December 2017 - vcf-midatlantic

Could a Blockchain based file system be the answer!
by Herb Johnson 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

First, responding to comments to my comments. Clearly I know nothing about bitchain and torrent, so I won't comment further on those technologies. "Herb is curmudgeonly about this" - acknowledged, I did call myself "stone-age" for a reason. "hammer looking for a nail" seems to be an acknowledged call. My comment on the Internet Archive was misread a bit. It collects the first few "layers" of Web content - not all of a site's files are preserved. Hence "wide not deep". If that changes, bless 'em and our good fortune. On the issues - which to me are about content and acquisition. The discussion is about technical methods and their merits. That's fine. A claimed motivation is "lost archives", which is or was an issue. Many online archives become replicated now, some people like doing that, they often claim "duplication is preservation". Replication solves the problem. As on-line technology is getting cheaper and faster and bigger - I'm just not worried about the technical details or costs; for others that's their interests, and that's fine. My worries, and Dave McGuire and others echos these, are motivating *people* - to preserve content in the first place, to contribute to those who ARE preserving and who need support ($$$, show-of-interest, provide more content). I also worry about archiving institutions; they have merits and issues, that's another discussion. And I worry about "curation" - how to represent a thing, give it a context, a history. As Dave McGuire said, short-attention and narrow interests are problems. Blockchain doesn't help us with block-heads, or about simple ignorance of the past, or with efforts to acquire and digitize. Or, with preserving artifacts and not just content. (shrug) but those are other discussions. Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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D-I-Y slide rule display case
by Jeffrey Jonas 22 Dec '17

22 Dec '17

How to show off slide rules in style! http://www.stefanv.com/calculators/a-display-case-for-my-slide-rule-collect…

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Re: Digest, Vol 26, Issue 19, BlockChain Filing / Akin to Bitsavers
by svcatitc＠aol.com 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

To The Guys: Degan, Jonas, Johnson and Oprysko. And all others listening and interested. In a non related search of other stuff, I came across this, which I had not seen originally on the News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/video/an-archive-preserving-the-fragile-history-of-the-… It shows what is being done out in CA, concerning constructing a complete digital library archive of the human knowledge, formidable task to be sure, and addresses (not yet completely solved) how to access the knowledge base in "50 let alone 500 years". The technology we all play in is so fragile! Both hardware and software!!! Runs 10min with a intro advert for a Broadway production of Shakespeare's Farinelli and the King that you have to sit through. Bill Inderrieden

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Could a Blockchain based file system be the answer!
by Herb Johnson 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

> Internet Archive and the like are great resources, > and I support their works, but they are still a "cathedral entity." If they > disappear, we lose a LOT! If for some unfortunate reason they collapse, > we're stuck with a lot of rebuilding of the archive as a community. > Volunteers keeping torrents would not only distribute many recoverable > duplicates of the overall content, but will also allow for a quick recovery > of the whole. I don't understand "torrents", and don't need to. They seem to amount to copying and Web distribution of archived content in an active real-time way. Seems to me, there's no shortage of people who are obsessed with copying vintage archives and making them available - their way. Whatever technology they choose to that end, is up to them. That said, others say "I won't bother to obtain this manual, someone else has preserved it". A problem of excess. And access to Web servers has never EVER been cheaper - skip some business lunches and pay for a year. (Funding was part of the original post.) Ask some users to donate some dollars - and we as users *should* make those contributions, to guard against the "fall of the Cathedral". Note: the Internet Archive "is a mile wide and an inch deep". It doesn't save enough, for the purposes of this discussion. Torrents, blockchain, distributed file systems - all "hammers" looking for a "nail", in my opinion as an engineer among other engineers. I'm scanning manuals and making them available, thank you, and I have my own tools. When my "cathedral" falls, the people who got my content, will resurrect it; and I may provide for other "cathedrals" too; and for what was in mine. Thanks for reminding me of this issue. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net

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Strange 8" drive
by Herb Johnson 21 Dec '17

21 Dec '17

>>> Matt Patoray >>> I was looking at an issue of RCA "Broadcast News" from December 1975,... >>> picture of the main rack mount unit shows an 8" floppy drive,.... Page 52 of the PDF (50 of the magazine) shows a photo of a floppy drive with a simple lever for a drive-eject. Probably a hard-sectored drive, produced by one of any number of 8-inch drive manufacturers of the mid-1970's. I "cover" the oldest floppy drives and controllers on my Web site, because Dr Gary Kildall and Dr. John Torode produced a floppy controller running CP/M in early 1974. The natural question is, what other floppy controllers were around at that time? They were non-microprocessor based controllers, intended for minicomputers or the earliest microprocessors. http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/first_floppy.html Sykes and ICOM and others produced drives and controllers in the era. A look through ComputerWorld or other computer-trade magazines of 1975 and earlier may find an identifying ad for the RCA-used floppy drive. Herb Johnson -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey in the USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net preserve, recover, restore 1970's computing email: hjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT com or try later herbjohnson AT retrotechnology DOT info

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Strange 8" drive
by Matt Patoray 20 Dec '17

20 Dec '17

I was looking at an issue of RCA "Broadcast News" from December 1975, in it they show the RCA Video IV CG system for broadcast television use. A picture of the main rack mount unit shows an 8" floppy drive, the likes of which I have never seen. I will try and attach a picture of the drive. Any help would be appreciated. [image: Inline image 1] -- Matt Patoray Owner, MSP Productions KD8AMG

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Could a Blockchain based file system be the answer!
by Joseph Oprysko 20 Dec '17

20 Dec '17

In regards to the old media that needs to be digitized and stored for posterity, if there was a blockchain based file system, in conjunction with a crypto-currency token, I’m thinking that something like that could create a permanent and immutable storage-space, where all software is archived, and available for all time (or as long as computers are still a thing). If anyone has ideas or experience in working with blockchain code and building upon it, I believe that something like this could ensure that software doesn’t “disappear” again. Because even if someone had a server with copies of all of the old software, it still ends up as a single point of failure, if that machine gets wiped/hacked/etc. But having that same data-store on a distributed blockchain based file system, there no longer is that single point of failure. Even more robust than storing it on Google’s or Amazon’s storage. Yes, I know there are literally thousands of various crypto currencies out there, and if not marketed right, it could potentially fall by the wayside. The way I see this working on the file system level is that people will allocate a portion of their hard drive storage to the project. The people who allocated storage would be compensated over time with the crypto currency of the project. It would be an encrypted and possibly sandboxed storage subsystem, to prevent malicious software from affecting their machines. There may also be compensation when that data is accessed, regardless of if it’s a read or write. There would be multiple, identical copies of the various data spread across all of the machines in the network. That way if a machine is down, there are other sources for the file. This is really a rough idea at this point and likely needs significant “polishing” before the project is even to the starting gate. If there’s interest in pursuing a project like this, email me off list, and we’ll coordinate and communicate on either a different email list or some other platform. Thanks, Joe O. -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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Re:Digest, Vol 26, Issue 15 Message 2 "Adjunct to Bitsavers"
by svcatitc＠aol.com 20 Dec '17

20 Dec '17

This cannot be stressed enough to make today's data available, (AND READABLE) for the coming generations. This is continuing NEW news! PBS once had a (Frontline I think) piece on "Our Fading Past" in which the cameo presentation was on NOAA's 7 track tape data debacle. Nobody makes 7 track drives anymore and NOAA has had to resort to dredging (like we do) junkers from the boneyards, restoring them and getting them to read the old stored data. NOAA engineers devised a program to rewind the tape and reread the data if it found dropouts (of which there were many). The presentation showed rows of drives backing up and moving forward in the attempt at rescuing the "fading past". The back and forth movement of the drives trying to reread data was nicknamed "Maytagging" by NOAA engineers. THANK YOU Mr Jonas for reminding us of the importance. Bill Inderrieden Message: 2 Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2017 22:11:28 -0500 From: Jeffrey Jonas <jeffrey.scott.jonas(a)gmail.com> To: vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vintagecomputerfederation.org Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] adjunct to bitsavers and Library of Congress? Message-ID: <CAOCNM4TAcwrYWO+ADceF6wt6w7yuFuOUZGT_QxNz9146ctOpzQ(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" old news to us but good to see it in the spotlight: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/15/back-up-back-up-back-up.html A deep dive into the race to preserve our digital heritage [copying up data from old media, using virtual machines to emulate the required legacy operating system, applications and such to access the data formats]

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Apple IIGS for sale
by Joseph Oprysko 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

I am posting this for another person, it is not my machine, but I did check it out. Comes with: Apple IIGS ROM 1 Rev. with 1.25 MB RAM 4MB Memory Expansion card w/1mb SIMM Apple IIGS Memory Expansion Cards Apple Image Writer 2 Apple 3.5" Drive Apple Color RGB Monitor Apple Keyboard 658-4081 AppleDesign Keyboard M2980 All Manuals and Papers All cables & cords Includes boot disks and other software Extra sealed ribbons and pin-fed paper for printer If you’re interested, please email George at gemwmp(a)msn.com I believe he is asking $250 for the complete system, but I’m sure it would be negotiable. Joe O. -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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“Dial-Up” Lynx?
by Joseph Oprysko 19 Dec '17

19 Dec '17

I’m looking to setup a machine to use in conjunction with the WiFi232 modem, what I would like to be able to do is to dial/telnet into a local machine that will allow me to use a text web browser so I can browse websites from my vintage machines. I guess the other thing the machine I would dial into would need to do is to be able to cache on that machine then allow me to use xmodem/ymodem so I can download binary files. Anyone know what I would be able to use to do that? I know I could setup the telnetd on a Linux Box, but I don’t know how to transfer from a Linux box with modem protocols. Thanks, Joe O. (Never had to use my initials previously) -- Normal Person: Hey, it seems that you know a lot. Geek: To be honest, it's due to all the surfing I do. Normal Person: So you go surfing? Normal Person: But I don't think that has anything to do with knowing a lot... Geek: I think that's wrong on a fundamental level. Normal Person: Huh? Huh? What?

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