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Problems in Computer Conservation
sobachatina writes "The Computer museum at The University of Amsterdam has an interesting page with examples of the problems that they run into maintaining 20+ year old hardware such as rubber rollers from card readers melting or mold growing inside CRT terminals.I hate it when I get mold growing inside my monitor!"
This has never been a problem for the folks down at Not@Home cable internet servce.
Just check out their state-of-the-art equipment!
tcd004
I work as tech support, and the other day I opened up a computer case. I thought the dust bunny in there the size of my fist was a rat at first and figured it was about to jump out and bite me.
The problems for future computers are going to be worse! Ewwwww!
I'm fairly certain that enough particles have wafted in for some really nice little pot trees to be growing in my CPU by now...
I am Law! You are Crime!
They should stop running their webservers on the antique computers. Then they would last longer...and maybe they wouldn't be /.'d already.
Suck the air out of the exhibits and you'd probably be able to preserve those exhibits a little bit longer.
And if all else fails, take a picture and put it up when the original machine has fallen to pieces.
I have been pwned because my
Interestingly enough, the old technology is not considered the best, at least not as a backup medium. This is the thing most of the preservation efforts go and should go into.
:)
Admitted, paper lasts very long, there is enough ancient evidence
But look e.g. here http://www.osta.org/technology/cdqa13.htm,
they say that CD-Rs last 50-200 years(!)
Compare that to magnetic tapes, discs, etc.
But the final solution for very important data may well be the engraving into gold-plated aluminium, as the NASA did it for pioneer 10...
It seems that mechanically changed media (stones, CD recordables etc.) have the longest lifetime.
I've heard that some laptops are buggy.
*commence rotten tomato barrage*
I have been pwned because my
Just a few years ago. Not because It didn't do what I wanted it to. In fact I rather miss it because it was ideally suited to its task, but because various little mechanical bits of it started to get wonky and I couldn't find replacements.
I'll be able to custom build a replacement now with the new VIA stuff, and the replacement will undoubtably be "better" than the Compaq, but it's still just plain annoying to have to take a grand or so out of pocket to replace something that did it's job ( and that I only payed $50 for in the first place) and could have continued to do so ad infinitum had a few $5 parts been available.
And of course its basically working carcass is now sitting in some landfill because none of the local shops even considered it worth taking up space if I gave it to them for free.
And this could still be a continuing issue. One of the surest ways to force DRM "enabled" machines on the majority of the populace is to simply phase out the bits of the machines people already have making them impossible to keep going.
It might take 20 years, but businesses seem to find the patience they otherwise lack when it comes to ways to grind down the consumer to the level they desire.
KFG
I've solved my 'dirty keyboard' syndrome by purchasing black ones.
I used to put 'em through the dishwasher.
Works like a charm.
(just remember to remove the circuitry, m'kay?)
There have been some interesting discussions about this kind of thing on alt.computers.folklore recently; it might be worth checking out for those who want a more hard-core technical discussion. Myself I prefer to use emulators and avoid aging issues entirely, but then my apartment's too small to indulge in antique hardware...
o Keeping old hardware alive
o Keeping old CPU's alive
(In addition to this stuff, USENET of course has a number of groups dealing with specific older hardware.)
Hemp (the fiber of which used to make rope, and the leaves of which is used make hippies & the early BSD's) paper can last 1,500+ years
2. A museum should contain items that are interesting to others. How many would venture into a junkyard of mold computers to look at the "exhibits?"
I just took a postdoctoral position in the Netherlands, and my office is one floor above this Computer Museum, as I discovered only a couple weeks ago (and now I realise why my network connection has been slow for much of the day...). I think the exhibits are quite fascinating, and give enormous insight into how computing was done thirty years ago. It really gives one an appreciation for how much computing has changed---not merely the technology, but the approach to doing computer science. So there's one person anyway, though I didn't come to look at the mold in particular.
3. Perserving crap serves no purpose. Why not start a museum of Gremlins, Pintos, Festivas, Yugos... (See my other posts)
Well there's a brilliant argument. By that measure, historical (as opposed to artistic or natural) museums would be largely empty, precisely because most of the artifacts therein were perfectly ordinary, everyday items. What you call crap, may well be a priceless treasure for an archaeologist ten centuries hence, attempting to glean some insight into the dawn of the machine era. It seems laughable now, as it no doubt would if you had told a potter in the early Bronze age that is work would be considered a valuable treasure thousands of years hence.
Mouser
Okay, we WILL be leaving behind mountains of trash that future cultures will probably be mining for raw materials.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
sounds like the hampster powering the computer fell off it's wheel.
$cat
When I was a kid I found my dad's old (Texas Instruments, I think) calculator. It had a one line red VFD display and was almost the size of a brick (it weighed sligtly less). I also found a little book of magnetic strips (about the size of a stick of gum). The calculator had a little slot in the left and right sides. You could load "programs" into the calculator by inserting the strip in one side of the calculator and a little motor with a rubber wheel attached would pull it through and spit out the other side. If you were lucky, it had read the strip right and loaded your program.
Well, after about a dozen of these loads the little rubber wheel attached to the motor fell off, no more contact with the strips. I tried tons of things, tape, pieces of plastic, shaved down washers, nothing worked. I was quite sad when I had to throw it away, it was a fun little toy. I'm sure that now, being older, I could have fixed it. Maybe if I had kept it and fixed it I could still be using it to this day.
These things wear out and break down but I think if you have enough time, money and resources you could probably keep them going forever.. But, is it worth it? For me it would have been... for the sentimental value.
Geoffeg