Data Archeology
2003-08-09 01:50:35.808655+00 by
Dan Lyke
2 comments
So I didn't find the file I'd hoped to run across, one with messages from at least as far ago as 1992, but in preparation to throwing a whole bunch of crap out I did fire up a few 10 year old hard drives (which worked! mostly...) and copy some stuff off. Now I'm stuck with the ethical issues of "I wonder how those people would feel about having their writing show up on the web a decade later?"
But for giggles, see naive Chattanoogans talk about a Chattanooga public network. More, and more. As Mike and I were running a TBBS![[Wiki]](/adbanners/lookingglass.png)
based system and getting frustrated with committees, frustration which eventually lead to Mike's infamous "...and we'll have 60 days to pay the invoice..." comment leading to our real-time connection.
See Dan riffing on the joys of "PIMP", a TBBS add-in that let us run UUCP email back up into the net, while we were downloading a complete Usenet feed, 2 times a day, over a 9600 baud satellite link. Or Dan prostletyzing Linux over TBBS in 1995.
I've left out my note announcing my intent to move out to the Bay Area and work for Pixar because it's inextricably entwined with the lives of people, some of whom I haven't talked to for years, who bared their souls to each other and me on some of those Fido echos.
And I'm not sure how much to save, there's lots that just seems irrelevant now, and I'll never have time to go back and catalog it. Wish I'd found that one file, but... oh well.
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#Comment Re: [Entry #6414] Data Archeology made: 2003-08-13 01:21:03.795594+00 by:
Larry Burton
Dan Lyke wrote:
> So I didn't find the file I'd hoped to run across, one with messages
> from at least as far ago as 1992, but in preparation to throwing a whole
> bunch of crap out I did fire up a few 10 year old hard drives (which
> worked! mostly...) and copy some stuff off. Now I'm stuck with the
> ethical issues of "I wonder how those people would feel about having
> their writing show up on the web a decade later?"
How did *I* feel about my writing poping up on the web a decade later? I
found it extremely interesting. Wow, was I that clueless about how this
stuff worked back then?
A ten year old hard drive's worth of data ought to fit nicely on a CD.
You ought to at least put it on a CD, drop the CD in a file folder and
drop it in a file drawer.
> I've left out my note announcing my intent to move out to the Bay Area
> and work for Pixar <http://www.pixar.com/> because it's inextricably
> entwined with the lives of people, some of whom I haven't talked to for
> years, who bared their souls to each other and me on some of those Fido
> <http://www.flutterby.com/wiki/Fido> echos.
There were some people that were really torn up over your move. Looking
back on it your moving off probably got me even more interested in the
technology on a personal level than I was while you were still in
Chattanooga. Between mail lists and this website it taught me that
distance didn't really matter as much as it once did. That understanding
has become even more important to me when I found out that I'd be
leaving Chattanooga also.
Save all that data, Dan. You never know when it might be important to you.
--
Regards,
Larry Burton
#Comment Re: Data Archeology made: 2003-08-13 15:44:02.798446+00 by:
Dan Lyke
I just discovered a way I might be able to get a little more back, and as much of a pain as it is I think I'll be making one more try for that.
What really strikes me about that is remembering what it's like to be pushing the edges of tech. Todd and I were talking about MMORPGs and then project management for a while, but I don't have that same sense of the unexplored going on now. It's just me one evening hacking out an NNTP syndicator, but I don't have that same sense of possibility right now, and I'd really like to get it back.
Don't know where it's going, weblogging has entered its own eternal September and I'm not sure what the possibilities are for opening up discussions again.