Slashdot Mirror
How Google Saved USENET
Masem writes: "Salon has a well-written article article on the recent revival of much of the USENET archives from '81 to '90 by Google. It mentions that much of the recovery was thanks to years of work in transferring data off 140-some 10" magnetic tapes (~120megs of data) to a more conventional format in order to recover much of the early posts. Even a reference to the previous Slashdot story is made." Update: 01/07 23:52 GMT by T : btempleton adds: "O'Reilly Network asked me to do an article on similar themes and rememberances of USENET history." Thanks, Brad.
I think I speak for everyone when I say "Thank you Google for arming me with the information contained in old USENet posts to bring up embarassing teenage posts to my friends!"
thelocust[dot]org
Google Groups is awesome, especially when searching for some obscure piece of hardware advice or settings.
I don't have to worry about getting and setting up a news client, and it's just one tab over from my default search engine.
Google did save USENET for me - though I never post, searching through all the linux and comp newsgroups is usually faster than looking up a HOWTO.
As a software developer, no matter what problem I run into, somebody else has already run into that problem and has asked my question and recieved an answer on groups.google.com. Whenever I get stuck on anything at all, it's the first place I run to. groups.google.com is the single most useful site you can point your browser (konqueror!!!) towards. I'm not sure how they make money over there at google, but what a great service they are providing!
Check out my podcast: DreamStation.cc Video Game Show
An interesting thing about these tapes: They stretch over time and can sometimes become unreadable because of that. There are times when, to extract the information on the tape, I would put a number of them in my freezer for an hour or so, then try again. Nine times out of ten that would actually work.
Another note about the article: I can still remember discussions with others who had modems about 1200 baud being just "too fast". The reasoning was that the average person couldn't read much faster than 300 baud. :)
I know this is a repeat but this is a great read. Dr. Gene Spafford's farewell posting. If you don't know who that is, look it up.
n ews.groups,soc.net-people
:-)
===
From: spaf@cs.purdue.edu
Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.misc,news.admin.misc,
Subject: That's all, folks
Followup-To: poster
Date: 29 Apr 1993 19:01:12 -0500
Message-ID:
[ I originally was going to post nothing on this topic. I'm burned
out, and I don't want my fatigue to appear like I'm posting
self-indulgent garbage. However, several people have argued with
me, and convinced me that maybe I should make a statement to "end an
era," and as a piece of net "history." At the least, even if it is
perceived as self-indulgent garbage, it will fit right in with the
rest of the net. ]
There is a Zen adage about how anything one cannot bear to give up is
not owned, but is in fact the owner. What follows relates how I am
owned by one less thing....
About a dozen years ago, when I was still a grad student at Georgia
Tech, we got our first Usenet connection (to allegra, then being run
by Peter Honeyman, I believe). I'd been using a few dial-in BBS
systems for a while, so it wasn't a huge transition for me. I quickly
got "hooked": I can claim to be someone who once read every newsgroup
on Usenet for weeks at a time!
After several months, I realized that it was difficult for a newcomer
to tell what newsgroups were available and what they covered. I made
a pass at putting together some information, combined it with a
similar list compiled by another netter, and began posting it for
others to use. Eventually, the list was joined by other documents
describing net history and information.
In April of 1982 (I believe it was -- I saved no record of the year,
but I know it was April), I began posting those lists regularly,
sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly; the longest break was for 4
months a few years ago when I was recovering from pneumonia and poor
personal time management. (Tellingly, only a few people noticed the
lack of postings, and almost all the mail was "When will they come
out?" rather than "Did something happen?") As time went on, people
began to attach far more significance to the posts than I really
intended. It was flattering for a very short time, and a burden for
most of the rest; there is no telling how much time I have devoted
over the last decade to answering questions, editing the postings, and
debating the role of newsgroup naming, to cite a few topics. I really
tired of being a "semi-definitive" voice.
Starting several years ago, at about the time people started pushing
for group names designed to offend or annoy others, or with a lack of
concern about the possible effects it might have on the net as a whole
(e.g., rec.drugs and comp.protocols.tcp-ip.eniac) I began to question
why I was doing the postings. I have had a growing sense of futility:
people on the net can't possibly find the postings useful, because
most of the advice in them is completely ignored. People don't seem
to think before posting, they are purposely rude, they blatantly
violate copyrights, they crosspost everywhere, use 20 line signature
files, and do basically every other thing the postings (and common
sense and common courtesy) advise not to. Regularly, there are postings
of questions that can be answered by the newusers articles, clearly
indicating that they aren't being read. "Sendsys" bombs and forgeries
abound. People rail about their "rights" without understanding that
every right carries responsibilities that need to be observed too, not
least of which is to respect others' rights as you would have them
respect your own. Reason, etiquette, accountability, and compromise
are strangers in far too many newsgroups these days.
I have finally concluded that my view of how things should be is too
far out-of-step with the users of the Usenet, and that my efforts are
not valued by enough people for me to invest any more of my energy in
the process. I am tired of the effort involved, and the meager --
nay, nonexistent -- return on my volunteer efforts.
This hasn't happened all at once, but it has happened. Rather than
bemoan it, I am acting on it: the set of "periodic postings" posted
earlier this week was my last. After 11 years, I'm hanging it up.
David Lawrence and Mark Moraes have generously (naively?) agreed to
take over the postings, for whatever good they may still do. David
will do the checkgroups, and lists of newsgroups and moderators
(news.lists), and Mark will handle the other informational postings
(news.announce.newusers).
I'm not predicting the death of the Usenet -- it will continue without
me, with nary a hiccup, and six months from now most users will have
forgotten that I did the postings...those few who even know now, that
is. That is as it should be, I suspect. Nor am I leaving the
Usenet entirely. There are still a half-dozen groups that I read
sometimes (a few moderated and comp.* groups), and I will continue to
read them. That's about it, though. I've gone from reading all the
groups to reading less than ten. Funny, though, the total volume of
what I read has stayed almost constant over the years.
My sincere thanks to everyone who has ever said a "thank you" or
contributed a suggestion for the postings. You few kept me going at
this longer than most sane people would consider wise. Please lend
your support to Mark and David if you believe their efforts are
valuable. Eventually they too will burn out, just as the Usenet has
consumed nearly everyone who has made significant contributions to its
history, but you can help make their burden seem worthwhile in
between.
In closing, I'd like to repost my 3 axioms of Usenet. I originally
posted these in 1987 and 1988. In my opinion as a semi-pro
curmudgeon, I think they've aged well:
Axiom #1:
"The Usenet is not the real world. The Usenet usually does not even
resemble the real world."
Corollary #1:
"Attempts to change the real world by altering the structure
of the Usenet is an attempt to work sympathetic magic -- electronic
voodoo."
Corollary #2:
"Arguing about the significance of newsgroup names and their
relation to the way people really think is equivalent to arguing
whether it is better to read tea leaves or chicken entrails to
divine the future."
Axiom #2:
"Ability to type on a computer terminal is no guarantee of sanity,
intelligence, or common sense."
Corollary #3:
"An infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of keyboards
could produce something like Usenet."
Corollary #4:
"They could do a better job of it."
Axiom #3:
"Sturgeon's Law (90% of everything is crap) applies to Usenet."
Corollary #5:
"In an unmoderated newsgroup, no one can agree on what constitutes
the 10%."
Corollary #6:
"Nothing guarantees that the 10% isn't crap, too."
Which of course ties in to the recent:
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea --
massive, difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a
source of mind-boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect
it." --spaf (1992)
"Don't sweat it -- it's not real life. It's only ones and zeroes."
-- spaf (1988?)
--
Gene Spafford, COAST Project Director
Software Engineering Research Center & Dept. of Computer Sciences
Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398
Internet: spaf@cs.purdue.edu phone: (317) 494-7825
===
Ye Gods!
The modern slashdot nerd trembles in the presence of those ancient USENET nerds of old
A 300 pound slashdot weakling is easily flung aside by the 500 pound USENET god. Who at slashdot keeps taped archives of every post for the nerds of future generations? Truly those were nerds.
i'm a tad concerned about the posts i made in the early 90's when i was an asshole know it all teenager coming back to haunt me... i wish google never uncovered those... i cringe when i read them now...
In a major university, and I decided to honor his
.. alt.emacs, here I come.
soul and follow his foot steps.
And now, thanks to google, I find myself battling
the flame wars he started.
Better go back and do him and VI and honor
I am sorry they will allow requestors to delete their own postings. While we might wish it otherwise, 10, 20, 50 years later, this may be the real historical value. To purge, seems the equivalent of having a letter to the editor removed from newspaper archives.
To those who feel like "they are walking around with their baby picture stapled to their forehead", we all mature. What I thought at 20, 30, and 40 show how I grew. What other archive in human history can provide the transitional opinions, discussions, and outright imbecilic flames wars?
While we would hate to have someone pull out our post in support of the flat earth theory, to act as though we all believed the earth was round is rewriting history. Convenient for us, but misleading to the future.
The question now becomes, what happens after Google and Slashdot, when the archive is tera-bytes large? Will it take 100 years for the next conversion?
The first "me too" post isn't until two years into the archive. I suppose that says something about the intelligence of the usenet demographic back then.
--
Three tapes for rec.singles desperate
Seven for alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork
Nine for comp.sci compiling late
One for Google's engine dark
In their Linux cluser where the shadows lie.
One engine to search them all, one engine to bind them
One engine to index them all and in the darkness find them
In Google's cluster where the shadows lie.
Carousel is a lie!
How Slashdot Saved Salon
I think google should be paid just for being so damn cool. They deserve spontaneous income for things like the groups (with the history they now have), having a '1337-h4x0r' language you can use (http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/), changing their banner for special days (anyone else see the christmas thing?)...
:)
There's a lot of companies right now that should be punished for doing stupid things, but Google is the complete opposite; I'd like to see Microsoft, the RIAA, and the MPAA have to donate 20% of their money to google
They that quote Benjamin Franklin on liberty and safety deserve neither.
"Ashton-Tate is once again pushing its case for a copyright on the programming language used in DBase. ".
And the numerous silly patents, such as
'Emacs is threatened by IBM patent number 4,674,040 which covers "cut and paste between files" in a text editor. Many Emacs features are threatened by patent number 4,458,311, which covers "text and numeric processing on same screen." Patent 4,398,249 covering the general spreadsheet technique known as "natural order recalc" stops us from using it in GNU '
--
Allot of the good gurus are moving over to slash ran message forums. Talking to a guy who is a perl guru, he has moved most of his perl help requests from usenet to Perl Mongers. I've been seeing this trend in the last few years, as independent subjects are moving over to a website based web forums. I even spend more time reading 5 mailing lists and a dozen message forums, and dont touch usenet anymore.
With these message forums and mailing lists not linked to a usenet group, there is a lot of wasted knowledge that is not shared. I would love to see a slash-mod or some type of mailing list enhancement that posts a overview or some kind of daily message post to usenet.
The whole idea of usenet was knowledge sharing, not binaries and spam ads. Glad google has saved usenet, but some effort needs start using it again.
Humm, Maybe Slashdot should enhance a usenet forum? Thou 5-20,000 posting a day on a usenet might be a little much. Maybe only 2+ posts make a moderated usenet group.
What happens to the archive when they're bought by someone else, or end up in bankruptcy court? Will it go the away of the online digital photo storing sites, vanishing one day without a trace, taking irreplaceable data -- data of immense academic historical interest -- with it?
Google should promise to donate the archive to the Library of Congress, do the transfer now, and make a social contract with the net community to turn over the reigns on this project if they're acquired or go out of business.