Useful life of CDROM

[christian thompson]

Yes, they MAY BE problems in reading CDROMs in a 100 years or so. But I suspect a longer and more useful life. The key factor in increasing density (amount of information) stored on a CD is the width of the read/write laser. The new format on the block is now DVD, it uses a read/write laser of about half the width of the CDROM one. BUT the key point is a narrower beam can also read a larger "hole." it is only a matter of programming the driver, etc.  Hence, DVD drives can easily read old CDROMs. IBM has already announced the next generation, which uses a read/write beam of about 1/100th of the DVD beam width, but again backward compatibility will be maintained. So, I am not worried about whether my CDROMs will be readable in 20 years or so. They will clearly outlive me.

But to be on the safe side, I still publish new species in printed serials, etc. But I will continuely port my data to the newest versions of the appropriate database, WWW server, Disk format, etc.

The comment about Windows 3.0 is interesting. Yes, old Windows programs frequently do not run under the new Windows. BUT old MS-DOS program run very well under the newer Windows. I still use WordPerfect 5.1 in a DOS windows on my new Windows NT 4 OS!



F. Christian Thompson
Systematic Entomology Lab., USDA
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, D. C. 20560
(202) 382-1800 voice
(202) 786-9422 FAX
cthompso at sel.barc.usda.gov

>>> Gregor Hagedorn <G.Hagedorn at BBA.DE> 07/15/99 08:35AM >>>
> I see no functional difference between a published book and a CD-ROM.  Once

One difference we should be aware of is that a CD ROM most likely
cannot be read in 20 years, whereas a book can be used as reference
after 100 years. This is true not because the CD itself has
deteriorated (which will happen much later), but because most likely
very few functioning CD ROM drives can still be found, and if so, no
software and operating system under which the programs on the CD will
run.

Just try to use a program that has been designed for Windows 3.0 and
will not run under a later version... I still have Windows 3.1 disks
stored somewhere, and I may be able to find an old computer on which
it could still be installed, but 3.0? And that was 10 years ago...

A CD is a wonderful medium, but if new descriptions of taxa are
published on it, we will be getting a problem.

Gregor

Gregor Hagedorn
Inst. f. Mikrobiologie, BBA     Net: G.Hagedorn at bba.de 
Koenigin-Luise-Str. 19          Tel: +49-30-8304-2220 or -2221
14195 Berlin, Germany           Fax: +49-30-8304-2203

Often wrong but never in doubt!