[ale] Engineering Archaeology

[Jon "maddog" Hall]

Crayons are basically wax too, and suffer the same fate if the writing gets
too hot.

You really can't win...back to "rm -rf"

I did that one time and it was going along fine until the "rmdir" command
was deleted.....things went downhill from there.😂



md

On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 11:22 AM lollipopman691 via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:

> OTOH, wax and stylus still works. At least until it gets too hot.
>
>
> https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/newly-discovered-ancient-roman-writing-tablets-provide-snapshots-roman-era-020857
>
>
>    - CHS
>
>
> On Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 at 10:42 PM, Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale <
> ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
> Sorry, but as an archivist I can vouch for the fact that the simple use of
> crayons alone is not good enough. You need archival quality paper, or
> better yet, crayon on some type of stable stone. Modern day acid-washed
> paper falls apart after only a few decades.
>
> On the other hand, have you ever taken a good look at ancient stone
> tablets? Some are really hard to read....
>
> On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 8:00 PM Jim Kinney via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>
>> You just nailed it.
>>
>> Crayon
>> THE backup tool
>>
>> Hahahaha!!!
>>
>> --
>> James P. Kinney III
>>
>> Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
>> gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own
>> tail. It won't fatten the dog.
>> - Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain
>>
>>
>> *http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
>> <http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/>*
>>
>> On Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 6:42 PM Steve Litt via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> 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
>>>
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