CompuServe Messages

>>While everyone's seem to have heard of Kodak's (gold dye) guarentee of 100 years life, I'd be interested to see where the mere 20 years on cyanine (green dye) for archival came up? I think I've found at least one source for this idea: Mitsui Toatsu's marketing literature states: "The information on a Mitsui CD-R will last for over 100 years. Cyanine based products might last 20 years." (Interesting semantics – does that mean the shelf life of the unrecorded cyanine media is 20 years, or the recorded discs will last 20 years? Does it mean they also might last LONGER than 20 years?) TDK states the estimated life of their discs as "greater than 10 years". (Pretty cautious, but there's something to be said for not setting impossible expectations.) 3M, who resells Taiyo Yuden discs (cyanine) has stated an estimated life up up to 300 years, based on their in-house tests. (I can just see your great-great-great-grandchildren asking 3M for their money back.)