[ale] Engineering Archaeology

[Steve Litt]

On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:39:21 -0500 (EST)
"jon.maddog.hall--- via Ale" <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> One of my fears about e-books, the web and documentation that can
> disappear as easy as "rm -r *", is that we will lose a LOT of this
> information and not know where we came from and how we got here.

Good backups allay that fear. What I fear is that over time current
physical and software formats are replaced and disappear. I can't read
my QIC tape backups anymore. I can no longer read my cptools floppy
backups: Hell, I don't currently have a floppy drive installed. With
cases no longer accommodating CD/DVD/BluRay, how long will it be until
those become very difficult to get. I have nothing to read my old VHS
video tapes. I have no way to recover any files from my ancient Kaypro
2x, even if I did have a floppy drive.

It's very important to take old backups and convert some of them to
newer formats every once in a while.

LOL, I still have a crayon picture I drew in 1955 of my trip to the zoo.

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques