[LINK] Looking for some advice from the link 'brain'

[Alan L Tyree]

On Mon, 02 Apr 2007 15:45:37 +1000
Karl Auer <kauer at biplane.com.au> wrote:

> On Mon, 2007-04-02 at 08:17 +1000, andrew clarke wrote:
> > Of course, everything we create will disappear eventually, but...
> 
<SNIP>
> 
> The chances that the hardware or software to read a 2007 MSWord
> document (which version?) OR a 2007 OO document in a hundred years
> time are minimal, in five hundred years negligible. Hence the
> question - how long are you really planning for?
>  
> > And if you really need to, you can pay someone to patch the source
> > code to your requirements at some stage in the long-term future,
> > which is essentially impossible with closed source software.
> 
> Kind of assumes that you have the source code, that you have a
> compiler, that you have a machine able to run that compiler, someone
> conversant with an archaic computer language... seriously, it will
> NOT happen. If the content is valuable to you and you think it will
> still be valuable in fifty years' time (let alone a hundred or a
> thousand years' time) then you have to convert and copy, copy and
> convert - continuously.

Does it matter that OO now saves data according to an ISO standard?
Unless the specifications of the standard disappear, isn't it possible
to recover? It no longer depends upon the existence of OO or any other
particular bit of software.

> 
> It's generally a great deal cheaper to be a bit more realistic about
> the value of your records.
> 
> Otherwise you are practising the digital equivalent of human cryogenic
> storage - namely exercising a pious hope that someone, somewhere,
> someday will solve your problem.
> 
> Regards, K.
> 
> -- 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
> http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160
> (mob)
> 
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-- 
Alan L Tyree                    http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~alan
Tel: +61 2 4782 2670            Mobile: +61 427 486 206
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