume its probably covered with some other metal paint. Also considering how clean the statue looks I would not be surprised if the picture hadn't been taken shortly after a periodic maintenance. Piccadilly Circus is infested smog emitting cars last I heard -- it just can't be that clean after 100+ years Actually the "yellowish material" is likely simply the smog that has settled on top of the statue. In fact they did a cleaning of it after 50 years in 1947. As quoted from article in Nature magazine: "The cleaning was carried out with neutral soap and warm water, the surprising discovery being that there is no trace of corrosion arising from the past fifty years in the London atmosphere" http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v159/n4052/abs/159870c0.html --- This discussion was/is about hardware, which is necessarily made of a variety of materials. When you add water, bad things tend to happen. ALL plastics are permeable to water - including the plastic used to package ICs. After a few months, it achieves hydration equilibrium that changes with the seasons. THIS is why the military has banned plastic transistors and ICs. Nonetheless, "modern" ICs incorporate dissimilar metals in their pins than they use in their bonding wires, and non-military ICs (and the transistors used in my 40-year-old analog computer) are cast in water-permeable plastic. Vacuum tubes didn't have these problems - but they had different problems. They had a very limited operational life, and the electrolytic capacitors they used back then only lasted a few years. Now, if you find an old vacuum tube device, the first thing you must do is to find and replace all of its electrolytic capacitors. Just watch in case someone like me has already done this - by re-stuffing the original antique capacitors with modern contents. A common problem that persists from vacuum tubes to present day is the aging of controls. Old volume controls and switches accumulated dirt and corrosion and stopped working. Old dial cords simply fell apart. "Modern" keyboards don't last much longer. Hence, an early step to restoring any antique device is careful inspection and repair of its controls. Steve ----- Ya my grandfather used to complain about the vacuum tube computer he worked on blowing up after relatively short usage, though he also blamed it on lack of gold connectors. He said they built one for the Germans after the war with gold they supplied and it worked better. But yes I'm curious what kind of IC do the military use? *AGI* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/12987897-64924e57> | Modify <https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;> Your Subscription [Powered by Listbox] <http://www.listbox.com>
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