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cyhist Apr. 9 1998 b
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========================================================================= Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1998 14:14:38 -0700
Reply-To: les@cs.stanford.edu
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Les Earnest <les@STEAM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Archiving obsolete machines
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSD/.3.91.980408141745.8071A-100000@merritt.edu> (message
from Fred Cisin on Wed, 8 Apr 1998 15:03:09 -0700)
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Fred Cisin writes:
On Wed, 8 Apr 1998, Tony R. Wickersham wrote:
>>>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.
That brings up an important issue about WHICH machines to archive.
I would agree that a TRS-80 and an Apple ][+ belong in the archive.
BTW, when firing up an Apple ][ that has been inactive for an extended period, there will be poor contact between many of the chips and the crummy sockets that Apple used. With your thumb, press down on each chip. In more extreme cases, [snip]
While I agree that it makes sense to preserve both old software and old computers as historical artifacts, I'm afraid that trying to keep them running together is a losing proposition. Sooner or later you will encounter a dead chip or other component for which you have no replacement.
I believe that old hardware and software should be preserved separately. In order to be able to exercise the latter, write an emulator in some language that you expect to last for awhile. Inasmuch as hardware speeds keep increasing it will usually be possible to emulate old machines at a speed faster than they ever attained.
We are currently pursuing this approach in order to revive a 20+ year software archive for a DEC-10 system. The archive originally occupied about 3,000 7-track tapes. When the original tape drives were about to die in 1991 we copied the information onto 270 9-track tapes. Those tapes have just now been copied again and the entire archive (about 45 GB) now fits on a single 1/2 inch data cartridge.
Our plan is to make the archive available on a public FTP site but with personal text files encrypted. Owners of those files who can be located will be encouraged to make some or all of them public. There are a lot of public documentation files in the archive that describe research projects as well as application programs.
If we can make an emulator available at the same site it will be possible to both read old documents and run ancient programs to see what they do or don't do. With moderate effort this archive can be migrated to still later hardware when it becomes available. After everyone involved is dead, the encryption can be removed entirely.
Just as universities, governmental institutions and many other organizations have ongoing archival activities devoted to preserving certain printed matter, I believe that the preservation of digital archives as outlined above should be institutionalized. We have not convinced the Stanford administration of that yet but will continue trying.
-Les Earnest
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: les@cs.stanford.edu
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU> From: Les Earnest <les@STEAM.STANFORD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Archiving obsolete machines
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSD/.3.91.980408141745.8071A-100000@merritt.edu> (message
from Fred Cisin on Wed, 8 Apr 1998 15:03:09 -0700)
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
Fred Cisin writes:
On Wed, 8 Apr 1998, Tony R. Wickersham wrote:
>>>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.
That brings up an important issue about WHICH machines to archive.
I would agree that a TRS-80 and an Apple ][+ belong in the archive.
BTW, when firing up an Apple ][ that has been inactive for an extended period, there will be poor contact between many of the chips and the crummy sockets that Apple used. With your thumb, press down on each chip. In more extreme cases, [snip]
While I agree that it makes sense to preserve both old software and old computers as historical artifacts, I'm afraid that trying to keep them running together is a losing proposition. Sooner or later you will encounter a dead chip or other component for which you have no replacement.
I believe that old hardware and software should be preserved separately. In order to be able to exercise the latter, write an emulator in some language that you expect to last for awhile. Inasmuch as hardware speeds keep increasing it will usually be possible to emulate old machines at a speed faster than they ever attained.
We are currently pursuing this approach in order to revive a 20+ year software archive for a DEC-10 system. The archive originally occupied about 3,000 7-track tapes. When the original tape drives were about to die in 1991 we copied the information onto 270 9-track tapes. Those tapes have just now been copied again and the entire archive (about 45 GB) now fits on a single 1/2 inch data cartridge.
Our plan is to make the archive available on a public FTP site but with personal text files encrypted. Owners of those files who can be located will be encouraged to make some or all of them public. There are a lot of public documentation files in the archive that describe research projects as well as application programs.
If we can make an emulator available at the same site it will be possible to both read old documents and run ancient programs to see what they do or don't do. With moderate effort this archive can be migrated to still later hardware when it becomes available. After everyone involved is dead, the encryption can be removed entirely.
Just as universities, governmental institutions and many other organizations have ongoing archival activities devoted to preserving certain printed matter, I believe that the preservation of digital archives as outlined above should be institutionalized. We have not convinced the Stanford administration of that yet but will continue trying.
-Les Earnest
______________________________________________________________________
