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cyhist Apr. 7 1998 e
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========================================================================= Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 15:13:41 -0600
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "Tony R. Wickersham" <TWick@UWYO.EDU>
Subject: Re: Card Readers- university courses in old computers
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______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
David:
As the person responsible for computer support within this archives institution, I have had to deal with "dead" computers in the following two ways.
_Reading Dead Tapes_. Our geological collections contain some data tapes from geological mappings that were recorded during airplane overflights of selected regions. The program that produced them was probably proprietary. We had a service company dump the files from tape to CD-ROM. Lacking complete knowledge of the fields contained in the files means the results are currently less than useful. The company that wanted the survey data from our archives in the first place is pursuing the translation of the files into meaningful data. If they succeed, they will bestow us with their results to place back in the archives.
_Old Computers_. I have archived the hardware, software, supplies, and manuals of a working TRS-80 Model 4 computer and printer. This was a machine that our office once used for its daily work. For our use, I transferred every data disk we had for this machine to DOS format. I fully expect to someday receive collection material in this and other formats. I have a DOS computer program on hand that is able to read many non-DOS formatted disks and save the files on DOS disks. I will soon be archiving a working 286. I will be keeping my eye out for MacIntosh and other types that become available in the University's Property Office.
Obviously, I can't store one of every kind of old computer, but I can cheaply build a small inventory of the most popular models. Somebody has to be able to read the old disks that come into the archives. I'm doing what little I can, but the problem of maintaining the ability to read older media and file formats is a huge one for archives.
The alternative of continually translating all "fading" media to the latest media and file-format is equally daunting. For non-digital media, it usually means loss of quality through copying. For example, copying video tapes would mean lost quality. For digitial media, at minimum, it means incurring the cost of copying files to new media.
Anyone else care to jump in?
>Tony Wickersham
>Computer Programmer
>
>University of Wyoming
>American Heritage Center
>twick@uwyo.edu
>
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: "Tony R. Wickersham" <TWick@UWYO.EDU>
Subject: Re: Card Readers- university courses in old computers
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
David:
As the person responsible for computer support within this archives institution, I have had to deal with "dead" computers in the following two ways.
_Reading Dead Tapes_. Our geological collections contain some data tapes from geological mappings that were recorded during airplane overflights of selected regions. The program that produced them was probably proprietary. We had a service company dump the files from tape to CD-ROM. Lacking complete knowledge of the fields contained in the files means the results are currently less than useful. The company that wanted the survey data from our archives in the first place is pursuing the translation of the files into meaningful data. If they succeed, they will bestow us with their results to place back in the archives.
_Old Computers_. I have archived the hardware, software, supplies, and manuals of a working TRS-80 Model 4 computer and printer. This was a machine that our office once used for its daily work. For our use, I transferred every data disk we had for this machine to DOS format. I fully expect to someday receive collection material in this and other formats. I have a DOS computer program on hand that is able to read many non-DOS formatted disks and save the files on DOS disks. I will soon be archiving a working 286. I will be keeping my eye out for MacIntosh and other types that become available in the University's Property Office.
Obviously, I can't store one of every kind of old computer, but I can cheaply build a small inventory of the most popular models. Somebody has to be able to read the old disks that come into the archives. I'm doing what little I can, but the problem of maintaining the ability to read older media and file formats is a huge one for archives.
The alternative of continually translating all "fading" media to the latest media and file-format is equally daunting. For non-digital media, it usually means loss of quality through copying. For example, copying video tapes would mean lost quality. For digitial media, at minimum, it means incurring the cost of copying files to new media.
Anyone else care to jump in?
>Tony Wickersham
>Computer Programmer
>
>University of Wyoming
>American Heritage Center
>twick@uwyo.edu
>
______________________________________________________________________
