View Single Post
Old 12th Jul 2021, 7:43 pm   #56
emeritus
Dekatron
 
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
Posts: 5,316
Default Re: The end of physical media.

Older books were often printed using rag paper, which is pretty robust. I have inherited, or been given, a couple of 200-year-old-plus books where the paper is somewhat discoloured, but basically sound, and poor bindings can easily be repaired or replaced by hand using very simple equipment. I did a bookbinding evening class about 5 years ago and completely dismantled, re-sewed and re-bound a mid-victorian "Book of Common Prayer" that had been great great grandmother's that had spent the previous 40 years in a box in the loft.

I entirely agree with the second paragraph of #43. When I was a Patent Examiner, we were still using manual search files , with documents stored attached to cards in columns of drawers. You soon got to remember unusual circuit configurations, and, if someone asked if we had anything like a particular configuration, could often say something like, "Yes, in the third drawer down in the fifth column on the left". Searching for circuitry was usually predominantly visual, as it is difficult to search circuit topologies electronically. I don't know what they do now that everything is stored in computer memory

Paper is normally pretty durable as long as it is kept dry. I still have some computer programs written at college in the 1960's on punched cards and paper tape whose content can be read and transcribed manually (albeit tediously) without using an electronic reader. Retrieving more recent info from floppy disks, optical media, or SD cards can only be done if you have the necessary equipment.

Last edited by emeritus; 12th Jul 2021 at 8:02 pm.
emeritus is offline