From: "Andrew M. Duncan" <adun...@cs.ucsb.edu>
Subject: Re: Do CD-ROMs or LPs (remember them?) flow?  (really)
Date: 1997/05/04
Message-ID: <336CDCB5.261B@cs.ucsb.edu>#1/1
X-Deja-AN: 239506474
References: <5kb6kh$ocv@fountain.mindlink.net> <AF8EDC8C966821EF6@church.art.ohiou.edu> <01bc56fc$6686f840$e98d952f@JamesLinn.bnr.ca> <5kdqsu$o98@http.pe.net> <336A78F7.5957@spamkiller.org>
Organization: University of California
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.urban,alt.folklore.science


M. Mudgett wrote:
> 
> Rush Strong wrote:
> >
> > In article <01bc56fc$6686f840$e98d9...@JamesLinn.bnr.ca>, "James Linn" <james_l...@nortel.com> wrote:
> > >Bob Church <chu...@art.ohiou.edu> wrote in article
> > ><AF8EDC8C966821...@church.art.ohiou.edu>...
> > >> In article <5kb6kh$...@fountain.mindlink.net>,
> > >> somebody <no.em...@for.me.please> wrote:
> > >> >Anyhow....I've been told that information stored on CD-ROMs will
> > >> >not be readable in fifty years because the pits that actually
> > >> >store the data will flow and disappear over time.
> > Jump on me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that pre-recorded CD's are cut by
> > a laser, no more than lp's are reproduced by a cutting lathe.  Isn't some sort
> > of photo-chemical technique used?  Anyone?
> >
> >  - Rush, who still has 1000's of lp's

See back-issues of the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society. It's
nonsense to imagine that the pits will "flow", but then audio is prey to
even more than its share of ULs. Rather, the transparency of the plastic
will slowly degrade. How long this will actually take is not certain,
because the only way to really measure it is to wait and see.

Andrew Duncan
adun...@cs.ucsb.edu