[X] My Assistant

[dilo]

Far from today's news...
Do you recall that a DVD disk was placed onboard the Cassini spacecraft, containing the signatures from 616,420 people around the world?
DVD with signatures on way to Saturn
I sent my signature, and I bet that I'm not the only one in this Forum...
Now, do someone knows if there is an online viewable copy of DVD? I would like very much to check my name (probably not easy to find...!)
Marco.

[elakdawalla]

I finally found my copy of the disk. It contains 27,000 separate TIFF files. An example taken at random from the U.K. folder:



(I blacked out the addresses on the postcards.)

So...I do have access to a complete copy of all the signatures. However, searching it for specific ones would be very tedious. The TIFF files are sorted by country, and, within the US, by state, but other than that there's no identifying information connected with each file. Sorry to disappoint. I'd be happy to place a copy of the contents of the disk online, but I'm a little worried about posting all the addresses on the postcards. They are 8 years old, but...

If anyone knows someone who wants to pull and catalog hundreds of thousands of signatures from among 27,000 individual tiff files, send them to me!

Emily

[mchan]

So...I do have access to a complete copy of all the signatures.  However, searching it for specific ones would be very tedious.  The TIFF files are sorted by country, and, within the US, by state, but other than that there's no identifying information connected with each file.  Sorry to disappoint.  I'd be happy to place a copy of the contents of the disk online, but I'm a little worried about posting all the addresses on the postcards.  They are 8 years old, but...

I had sent my signature in and would like to check if it made it on to the disk. So I would like a copy of the disk to search.

However, when you got the copy of the disk at the conference, was there any accomanying document describing its use? E.g., you may not reproduce, exhibit, etc. You may want to check with Legal before putting it online.

Mike

[ljk4-1]

When and if the disc is ever recovered from Cassini, does anyone honestly think a future civilization will be able to read a DVD, even an advanced technical one that could pluck a spacecraft from around Saturn? And what will a bunch of names and addresses mean centuries hence - to say nothing if it is found by an ETI.

[mchan]

When and if the disc is ever recovered from Cassini, does anyone honestly think a future civilization will be able to read a DVD, even an advanced technical one that could pluck a spacecraft from around Saturn?  And what will a bunch of names and addresses mean centuries hence - to say nothing if it is found by an ETI.

It is not so much a meams of sending information to a future civilization as it is an expression of support and participation from people today who were not directly working on the project. For myself, it also expresses a thought of having another something I did be around long after I am gone. I.e., if Cassini stays in Saturn orbit for centuries and is recovered and put into a museum. The meaning centuies hence might be akin to the meaning of undeciphered hieroglyphics on an antiquity of today.

Mike