[reportlab-users] PDF/A-Standard with Reportlab?

[Tim Roberts]

Robin Becker wrote:

> Tim Roberts wrote:

> .........

>   

>>> Isn't there some effort to determine what kind of "here be radiation" 

>>> sign/warning the US Govt should use on any proposed long term radioactive 

>>> storage dump.

>>>

>>> I don't think they're thinking of including a copy of Acrobat reader 4.0 though; 

>>> last time I looked they were mumbling about pictograms and spiky symbology.

>>>   

>>>       

>> I've read your reply carefully at least three times, and I'm afraid I

>> don't get it.  Maybe I'm just humor-impaired today.  What are you

>> talking about?

>>

>>     

>

> I just think that stone and chisels are more appropriate to long term 

> communication than electronic media, and that the US Govt thinks that 

> even written materials are not sufficient.


Ah, I get it now.  Yes, your concern is a real one.


> According to those charged with the task, we don't even know if there 

> are universal symbols indicating danger. Silly stuff like electronic 

> standards are meaningless in such timescales; my DEC tapes from the 70's 

> are unreadable without extraordinary effort as are the 8 inch floppies 

> that succeeded them. My ext file system 3.5in floppies from the 90's are 

> practically unreadable unless I expend considerable time and money.

>   


Exactly right.  I took backups of my most precious information in three
different forms from my first job.  Last year, I finally threw out the
last rolls of 1/2" magnetic tape, the last rolls of 8-channel punched
paper tape, and the last boxes of 80-column punched cards.

There is a very similar issue unfolding in regard to our photographic
legacy.  We can still view and make prints from the glass plate
negatives of Abe Lincoln at the Gettysburg battlefield from 150 years
ago.  But what are the odds that my CD of JPEG images from my daughter's
birth will be readable even 10 years from now, either physically or
logically?  It bothers me.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.