I have a few comments...

The technology looks interesting.

Perhaps capture the version of the software used for the data/documents
on the memory device media itself; that could help with the software
obsolescence issues down the road. 

I would like to see the premise of the tests that lead the developers
to state that the media should be stable for a billion years.  I doubt
that any RIM professional made that claim.

"Conventional flash memory usually fails after around three to five
years."   ???    That has not been my experience; not at all.  I would
like to see any data or statistics that led the author to claim that...,
if any exists.  I back up certain things from my desktop at work and my
personal PC at home with these devices, and use them for portability of
large files.   Between work and personal I have about 5 or 6 of these
thumb drives and have experienced absolutely no problems; never a
corrupt file, nothing missing, etc.  I use SD cards for my digital
cameras and there have been no problems.  (I use other electronic media
for backup of important things too.  The thumb drives are for my
personal convenience.)

They are not talking optical media in this article; but I have
something to say on it.  I would not commit historic work-related
documents to optical media; not as the only media.  However,  I have
music on CDs that are approaching 25 years old; no problems; they play
fine.  I have music, data, documents, movies, video clips, etc. that I
have personally recorded on CDs and DVDs; some date back 18 or so years
that display/play just fine.  The only issue I have ever had with
optical is, (Larry, Bruce, Bill, Doug, Peter, Jesse and some others are
going to laugh at this) about 5 years ago I was on vacation in Missouri,
had my laptop with me, and was sitting at the kitchen table in one of my
brothers' house.  I came up missing one CD I had taken out of the laptop
and did not immediately place it back in the jewel case.  Come to find
out my oldest grandson; 2 years old at the time, picked it up and
carried it into the other room.  He apparently laid it down and my
brother's dog started playing with it, and bit it a few times.  I found
it, wiped the slobber off it, and put it back in the laptop.  To my
surprise everything on the CD came up fine except for one powerpoint
presentation I had made at an ARMA Energy "Brainfuel" Mid-Year ISG
conference in Dallas in '97.  It was an old presentation from when I was
at Duke Energy and I did not need it anymore; the record copy was on my
PC at home and backed up at work anyway.  The point is that a media that
I was very hesitant to accept back in the mid-80s has been very stable;
at least later versions.  I still would not commit the 'record copy' of
important, vital, and historic employer documents on optical media with
no backup.  But the media has turned out better than I ever thought it
would. 

I hate paper.

Best regards, Steve
Steven D. Whitaker, CRM
Records Systems Manager; City of Reno

>>> [log in to unmask] 5/27/2009 7:18 PM >>>
"Scientists are reporting successful tests of a new memory device that
could
allow terabytes of data to be stored without corruption for millions
of
years.
<snip>

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