Rescued documentation issues

[Teo Zenios]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Oliver Lehmann" <lehmann at ans-netz.de>
To: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:02 PM
Subject: Re: Rescued documentation issues


> I like this way of thinking. Because imho making yourself depending on
> "higher technology" like a computer to get valuable information as a
> desaster plan seems weird to me.
>

We are talking about old and obsolete machines. If some day in the future 
the world has blown up and working computers are no longer easy to find I 
think you will have other more pressing issues to work on other then getting 
a 1970's machine up and running (especially when the computer controlled 
power grid is gone).

The whole point about preserving history is to show how something started 
and progressed to what we have today. Sometimes we have dead ends because of 
the lack of technology to keep going down a specific path, that can change 
down the road and we might be able to pick up where we left off. Why 
reinvent the wheel if you can look it up. For example maybe 100 years from 
now a key material used in the manufacturing of LCD's might be used up and 
we might have to go back to CRT's until something else comes out. Do you 
think anyone will remember how they used to make CRTs without some known 
examples, tech notes, etc? Anybody that used to make those tubes would be 
dead, and any company that quit making them most likely junked all their 
documentation decades before.