The Don Maslin Software Archive - 2

Since I posted my last message regarding Don Maslin's Software Archive on 5-14, I have followed the discussion here without contributing. I mailed a copy of that last message to Winnie Maslin on 5-16 with a pleasant cover letter. I have heard nothing from her. I have however heard through another source that she has asked a lawyer friend of Don's to "do something" - that something is undefined, though it is said that this man (whom I knew slightly some years ago) feels he can locate the software archive without difficulty. I hope that he can and will do so; obviously, I will not be involved. I don't know whether or when this will happen, or that it will. So I'm going to address some of the issues brought up in the discussion, give my take, and retire to my usual indolence. 1. Tom Jennings brought up the packrat v. collector issue - I don't know why, but it did bring about interesting exchanges. I considered writing to explain why collectors are almost always also packrats or accumulators, and how accumulators often become collectors, from my view as a life-long book collector. But I decided that essay would be non-productive. However, here in San Diego we did have a man who accumulated tens of thousands of books and stored them in his room in a hotel; the accumulation did fall on him and if memory serves, kill him. 2. Several suggested that I talk to others in the family - as though I hadn't thought of that. There was only one person available, and he had no influence. Felt he had been told by Winnie to butt out, that she would deal only with me directly. 3. The Computer Museum was suggested. David Weil was one of the first people I talked to about the situation back in September, after I had posted that initial message. The Museum is undergoing the agony of having to move (ah, how well I know that feeling!), as Coleman College (where it is now housed) is going to sell their building. David is looking for a new venue. Anyone with access to big bucks is encouraged to contact him. 4. Barry Watzman stated that Winnie had made no 'agreement' with me. While the agreement that we had (which was memorialized in a letter I wrote her directly after the September posting and never, in letter or in word, disavowed) may not stand the legal scrutiny of the elements of offer, acceptance, consideration, and the rest that go into a contract - it's been a long time since I took Kingsfield's course in Contracts :) - it was an agreement that she did not keep. REGARDLESS - understand, all I wanted to do was - TO CLEAN UP A MESS A FRIEND LEFT - AND SAVE A PRICELESS RESOURCE FOR THOSE OF US WHO CARE FOR OLD COMPUTERS I don't give a hoot for the old computers that Don left - they're probably worth about ten thousand _in toto_, and that might cover the cost of disposing of all the many things (monitors, etc.) which cost big bucks to dispose of in California. 5. Why didn't Don make a backup? For that, you have to understand something about Don. HE HATED WINDOZE - passionately. He tried OS/2 and gave up on it. He watched me install Linux from scratch (back in the early days of Linux, before the modern "stick a disc in and let it do its thing" times), and I think it scarred him for life. (It did me!) He used PC-DOS, not Microsoft (I'll not go into his remarks about that company). So he kept his backups on tape. Somewhere, about 2001 or so, he got a burner; I recall, because I spent an afternoon showing him how to burn discs. He was going to go home and hold his nose and boot Win98 and burn a copy of his archive. I don't know whether he did. At some point one has to stand back and let a friend do what he pleases. Yes, I wanted him to make copies. But twist his arm I would not. When his ISP finally took away shell accounts, and Don HAD to log on through Windoze, we suggested he put a little PuTTY between himself and Win98. He did. 6. Where do we go from here? Well, the informal consensus, judging from the messages until a week ago (I haven't read the last week), was that the archive should be replaced _de novo_. And then the discussion devolved into the deficiencies of Teledisk, what ought to be the format of a new archive, etc. now in the public domain. He kept up a desultory correspondence with the author of the *disk programs, who has moved into another field, and then asked me if I would make some additions to Teledisk. I looked at the problem and concluded that what he wanted wasn't plausible in the existing program. I would suggest that the group take the list of OS's that is on gaby's site, and see if it can be duplicated. And THEN DUPLICATE that list, find every OS on that list, and put them on ClassicCmp's website - in WHATEVER FORMAT IS POSSIBLE. As time passes, perhaps a fairly general storage/ transfer format may be found. I don't believe that there ever will be a fully general format, but that's not the issue. Doc Shipley wants a Kaypro boot disk! We don't know whether Don's archive ever will be found, or made available, or .... If we are serious lovers of these machines and want them to do more than sit in our workshops, it behooves us to assume the worst and act accordingly. We can always hope for the best. Vern Wright vern4wright at yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! 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