Ultimate Test Of MiniDisc Longevity...Into The Next Millenium.

[Jimma]

I was going through a load of old photos today and I came across the two attached photos of a Mini that I took while in the Belfry shopping centre in Redhill, England in 1999. I have owned many Minis and have been a huge fan of them for many years so I was immediately interested in why this old car was sitting inside amongst the shops.

I soon discovered that it was to be put in Europe's largest time capsule, the Millenium Vault in Guildford, Surrey, England.

Upon further investigation I found out that the 100 cubic metre vault was to be filled with a large assortment of 20th century items, documents and photos as a historic record of our times.

I thought that another of my passions, the MiniDisc, would make a great addition to this project as an example of technology of the era.

I got in contact with the organisation running the project and they agreed and so I supplied three MiniDiscs containing some of my live dj mixes and they purchased a Sony MiniDisc Walkman for possible future playback.

The Mini, the MiniDiscs and Walkman and the mass of other items were all sealed into the airtight vault on Thursday March 23rd 2000 and are not due see the light of day again until the year 3000!

Even though a huge effort was made to ensure that the contents of the time capsule were preserved, who knows what, if anything wil survive but it's quite nice to think that my favorite car, audio format and some of my djing may some day be rediscovered by the people of the future.

[bluecrab]

Nice work getting the MD in there. Reminds me that the Grammy Museum (as in, The Grammy Awards) in Los Angeles, CA, has a single MD on display. IIRC, it's next to a DAT and a couple of other older digital media types. It's just the disc, they don't have much to say about it, but at least it's there!