[cctalk] Re: NS32k software on Ebay

Mattis Lind wrote: ... I would certainly be interested in what's on the tapes, especially those that are specifically ns32k related. My difficulty at the moment is funding to buy the stuff due to illness that has severely curtailed my working hours, and thus, putting a squeeze on finances. So, I won't be bidding on the tapes. :-( I have the ability to read ½” tapes (up to 6250 BPI) as well as QIC tapes. My difficulty at the moment is funding to purchase the stuff due to illness that has severely curtailed my working hours, and thus, putting a squeeze on finances. So, I won't be bidding on any of the media, but certainly am interested in what's on the media. I would volunteer to read the media and provide it in a form usable (e.g., provided external hard drive) if someone purchases the media but doesn’t have the tools to read/extract the data on the tapes, and is willing to send them to me. After everything possible is extracted and archived into a usable form on more current hardware(disk, large thumb drive, or I could put it up on a private FTP for download), I'd return the tapes to their owner along with the extracted data in whatever form desired. Hopefully Mattis or someone else with a preservationist mindset will end up winning the tapes. Bottom line is that the most important thing is that these tapes don't disappear into some personal collection of stuff that will never again see the light of day (or worse, end up being used as media for overwriting with other stuff). The best possible outcome in my mind would be for the contents to be put up on Bitsavers for anyone who has interest to peruse/download. My concern is copyright. With the laws the way they are, if the content on the tape has copyright notices (or the labels themselves do), it may not be legal to make the content public without obtaining some kind of legal release from National Semiconductor to publish this obsolete material, which could be a somewhat arduous process. Definitely something to consider if the desire is to make the content of the tapes public. I will still help anyone with extraction of the data from the tapes for their personal (non-public) use if copyright gets in the way of publishing it for public access. Anyway, if I can be of assistance in reading/extracating the media, feel free to contact me via Email at XrickbX@YbenseneY.comZ<mailto:XrickbX@YbenseneY.comZ> (remove the X's Y's, and Z's). -Rick