M*Disc comming in October - new way to back up your wallet.dat

[Rassah]

Just stumbled on this article from DVice

http://dvice.com/archives/2011/08/optical-discs-n.php

These disks have the writable layer physically etched onto a rock-like substance (as opposed to just having parts of the layer darkened), and claim to be able to store data for 1,000 years. Once they're burned, the disks can be read using standard DVD players. Size limit is still 4.5Gigs. Definitely a consideration for backing up wallet files, especially if you just write more and more of them, with lots of older backups.

[evoorhees]

Awesome

[foggyb]

DVD players?

Ha. They are already obsolete.

[ctoon6]

DVD players?

Ha. They are already obsolete.

hardly

some people do not require TBs of porn to have ultralong shelf life. for example, keys, wallets, documents.
also, i do not know how a normal dvd would stand up to an EMP, it probably doesn't effect it, but m-disc would be immune, since it only has holes.

[kjj]

I'm probably going to buy a couple to play with at work.  We have official record books going back to before our state was a state, and long term archiving of the data in those books is something that keeps me up at night.

By the way, building a DVD reader is pretty much a hobby project by now.  None of the technology involved is very difficult.  The only hard part is the laser head, and you can totally fake that with a low precision DIY head if you don't mind giving up some speed.

Also, the reason why a CD player can't read a DVD is because the pits are too small for the frequency of the laser in the CD player, but a DVD laser has no problem with the pits in a CD, and a Blu Ray or HD-DVD player has no problems with the pits on DVDs or CDs.  I figure that as long as we have spinning optical media, these disks will be readable.