From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.0 required=5.0 tests=MAILING_LIST_MULTI autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 Received: (qmail 9395 invoked from network); 28 Jan 2023 02:18:52 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (50.116.15.146) by inbox.vuxu.org with ESMTPUTF8; 28 Jan 2023 02:18:52 -0000 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F1B404255C; Sat, 28 Jan 2023 12:18:45 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id AE4C642558 for ; Sat, 28 Jan 2023 12:18:41 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 42DA435E918; Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:18:41 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2023 18:18:41 -0800 From: Larry McVoy To: Tom Perrine Message-ID: <20230128021841.GG15592@mcvoy.com> References: <20230125203805.4762218C083@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> <7w8rhpdczd.fsf@junk.nocrew.org> <20230126105626.72CD922168@orac.inputplus.co.uk> <20230127135651.A70482135B@orac.inputplus.co.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) Message-ID-Hash: 46PHMHFOBCTM534RAMC4K4UN2VKJRJFK X-Message-ID-Hash: 46PHMHFOBCTM534RAMC4K4UN2VKJRJFK X-MailFrom: lm@mcvoy.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; header-match-tuhs.tuhs.org-0; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; digests; suspicious-header CC: tuhs@tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 3.3.6b1 Precedence: list Subject: [TUHS] Re: Setting up an X Development Environment for Mac OS List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Owner: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Actually I like this fork. I'm curious, do you know what is best practice for keeping bits around these days? On Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 01:42:17PM -0800, Tom Perrine wrote: > A tiny bit of a fork, but... > > When I was at SDSC.EDU we did a project for the National Archives. Gotta > love an agency that's mission is "data for the lifetime of the Republic"... > > They wanted to be sure that they could still access data at least 100 years > later, even assuming that no one had accessed it in that 100 year period. > > Anyway, we looked at all the options at the time (very early 2000s). > > While media lifetime was indeed understood to be critical, we specifically > called out needing to retain the software and the encryption keys. AND the > encryption algorithms! > At that time, media encryption was still quite new, and they hadn't > considered that issue. At all. > > Overall, the best, most practical approach (at that time) was to > periodically copy the data forward, into new media, into new > storage software, and decrypting with the old keys and algos, and > re-encrypting with new. > > Only by doing this periodically, we argued, could they really be sure of > being able to recover data 100+ years from now. > > Don't get me started on the degradation of early generation optical media > that was guaranteed for 50 years, but rusted internally within 2 years. > > And of course now there are companies that specialize in providing > mothballed obsolete tape and other readers. > > --tep > > > > On Fri, Jan 27, 2023 at 6:55 AM Ron Natalie wrote: > > > When I worked in the intelligience industry, the government spent a lot > > of money tasking someone (I think it was Kodak) to determine the best > > media for archival storage. It included traditional 6250 9 track > > tapes and the then-popular exabyte 8mm (which was atrociously short > > lived). I pointed out that magnetic storage was probably always going > > to be problematic and things needed ???digital refresh??? if you really > > wanted to keep them. > > > > > > If you know the tape may be problematic when played back, there are > > things you can do. I was gifted the master tapes of one of the radio > > shows originated at WJHU in the 70???s. I had them sent out to a company > > who ???baked??? them, but then they also had to redo all the splices on them > > when they were played back. > > -- --- Larry McVoy Retired to fishing http://www.mcvoy.com/lm/boat