Carlos, On Wednesday 23 November 2005 07:38, Carlos E. R. wrote:
The Tuesday 2005-11-22 at 22:07 -0800, Kai Ponte wrote:
Having a long history with document imaging and storage systems, I ended up one time in a discussion about five years ago with one of the guys who was maintaining the records for the U-2 project, which at the time was still ongoing.
Sorry, I don't know what U-2 is :-?
The U-2 was a very-high-altitude spy plane the U.S. developed to monitor Soviet activities during the Cold War. There was a famous incident in which one was shot down over the Soviet Union and its pilot captured.
He had a great point - all their information is kept in microfilm. If they had tried to use some electronic means in the '50s, '60's, '70's or even '80s, it would have quickly been obsolete and extremely expensive to maintain. Microfilm on the other hand is cheap and longer lasting.
True, unfortunately. In the worst case, you only need a good magnifying glass. On the other hand, it degrades with use (scratches).
And is at least as vulnerable to fire as paper and susceptible to water, too.
-- Cheers, Carlos Robinson
Randall Schulz