I’m a fan of having lots of ideas, and that means you have to be open to the ones that, on the surface, are ridiculous. The best ideas often start as a bad idea. When you’re willing to push the boundaries, you’re more likely to stumble onto something really interesting.
Every Friday, I’m going to share a ridiculously bad idea. This should be very easy for me (I have a ton of them), it’ll keep me posting on a regular cadence, and it should also motivate me to write more, since I don’t just want this blog full of bad ideas.
Today’s bad idea is for storage of immutable historical data. When you have data you need to put in cold storage that won’t ever change, why not build a giant XY carving robot, install it against a blank wall in your office lobby, and have the data chiseled into the wall? You can even come up with a design scheme that makes it beautiful. You solve your storage and interior decoration problems at the same time!
Need to retrieve the data? Just take a photo, and decode it. The idea of storing digital data on old media isn’t new. I’ve just yet to see it on a grand scale.
Hi. I'm Hilary Mason. 