Slashdot Mirror
Software Archaeology
Plug1 writes "Salon (day pass needed) has an article about preserving software for historical purposes. It discusses source code archiving, and the effect the DMCA is having on attempts to catalog and analyze legacy code. It will be a shame if in the future a wealth of information is locked away because knoweldge of the underlying technology is lost."
This would explain the pyramids, if in the past IP laws of ancient cultures prevented sharing of ideas.
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Archive
It's the burning of the library of Alexandria all over again. This time, on the fires of corporate profit. Just remember, as we slide into another dark age, you're the ones that used Microsoft Office!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Yeah, and every copy of it I ever saw had been pirated.
This article reminds me of a joke one of my CS professors told us (I hope I remember it right):
The year was 2015. Joe, a programmer, was getting up in years and decided he wanted to have his body frozen after he died. He made the arrangements, and when the time came, he was frozen and placed in a government facility. Time passed, and he was forgotten.
Jump ahead a few centuries... suddenly Joe finds himself conscious again! He is on a lab table surrounded by strange looking people in uniforms. Their leader, speaking through a translator, welcomes Joe back to life.
Joe is amazed! There are so many questions he wants to ask, but first he says, "Why did you bring me back to life?"
The leader answers, "Well, the year is 9999. Y10k is coming up, and your file says you know Cobol."
After all, in five years Salon.com may be gone from the web, and since neither Google nor the Internet Archive have a paid subscription, this story will be forever lost to the ages.
So kudos for reposting this valuable information to Slashdot! Without the efforts of others like you, internet surfers in generations to come might never understand the importance of, well, the efforts of others like you.