Date   : Thu, 31 Jul 2003 20:23:35 +0100 (BST)
From   : Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk@...>
Subject: Re: Doc Project

> How much bandwidth would such a central server need?. I have a machine
> connected 24 hours a day and could provide unlimited (well, almost)
> space but would only be able to handle about 500MB/day. Could still be
> useful as a complete storage mirror though.

presumably Mark can give us some bandwidth stats when he comes back from
holiday. I doubt it'll be anything remotely like that much though. Likely
holding non-ocr scans online is not such a good idea though!

> From memory, EPROM data retention was expected to be around 10 years
> but can vary greatly due to storage conditions, background radiation,
> purity of materials used (so from batch to batch retention could
> vary). Many eproms I programmed in the 80's are now unusable with bit
> errors, and some of my floppies have died, usually those with original
> source code I don't have backups of. I still have teletext and early
> ramdisk ROM source, along with saved teletext pages from 1983-5, but I
> daren't try reading them in case I discover they're lost :(.

I think somebody else mentioned to me that they have the teletext ROM source
the other week, so that does still exist. Saved teletext pages would be
interesting! 

I don't think I've ever had a EPROM fail on me yet; I pulled another 40 or so
ROMs from a batch of toasted machines last week though, so it remains to be
seen what state they're in. 5.25" floppies seem to last remarkably well. 

I'm not sure what the supposed useful life of other ICs is; I'm sure I've heard
80 or so years quoted before but I'm not sure where I saw that now.

cheers

Jules


====
Backward conditioning: putting saliva in a dog's mouth in an attempt to make
a bell ring.

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