Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Time Capsule That Went Through A Wall ...

Posted by Cliff on from the confuse-the-heck-out-of-the-next-generation dept.

Samrobb asks: "My wife and I are just finishing remodeling a 150-year-old farm house, and as it turns out, we have some dead space behind one of the walls in the wiring closet. We'd like to seal up something in there for the next owner to discover -- kind of a personal time capsule. I was thinking of pictures, a newspaper, that sort of thing, until my wife suggested burning the deCSS source on a CD and tossing it in :-) That got me wondering -- what else could we put in there to make someone a hundred years down the road go 'What the ...???' Any suggestions?" Man! I wish I could find a house with a lot of little crannies like these!

6 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. I like this... by Doug+McNaught · · Score: 2
    ... my wife suggested burning the deCSS source on a CD and tossing it in.

    You have a cool wife!

    -Doug

  2. Stuff by Admiral+Burrito · · Score: 2

    Some stuff...

    • A dollar bill in some sort of plastic cover. By the time it's discovered $20 coins will be pocket change and a $1 bill will seem odd.
    • A bottle of hard stuff. Most booze gets better with age. Don't bother with wine as it will go bad unless it's really well bottled. Who knows, alcohol might even be illegal when it gets found (if history repeats).
    • Genetic material. No, not to clone yourself. :) Seeds and stuff. By the time they're found those plants may be extinct or re-engineered.
    • A computer mouse. Only because someone will probably pick it up like a microphone and say "hello computer" :) [Star Trek IV reference].

    And other things I can't think of right now.

  3. Re:CD readable after 100 years? by Detritus · · Score: 2

    I wouldn't expect a laptop to last 100 years. Capacitors dry out, metal contacts corrode, lubricants evaporate and become gummy, plastics crack and become brittle. I used to fix old tube hi-fi equipment from the 1950s that had been in storage for decades. I almost always had to replace the power cord and all of the electrolytic capacitors.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  4. some ideas... by dlc · · Score: 2

    Here is what I came up with...

    • a copy of the GPL (printed on something water resistant);
    • A copy of Windows 2000 -- might be the last piece of software Micro$oft puts out before the breakup;
    • A copy of the US's stupid encryption/export laws so future generations can marvel at our stupidity and ass-backwardsness;
    • A CD holding all of Paul McCartney's songs in MP3 format;
    • deCSS source is a great idea (you have a cool wife);
    • how about a 100-base hub and a big-ass fileserver? ;)

    darren


    Cthulhu for President!
    --
    (darren)
  5. Hmmm.. by technos · · Score: 2

    Having lived in/renovated/torn up several old houses/hotels/barns, I can gleefully tell you that pocket change is always the most exciting find. (Pulling a jar of Flying Eagles out of a plaster wall is bliss!) It may only be three or four bucks now, but to whoever finds it in near-mint 100 years down the road it won't be.

    Another good one is 'dated' print. Technical manuals and newspapers. Imagine some tech-head in 2075 finding a book on Unix, or some gear-head flipping through the Detroit Free Press and seeing the 'new 2000' models his father was too young to drive.

    If you wanted to put music in there, I'd opt for LP. Speaking as someone with a RCA Victorola in his living room, I don't think the ability to play them will die off anytime soon. It can be reduced to just a pencil, a straightpin, and a rolled up bit of paper, after all. You might consider a set of directions for playing it that way. Or include the items to do it with.

    --
    .sig: Now legally binding!
  6. A cross-section of "Geek Life" by Cid+Highwind · · Score: 3

    How about throwing in:
    1: A twinkie (they'll last forever)
    2: A can of JOLT cola
    3: Printouts (on acid-free paper) of the day's User Friendly and/or Penny Arcade strips
    4: A printout of the /. main page
    5: MP3s of some current music
    6: The Bill Of Rights, the DMCA and the DeCSS lawsuits (the contradictions will have legal scholars puzzled for years!)
    7: Any .com stock certificate
    8: A gun (they'll probably be illegal by the time the capsule is opened)
    9: A hard drive (or ZIP drive if you're short on $$) containing Linux, GCC and the source code to PGP, GPG, and any other good "stong" crypto.
    10: Documentation of the EIDE or SCSI interface for the drive.

    --
    0 1 - just my two bits