David Nebenzahl wrote:

On 10/16/2004 4:46 PM Donald Qualls spake thus:

Let's try this one: can your former employers, specializing in data
format conversion, read a Coleco Adam data tape? Hint: if you find
one, it'll look exactly like an obsolete audio cassette -- because it
is. But if you play it in an audio player, you'll get only a very
loud, very raucous blaring noise; most computer users today wouldn't
even recognize it as a data encoding signal (it doesn't sound at all
like modem or fax tones). Or how about the same storage media written
by a Commodore Pet? Both were fairly popular hobbyist computers in
their day (around 25+ years ago), and both had at least a small
business presence.


Well, for that matter, how about the original cassette BASIC storage
system for the first IBM PC? (I remember using those on school.) But
anyhow, the answer is "yes": someone could be found out there who has
the hardware & software to read these.



"Out there" -- as in where "the truth" is?? Yes, there probably is
someone, somewhere, with a working Adam, or Pet, or original 64k PC, or
even Tandy Pocket Computer. OTOH, my experience was that those tapes
didn't always read back even ten minutes after they were written -- yep,
I know, that's media deterioration, not format obsolescence. I didn't,
however, ask about "someone" "out there" -- I asked about a specific
format conversion service. Or do you think, when someone's grandkids
find a CD-R in the attic, they'll be able to find "someone" "out there"
who still has an antique system with drivers and compatible hardware to
read media that hasn't been made in 30 years? Hell, I remember handling
8" floppies and seeing the drives for them on sale (as salvage, but
still working) after I owned my first DOS machine, but I'd have to place
an ad to find a place that can read one now. And I might not find one
close enough to drive to, now that I'm in small-town North Carolina
instead of Tech City, aka Seattle.

If I have that much trouble with a medium that's less than 20 years
obsolete, what'll it be like when those disks are 50 or 100 years old?
Even if the magnetic domains in the coating haven't randomized -- analog
video recordings from 50 years ago are still playable, if you can find a
machine that can play them, so I suppose it's possible -- will anyone,
anywhere, have a working 8" drive, with the hardware interface and
software drivers to read it? And will that drive handle the dozen or so
incompatible formats that were in use as of 1982 or so? Heck, how did
your data conversion service handle 8" disks? Hard sector or soft, how
many sectors, single or double side, single or double density -- unlike
the later, smaller disk standards, there was never one drive that could
read all of them. Did they somehow keep at least one drive working for
each of those formats? And a computer that could talk to all those
drives? Even if they did, how many years can that continue?
Electronics eventually fail -- they have to, it's a quantum effect of
current flow in semiconductors -- and when they do, where will you find
replacements for the chips?

And still, even if it's technically feasible to read those formats,
who'll really bother?

--
I may be a scwewy wabbit, but I'm not going to Alcatwaz!
-- E. J. Fudd, 1954

Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer
Lathe Building Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm
Speedway 7x12 Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/my7x12.htm

Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth
and don't expect them to be perfect.