[OT] free classic Scientific American magazines

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Fri, May 26, 2006 at 07:49:45PM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> So: the one on building a laser was probably from 1966.  I could still
> read it 40 years later.  What are the chances you can read this CD in
> 40 years?  (I cannot read my 9 track tapes from 20 years ago; I can
> read my punch cards and paper tape, using my eyes.)

Given the number of devices that can read CDs, pretty good.  How many
devices could read tapes?  Not that many.  It seems every new optical
drive format is maintaining compatibility with previous optical drives,
so I think your CDs are going to be fine for a long time.

Of course if 120mm optical drives do go out of style, I am sure someone
will make a high resolution scanner where you can just scan the CD and
have software read the filesystem based on the scan. :)

> Case in point: I bought a DVD with all New Yorker magazine issues on
> it.  But it has some kind of "security" that prevents me using it
> under Linux.  I wonder how long such fragile software will continue to
> function.  For example, will it work in MS Vista?

Does it require windows software to read the files?

Len Sorensen
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