Electronic publication

[Lawrence L. Lovell]

Hi all,

This just came in mail email box from someone at SIO just after having read
the message below.  Seems to support the question about any storage device
and the equipment to read it over the long term, regardless of whether the
data is still on the device.

"Hi-- Does anyone have a computer that has both a working 5.25 inch floppy
>drive and a working 3.5 inch floppy drive that we could use to convert
>some old software onto a 3.5 inch disk?"

Paper, whether we like it or not, seems to have one advantage - we use our
eyes to read it!

Larry

Lawrence L. Lovell, Museum Scientist
Benthic Invertebrates Collection
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
9500 Gilman Drive   Mail Code 0244
La Jolla, California  92093-0244
voice (858) 822-2818
fax (858) 822-3310
email <llovell at sio.ucsd.edu>

Visit the Benthic Invertebrates Collection Website at:
http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/library/loc_services/bi/

At 11:06 AM 11/1/02 +0000, John Noyes wrote:
>>We use high quality CDs - and have been told they should last a few hundred
>>years if properly cared for.
>
>We shall know that only in a couple of hundred years, but will we still
>generally have the technology available to read them? Who, at present, can
>read the original IBM 7.5" floppy, or even the more recent 5.25" floppy.
>The latter was still in use only 10 years ago, but who can read it now. We
>will soon be using micro discs, about 1.25" in diameter, that may be able
>to hold more than a 10gb of information. I daresay some sort of solid state
>plug-in which can permanently record humungous amounts of electronic data
>may be available in the not too distant future. Where will CD's be then?
>
>As I see it, the real attraction of CD's as a means of making available
>taxonomic information is their low cost and ease of production. However,
>the cost consideration is very insignificant when compared with the actual
>cost of the taxonomic work itself. A sizeable revision may cost $10,000 to
>publish as hard copy, but the actual cost of getting that far may be
>>$300-500m. The ease of production is a real attraction, but I have the
>constant worry that this could be open to abuse as there is absolutely no
>quality control of the product which, theoretically at least, is present
>with hard copy. The same could be said of web-based taxonomy.
>
>John
>
>Entomology Department, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, South
>Kensington, London, SW7 5BD, UK
>
>Tel. +44 (0)207-942-5594  Fax: +44 (0)207-942-5229
>
>INTERNET: jsn at NHM.ac.uk
>
>Interactive catalogue and biological database of World Chalcidoidea on CD:
>
>Contact the publisher: DickyS._Yu at telus.net, or Dicky S. Yu, P.O.Box 48205,
>Bentall Centre, Vancouver B.C., V7X 1N8, CANADA;
>see also www.taxapad.com
>
>Encyrtidae of Costa Rica:
>http://www.nhm.ac.uk/science/intro/entom/project2/index.html
>
>Course on taxonomy and biology of parasitic Hymenoptera:
>http://www.nhm.ac.uk/entomology/hymcours
>
>


Lawrence L. Lovell, Museum Scientist
Benthic Invertebrates Collection
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
9500 Gilman Drive   Mail Code 0244
La Jolla, California  92093-0244
voice (858) 822-2818
fax (858) 822-3310
email <llovell at sio.ucsd.edu>

Visit the Benthic Invertebrates Collection Website at:
http://www.sio.ucsd.edu/library/loc_services/bi/