[simonh]

re the original AP report, people aren't replacing LPs and CDs because the media are wearing out, they're replacing them because newer media have higher storage densities, are more physically convenient and in some cases because they allow higher fidelity recording.

Yes this medium will last longer than LPs, CDs etc, but it will do nothing at all to remedy the actual reasons these older media are being superseded.

Edit: I'm reminded of the old Domesday Book BBC project that recorded everything on laser discs and played the data on BBC microcomputers. The discs are still fine, but it got to the point where there were no machines left physically capable of playing them. There was a project to fix that but I don't know how it went.

[pja]

The data has all been recovered: There's a full implementation of the Domesday Book project on a large touch-surface table at the National Museum of Computing ( http://www.tnmoc.org/ ) at Bletchley Park, as well as a couple of the original readers.

Here's an article about the new hardware: http://www.tnmoc.org/news/news-releases/bbc-domesday-touchta...

I saw it in action on a work trip to TNMOC earlier this year: it's quite nifty.

[cturner]

The second part of your comment is interesting. Can electronics be designed in a way so that it has a very long life?

The idea - hard-code information to silicon and preserve it. e.g. Chips on PCBs that are completely encased in substrate. Provide fused power prongs and a serial port interface to this. Future systems can integrate to this to consume the data.

[ajuc]

You just described cartridges like in C64 or some video game consoles :)

[pmjordan]

Can electronics be designed in a way so that it has a very long life?

NASA seem to be pretty good at that. I guess it's a question of cost more than anything else.

[brazzy]

The oldest stuff NASA has out there is what, 35 years old? Hardly a "very long life". And it's floating in vacuum, which is pretty much the ideal storage environment. Making stuff last in space is much easier than on Earth (and much easier than getting it there, of course).

[dwiel]

It seems that the high levels of radiation could make it much less than the ideal storage environment

[andrewflnr]

Plus temperature extremes.

[pjmlp]

CD/DVD/BlueRays do wear out, specially if they are from cheap brands.

The coating layer just vanishes, leaving you with an unreadable piece of plastic.

[simonh]

I understand that, but how many of the people moving on from CDs to other storage and playback technologies are doing so for that reason? Media wear is only one reason a medium gets superseded, and not a major one. This new medium may have a role in long term archival applications, but comparing it to consumer technologies like tapes and CDs is misleading.