31 May
2000
31 May
'00
8:26 a.m.
On Wed, 31 May 2000, Tony Duell wrote:
I see no reason not to keep the original disks. For
one thing, they're a
backup of the archive. Maybe not a very good one, but still a possible
backup. For another thing, they might be of interest to historians (how
the disks of the period were made, how they were labelled, etc).
I awlays keep the original diskettes, and always grab whatever original
disks I find in thrift (charity) shops for the labelling and boxes. They
are artifacts that represent the culture surrounding computing.
My desire to archive the software is of course dervied from the knowledge
that someday those disks will simply be interesting pieces of plastic:
mere representations of the software they used to hold.
On a somewhat related note, there's a great website--the Disk Sleeve
Archive. Unfortunately, the URL I have for it is no longer valid?
http://www.cyberden.com/sleeves/index.html
I'm not saying don't make the archive. I'm
saying make the archive, look
after it, but keep the original disks _as well_. Then use those to run
the machine they were designed to run. If necessary, make a new disk from
the archived data (which doesn't damage the archive, of course).
I see no problem using the original diskette for demonstration purposes.
It's not like the data will stick around if you don't use it. But I'd
still make a copy of the disk for general use.
Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger
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