Now I think you have burst my security bubble with the flash drives...  you did not mention portable hard drives though. I suppose all media has some kind of failure point... what about optical discs?
Maybe a routine renewal on any digital media is a good idea.

Any modern solid-state drive will be Flash memory. Hard-drives are pretty good, I've got some pretty old ones which still work OK (some have noisy bearings). Modern ultra-high density drives.... hmm, your guess is as good as mine as to how long they're likely to survive, powered off. All those itty bitty magnetic bits...?

Optical disks - the proper manufacturer pressed types are pretty good - some early CDs have been known to delaminate, but after the mid 1990s they got them about right. DVD & BluRay I've no idea. Writable optical disks are also subject to time-related failure; especially the re-writable ones. Basically the organic layer "goes off", you get read errors, it goes in the bin. Plus they scratch if you just look at them hard.

Regularly renewing your archives is definitely the way to do it. First, you get to know for sure that your data is sound. And you're constantly moving it onto newer technology which, whilst it may or may not be "better", is definitely less obsolete (how many of you still have 3.5" floppy disks, and use them? Ditto 5.25" disks? And since there's no reason to chuck out the old archive... you've got a bit more safety in numbers.

Paper is heavy and subject to rot and fire damage... nothing can be completely safe now can it?

True - it does require reasonable looking after - but keep the worst of the damp away, and/or fire obviously, then it's a lot more robust than anything digital... if you really must have the ultimate in security, then I can recommend a good stone carving company If you don't want to go quite that far, acetate sheets - whilst not fireproof - are waterproof...

As per several people above - I too have moved entirely to Linux at home. Can't do it at work, as we use various Microsoft development tools which just won't work, even under Wine. Virus writers will struggle with Linux forever, as it has a much better security system built into it, and has done since the year dot.

Regarding storage on flash drives - be aware that these do suffer degradation over time, if not used. I don't know for how long, but they shouldn't be considered as a long-term storage solution. Unfortunately, writeable CDs, DVDs also suffer from longevity failure, 3.5" floppies have proven to be completely useless. 5.25" floppies are better, but even more obsolete than 3.5" of course. Tapes are probably the best bet, but they're very expensive if you want a sensible amount of storage.

Long term, I'm coming to the conclusion that paper is about the best bet....

For historical reasons, the LEF is a bit sensitive to downtime - it used to vanish for anything from hours to weeks at a time. Indeed, it was wrestled (pretty literally) from its founder at some considerable effort & cost because a few of us wanted to move it to a reliable host, and to try to rebuild the trust that was lost in the "bad old days".

Unfortunately, the host we've moved it to - whilst immeasurably better than the predecessor, still has a less than stellar reputation when it comes to up time. Plus, the linux distro it runs on is getting old, it went out of support last year so there's no new patches (e.g. for a couple of serious vulnerabilities which have shown up in the last few months)... And for some reason, this particular virtual machine seems prone to crashing unexpectedly, all by itself, requiring a reboot. It is, by some margin, the least reliable Linux VM I have ever encountered...

Unfortunately, despite "rescuing" the forum from certain oblivion, we have lost many fine contributors from the early days, probably as a result of the unreliability. Once a reputation is formed, it's difficult to repair it, especially if the damn thing continues to fall over on an all-too-regular basis...

Anyway, it's not all philanthropy on my part - I use the same VM to host my e-mail & forum photos, so I want a more reliable platform as well! I've found a couple of possibilities, one US based and one UK based, both are similarly priced to my current provider, I just need to try to find out which ones seem to have the better reliability & up-time...

Cheers!
Ade.

Due to imminent downsizing of storage space, I'm having to sell of machines I'd hoped to hang on to. Still, my loss can be your gain.

They're on eBay now, finishing Sunday 7th September:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231321568211
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231321571232
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231321575519
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231321580339

I'm keeping my working SOM set & the spare parts engine that came with it, look out for that one day in the future, I still have big plans for it...

It's sad that this shipment went so bad. I know a lot of us put a lot of time & effort into trying to get it moving. But we all cock up, and I must bear some responsibility for this.

Brett.... I thought your machines were the 2 that Joe Cobb sold to you via another gentleman of this forum, which were subsequently re-sold by Cobb & who refused to recompense either of you? That was my understanding at least... unless I've got the wrong chap. Further apologies if that is the case...

I'm pretty sure everyone who touched that shipment, except for the original sellers, has made a loss somehow.... I know I traipsed up & down the UK in a shagged out old lorry picking up engines; I took my car & trailer down to Norfolk to pick up one engine that looked like it'd spent most of its life in a shipwreck - and on the way back I damaged a petrol pump with the trailer which has only just stopped affecting my insurance premiums this year. Having stored 9 of the things for ages, it eventually cost me the best part of $1000 to ship them over to Mark's place, but by then I was sick of the sight of them. I eventually sold the lorry for 1/2 what I paid for it, it was a right pig in a poke.


Still, would I do it again?


F**k no...

It won't stay at that price, trust me....

Plain working engines with no ancillaries tend to shift for between £250-£400 depending on location & condition; this has all the electrickery stuff with it & is on an iron plate, so I'm guessing between £500-£750 (US$800-1200) final price.

Hell, anything under about £500 I'll be having a punt myself!

^ So no twin cylinder Lister CS engines then? Is this due to their been no demand, or because it was not possible to locate any in the UK for export?

Very hard to find twins over here, and when they do pop up on eBay, they go for "proper" money.