<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 2 May 2014 14:43, ken price <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kenjprice@gmail.com" target="_blank">kenjprice@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Though some may argue that reading books that are a few centuries old is not a simple process either. </div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>True, and I agree completely, but that is a linguistic problem, rather than a media issue.<br>
Linguistic drift can take centuries - we can read "Pride and Prejudice" perfectly well. </div><div>But it can take a millennium for a bloke like Chaucer to become unintelligible.<br></div><div><br></div><div>A <b>digital</b> dark age, however, can occur within mere years.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Imagine finding an 8" floppy disc labelled "Me, Lee, Marilyn and the Mob - a memoir by J.F.Kennedy" and trying to read it.</div><div>Or a 5.25" disc - but it's saved in Wordstar format?</div>
<div>Or it was created on an Apple ][, or under a CP/M operating system.</div><div><br></div><div>How many of you could even read it if it were given to you today on a 3.5" floppy?<br></div><div>What if it were saved on a PATA hard disk? Try finding a PATA port on a modern motherboard.</div>
<div><br></div><div>One of the most-borrowed devices I loaned out at McKinnon SC was a USB 3.5" floppy drive. (You can still get them for less than $20 on eBay. I'd grab one for your school while you can. Advertise it. Staff will love you.)</div>
<div>But try looking for a <b>5.25"</b> USB floppy drive ... start here - <a href="http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1006497">http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1006497</a> (spoiler: the news is not good)<br>
</div><div><br></div><div>I'm getting to the stage where I'm even converting Word .doc files to plain text or RTF for archiving because even Microsoft may soon/eventually go the way of Wordstar and Wordperfect (the once-undisputed <b>king</b> of word processing)... </div>
<div>And if you save to the cloud - who will say your Google/Amazon/Microsoft host won't collapse, or cancel your account and delete all of your files tomorrow for no explicable reason?</div><div><br></div><div>When I archive now, I copy both to NAS, hard disk, and DVD/Blu-ray, because any optical disk has a finite lifespan. </div>
<div>And magnetic disks need to be refreshed every few years to maintain their data integrity. </div><div><br></div><div>Yet my hand-written paper-based diaries from 1985 continue to freely embarrass me to this day with no technological barrier.<br>
Curse them, and those old days on the dairy farm when I had a paper diary, a pen, and a lively, buxom, nubile* milk maid. </div><div><br></div><div>Curse them all! </div><div><br></div><div>Well, actually the milk maid <i>was</i> rather cute. Dammit! Why did I leave her? <br>
Why can't I rewind this stupid life? <br>Deanne! Where are you now? </div><div>(Sobs. Recovers. Stoically faces future without buxom milk maid.)<br></div><div><br></div><div>I bet even you - readrs in 2024 in the Kevork Preservatin Socit,y - are findin that my pst is beomig hrd t read as th yars av pasd an dsk erro hap mr oftn.</div>
</div><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div>---<br></div><div><br></div><div>Mark Kelly</div><div>mark AT vceit DOT com</div><div><a href="http://vceit.com" target="_blank">http://vceit.com</a></div><div><br></div><div><div>
<i>Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease - Bill Maher </i></div></div><div><br></div><div>* Don't be rude. "Nubile" does not mean "nude", "flexible" or other naughty things. It means "Eligible to marry." So - nyaaa.<br>
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