ways to store source code or small binary files on relatively simple physical media?
im worried that modern systems have gotten too complex and there will be very little possibility to rebuild if something catastrophic were to happen im looking for data storage solutions that wouldnt be too difficult to reproduce the contents of even in worst case scenarios if i store data on a compact disc but don't have a device to read it with, the data is useless
the obvious solution is just plain paper, but it isnt particularly durable its prone to smudging, creasing, and falling apart
punch cards seem like they would have been the ideal here being that they can be read using a card reader or by humans in the absence of usable equipment they use a standard format cardstock is significantly more durable than paper as well but they dont exist any more
i just dont like the idea that all of the software and documents we have built up can be permanently lost if we lose the standard means of storing and reading digital data computers can be rebuilt eventually, but lost software is lost forever
Things come to be and pass away. It’s ok user. I’m here for you.
Parker Roberts
nothing is permanent but that doesn't mean we can't or shouldn't try harder paper is cool let's be more creative though how about knitting with some fiber that doesn't readily degrade? knit for 1 purl for 0
Christian Hernandez
Just print it on paper and store them stacked in a fireproof storage box. Cheap, quick, effective.
Benjamin Allen
why are there so many paranoid schizophrenic retards on this board?
Christian Rogers
They asked that same question in Rome right before it burnt.
Caleb Sanchez
the people with the capability to restart the process already have thing kind of thing down stop worrying, you as an individual without resources are not going to be able to do anything with this hoarded information when catastrophe happens, you will not be someone in the position to rebuild using the methods made by others, you will need your own system for your own tools
if you really want to send a message to the future, emboss it on ceramic/stone plates and it will weather much
Bentley Taylor
no rome collapsed because it was complacent, none of you fucks are complacent you can think up a doomsday scenario and conspiracy theory from anything
Cooper Taylor
What? Save to disk nimrod. Jesus Christ. Buy a Seagate. When muh computers come back all ur codez will be on there.
Benjamin Young
you could use thin metal plates in a way similar to punch cards the durability of metal would allow you to punch holes closer together and not worry about it falling apart so greater data density would be cool punching metal plates would be a very expensive and permanent method of data storage, but with the main concern being data preservation that's not a huge issue
i started thinking of this because my grandpa kept a lot of old files on floppy disks i wanted to read through them, but nobody i knew had a floppy drive i ordered one online only to find that half of the disks had some level of data corruption from just sitting on a shelf read above
Zachary Rivera
That picture looks so comfy for some reason.
Jack Morales
You think when the us collapses that history books will have pages and pages about the angry cis white males who all warned this was going to happen? No. It will be written from the 75 iq black single of mother's point of view, no one knee dis wuz gonna happen! All ma ebt money just went up and disapeed!
Same thing in Rome, many knew what was happening.
Isaiah Brown
fucking SJWs ruined Rome and now they're coming for America
David Brooks
>Same thing in Rome, many knew what was happening. Yeah like you'd know what was happening in Rome, you dumb paranoid hick.
That's what they said to the delusional schizophrenics in Rome.
Lincoln Carter
I think just as resilient but much more friendly would be certain kinds of tape (plastics or maybe carbon) - But still with punch holes, not magnetic. To increase density, you could use a balanced ternary encoding: — = -1 = 0 | = 1 or something.. More than this and it will become very difficult for anything primitive or a human being to read it back.
DNA doesn't meet all your requirements, but shouldn't be overlooked as a long term storage medium.
Ryder Jackson
Make punch card out of copper sheet or steel.
Cameron Hall
At that point just use binary compressed with a simple algorithm able to be compressed/decompressed easily by hand like ziv
Asher Russell
You could print base64 on sheets of paper.
Jonathan Howard
you could do the same with ternary or quaternary and still gain that much more data density though it's already in a form that is meaningless to humans, might as well get as much unintelligible data in there as possible
Asher Clark
this is interesting, but the lack of readability would be a significant issue having a scanner available isnt something that i would rely on, otherwise qr codes would be a good solution properly stored plastic "plates" could definitely work, no idea why i jumped straight to metal i would be hesitant to use a tape format considering where previous tape formats went punched tape might be prohibitively expensive to produce, not sure though this is definitely good for human readability unintelligible data is something i want to avoid in the first place its fine if it has to be "translated" it just needs to be in a format where it can be seen and interpreted
John Nguyen
>its fine if it has to be "translated" it just needs to be in a format where it can be seen and interpreted have you tried writing things in words? like some sort of book?
Caleb Smith
Write better simpler programs in less paradigm dependent languages and print their source in a human readable format to paper. Languages like FORTH and Lisp will be fairly easy to reimplement when you get to building your new future computer, so I suggest sticking to those.
Ryder Jackson
Get a stone and start carving. See you in 10 years when you are done writing a single video file.
Daniel Hall
Bitrot doesn't take long.
Use M-Disc, burning them 1's and 0's into stone.
Jaxon Rodriguez
In that case, there's this neat program that does just that, kind of... ollydbg.de/Paperbak/
Carson Lee
you're saving binaries, this is hardly intelligible if you want something meaningful you have to save it as source if you just need them to be able to read it back, then all sorts of crazy compressions and encodings are at your disposal but this will be make things that much harder on the new primitive computer side
Liam Collins
You aren't taking into account the factor of rotational velocidensity, if he were to carve into a simple sedimentary metamorphic rock he might as well use paper, he will need to find good quality hard extrusive igenous rock to carve into if he wishes to keep up his data integrity
Elijah Roberts
M-DISC and LTO tapes. That's what they're for. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC I'd imagine if you find yourself in a future where all DVD, Blu-ray, and LTO drives are destroyed, hentai decensoring source code won't do you much good anyway.
Daniel Morales
Remember how they printed text in ghost in the shell? In something like a QR code. You can store a lot of data in QR code, and you can engrave it in a hard material to reduce weathering. Then you need to write the method with which you can decode the QR.
James Perry
QR code is just compressed binary.
Easton Jackson
>the obvious solution is just plain paper, but it isnt particularly durable
Mate, they dig up paper from over 2,000 years ago that is still readable. Correctly stored paper will outlive you and your hard drive
Blake Sanders
Ok. So?
Jaxon Thomas
no, i never thought of that before gosh you sure are smart paper sure is known for its longevity i tell you what
ideally im looking for a format that can be read reliably both mechanically by a machine and cognitively by a human if need be though it doesn't have to be easy to read, just possible im thinking of a punched or drilled format similar to braille, but with 8 clustered "dots" instead of 6 in order to represent bytes
binaries are only one possibility i might want to store obviously the vast majority of people wouldnt be able to do anything with binary, but a format like the example i gave here would be relatively easy to rebuild reading devices for text could always be encoded in ascii format and be relatively easy to read similarly to braille
qr is interesting, and it could possibly be translated into something a person could use without a computer if they have a hell of a lot of time on their hands if it can be read with a bad cellphone camera it can be read by a sufficiently motivated human
that's "old" paper, which was thick and made of things like papyrus and animal skin i doubt our thin mass-produced wood pulp sheets would have nearly as good of survival prospects
Matthew King
I like the idea of DNA storage in living organisms. You encode it in such a way that the data remains even when subject to normal genetic mutation, and you embed this as junk into a sourdough yeast or something you feed and keep alive, passing it down through generations.
Brayden Walker
Read thread
Parker Gonzalez
>sufficiently motivated human I like that.
Adrian Gutierrez
yeah paper lasts 95 years and then self destructs
idiot
Nicholas King
i have school papers from about a decade ago that are near-intelligible they simply sat in a box all this time, no particularly rough climates or conditions
Josiah Foster
and people have dug up scrolls from 2000 years ago and read them
Adrian Wright
Time isn't capable of making you write like a non-white, can't blame time for your 70 iq
Isaiah Martinez
hmm, i wonder what has changed between then and now? it could not possibly be the materials and manufacturing process...
Anthony Carter
The 2000 year old scroll was kept in a sealed canopic jar whereas your school papers were kept in a damp loft
Samuel Smith
>i have school papers from about a decade ago that are near-intelligible
Let me guess you used that shitty blue erasable fountain pen ink.
Andrew Diaz
>Paper doesn't last more than 10 years
Are you seriously this stupid? My local library has books from the fucking 1800s that have been handled and read thousands of times and still perfectly readable
they were kept in a climate-controlled self-storage unit sealed canopic jars are good for something that you are going to leave alone for 2000 years and then read it once in order to copy it down after keeping it safe in a crypt they are decidedly less useful for storing something you will be using a decade or two after a gigantic disaster to bootstrap the technological rebuilding process sure, that's to be expected what about the printer ink that was used to print old worksheets? should that have faded as much as kid me's quirky gel pens?
paper burns and gets eaten by insects, ink warps and fades, under controlled environments they can last a while but when everything is fucking exploding i dont think people will care too much about keeping an archive room properly controlled
Juan Sanchez
This guy gets it.
Xavier Rogers
Microfilm is a good option. It has extremely high information density and can be readily printed and read, even manually if the need exists. The disadvantage is that it must either be read through OCR or similar process since it's an inherently analogue medium, or by hand.
Logan Flores
>Are you seriously this stupid? My local library has books from the fucking 1800s that have been handled and read thousands of times and still perfectly readable I own numerous books from the 1800s that have pages in perfect shape.
>using a decade or two after a gigantic disaster to bootstrap the technological rebuilding process unless that disaster involves everyone simultaneously forgetting how to build a computer I dont think you need to worry
Angel Clark
Standard (non-archive) ink only lasts a few years under normal conditions. Exposed to light or humidity it may only last a few months. Archival ink usually guarantees that it will last at least 10 years under normal conditions, but in reality it will likely last longer than your lifetime. There's a lot of literature on archival printing and how to make make prints as long-lasting and durable as possible, since governments, banks and other institutions have been interested in it for a very long time.
