The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation
Paul Koning
paulkoning at comcast.net
Tue Nov 23 13:17:59 CST 2021
> On Nov 23, 2021, at 1:21 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> ...
> Just think of all of the stuff that hits the landfill from old timers
> who have passed. The inheritors don't know what to do with the stuff
> other than dispose of it.
Or they might not know how to find devices that can read the stuff. I have some examples: a couple of DECtapes, and an RA60 pack. I know how to find someone who can read them, but none of my family would.
The same, only more so, for 7 track tapes. Or CDC 626 14-track tapes. And what about 10 track tapes? There's someone in England working on reading some of those for an old English computer; those tools may or may not be suitable for reading EL-X1 tapes. Similarly, there was the recent heroics to recover Univac 1 tapes (if I remember right).
paul
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