Don't spend extra money on "archival" CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. As I've pointed
out before, _any_ such media, properly stored (which doesn't mean in
sealed in dry nitrogen, just in a case, upright, like a book on a
shelf, in normal indoor environment) will "outlast the technology,"
which means that the data on it will be good when you no longer have
anything that will read it. Estimates for R media are at least 200
years; for RW, 50 years. Those little hard-shell 3.5-inch floppies
were introduced only 25 years ago; seen one lately? I don't think even
David's elaborate scheme of including the necessary hardware in a time
capsule would work. Modern computer chips will probably not last that
long even if not powered, due to diffusion of the atoms in the
extremely tiny features. Anyway, there wouldn't be any convenient way
to get the data out of the computer, even if you could read it on
screen. Who will have a USB cable 500 years from now?
Just assume electonically archived data will have to be recopied every
twenty years to keep up with hardward and software evolution. Or of
course, for the Luddite, good-quality paper or black-and-white
microfilm film are considered archival and don't require much
equipment to read. -- Mixon
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