Thanks for that link, F/DL. This question's troubled me for years; and, it's gratifying to see others dealing with the problems / challenges it presents.
I started with an Osborne 64 and have all those floppies. When I sold my first batch of manuscripts to McGill, I asked about what to do with them and was told to print their contents. GASP! No way. How could a povert poet print all that stuff on a dot-matrix printer that took hours to print one page (and, those sprockets lining up and mis-aligning and gobbling the one page just when you got to the penultimate line)?
I never mentioned it again. I still have them; but, no computer to access them. Still have all my Mac disks, too. One set of them contains my novelogue, a kind of travel book / novel about the time I wrote in rez and taught in Nice, France. Wow. It's fifteen years ago, now. I bet they're all decayed beyond retrieval. Damn. I liked writing it. Got to put Piaf and Cerdan and Brel and Joan and all them peeps and saints in it. Double damn.
There is a digital lives project at the British Library run by Jeremy Leighton John (you can access it on the web via the main BL site). Jeremy has a set up that can read virtually any defunct software, going back to paper tape. It is really impressive. I think other archives can do this kind of thing. Jeremy is a world expert and very nice.
Thank you! I've had the opportunity to explore the 'site you mention and cannot begin to adequately express my gratitude for this information. I'm so glad I mentioned it; I also have Colorado Data Tapes [from someone's so-called "stalker"] that I've never been able to view [well, my lawyer has them in his safe-deposit box]; but, I'm sure your friend can help me with that enterprise, too).
http://www.bl.uk/digital-lives/about.html
Wow. Amazing. Truly wonderful; or, in two words?
YOU ROCKET! :)
Jf/ox p.s. If I ever win the lottery or the book sells gazillions, I'll hire you so you don't have to find a job out there with the floor-walkers or book-club moderators or . . . <*beam*> -- In Other Words
Thanks for that link, F/DL. This question's troubled me for years; and, it's gratifying to see others dealing with the problems / challenges it presents.
ReplyDeleteI started with an Osborne 64 and have all those floppies. When I sold my first batch of manuscripts to McGill, I asked about what to do with them and was told to print their contents. GASP! No way. How could a povert poet print all that stuff on a dot-matrix printer that took hours to print one page (and, those sprockets lining up and mis-aligning and gobbling the one page just when you got to the penultimate line)?
I never mentioned it again. I still have them; but, no computer to access them. Still have all my Mac disks, too. One set of them contains my novelogue, a kind of travel book / novel about the time I wrote in rez and taught in Nice, France. Wow. It's fifteen years ago, now. I bet they're all decayed beyond retrieval. Damn. I liked writing it. Got to put Piaf and Cerdan and Brel and Joan and all them peeps and saints in it. Double damn.
There is a digital lives project at the British Library run by Jeremy Leighton John (you can access it on the web via the main BL site). Jeremy has a set up that can read virtually any defunct software, going back to paper tape. It is really impressive. I think other archives can do this kind of thing. Jeremy is a world expert and very nice.
ReplyDeleteMy Dear Maxine:
ReplyDeleteThank you! I've had the opportunity to explore the 'site you mention and cannot begin to adequately express my gratitude for this information. I'm so glad I mentioned it; I also have Colorado Data Tapes [from someone's so-called "stalker"] that I've never been able to view [well, my lawyer has them in his safe-deposit box]; but, I'm sure your friend can help me with that enterprise, too).
http://www.bl.uk/digital-lives/about.html
Wow. Amazing. Truly wonderful; or, in two words?
YOU ROCKET! :)
Jf/ox
p.s. If I ever win the lottery or the book sells gazillions, I'll hire you so you don't have to find a job out there with the floor-walkers or book-club moderators or . . . <*beam*>
--
In Other Words