26 Oct
2004
26 Oct
'04
8:57 a.m.
At 03:31 PM 10/26/2004, you wrote:
I know this has been discussed before, but here's
my two cents... the 10-year
rule is (in my opinion) an obsolete metric. I really think we should be using
at least a 15-year or 20-year metric.
A 15-year-metric would put "vintage" at 1989 -- Windows, but not yet 3.0; and
certainly not the Web.
A 20-year-metric would put "vintage" at 1984 -- the Mac's debut, etc.
Gee, sort of like "oldies" and "classic rock". The nice thing about
an oldies station is you only need around 1,200 songs. You want to
lock the group to pre-1985?
Otherwise, we'll soon be talking about Pentiums!
But why isn't that necessary? I recently had a need to read a
5 1/4 disk. A year or so ago, my main system's dual Teac 3 1/2
and 5 1/4 had bitten the dust and I never replaced it. I just
added a spare 3 1/2. I started searching through the other
half-dozen older PCs I had in the computer museum (aka basement)...
I grew extremely frustrated as one after the other wouldn't
boot. My efforts at preservation (that is, "save a pile" had
failed. I didn't have a pressing need to use one on a regular
basis, so they deteriorated.
I was frustrated by other failed efforts: I'd saved a pile of
known-working 5 1/4s, but failed to remember to inventory whether
the PCs I'd saved (of various generations) had the right connector:
edge or not, and I had no idea where I'd stored the adapters,
so more frustration.
- John