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National Archives' Digital Woes
Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "The National Archives, entrusted to preserve America's official history, will have to handle roughly 100 million emails from the Bush White House, up from 32 million during the Clinton years, according to the Wall Street Journal. 'The rapid adoption of electronic communications technology in the last decade has created a major crisis for the Archives,' the Journal reports. 'For one thing, the amount of data to be preserved has exploded in recent years, thanks to the proliferation of high-tech tools such as personal computers and wireless email devices such as BlackBerries. At the same time, technology is becoming obsolete so fast that electronic documents created today may not be legible on tomorrow's devices, the equivalent of trying to play an eight-track tape on an iPod.' The director of the Electronic Records Archives Program tells the Journal, 'We don't want to turn into a Cyber-Williamsburg, a place that keeps old technologies alive.'"
"The National Archives, entrusted to preserve America's official history, will have to handle roughly 100 million emails from the Bush White House,.." Thanks to the Patriot Act, this number will be reduced to roughly four, including one such email with a complelling advertisement for V14GR4!!!!!!11
I think the problem is they are trying to store the records on 8-tracks.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
This is the Bush administration we're talking about. They all use HTML mail with lots of attached graphics. On top of that, many messages get forwarded hundreds of times.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Well, if the technology that uses the emails is exploding, surely the software/systems that archive the software are too.
A couple of BSD box's with some Oracle or similar should do it.
Me failed English...
FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
The article mention playing eight-track tapes on an iPod. Does any have the link to that ultimate retro mod? Does it come with a Saturday Night Live dance cover?
Stick it all on one box, then install p2p software. Name all the files to song titles and it'll spread even faster. (Of course, the RIAA might go after John W. Doe...)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Yea, there is something your not seeing. The fact of the matter is they are talking about STORING the saved data. Not opening it.
Good job on getting modded well. Anytime someone says "Open Source it" They get modded pretty well.
Good job.
Yay, I have a sig.
I'd love to read those emails, seeing as how we've gone from:
From: bclinton@whitehouse.gov
To: hclinton@whitehouse.giv
CC: agore@whitehouse.gov; tgore@whitehouse.gov; monica04329@yahoo.com; ltripp@weightwatchers.com;
Subject: omglol, you got to get me some of these!
I want these for Christmas! http://www.big-fat-cigars.com/
To something along the lines of:
From: gbushjr@whitehouse.gov
To: dickc@whitehouse.giv
CC: crice@whitehouse.gov; jbush@whitehouse.gov; lbush@whitehouse.gov; urnotapuppet@gmail.com; osamab@msn.com; cpowell@hotmail.com;
Subject: Are they for real? Can we attack them too?
Subject sayz it all, any toughts Dick? I think we can git `em.
> DYKE BOURDER OIL SERVIES
> OFFER FOR SALE OF NIGERIAN CRUDE OIL
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> I am President of blah blah blah...
I like big butts and I cannot lie.
rm -rf /
Clinton only sent two emails during his entire 8 years in office.
"His administration generated about 40 million messages - mostly memos and notes among aides and cabinet members. Of the two Mr Clinton sent, one was a test to see if the president could push an e-mail button. The other was addressed to astronaut John Glenn"
That shouldn't be hard to archive.
(on a slightly related note, I wonder what percentage of those are/were spam, and if they have to archive all those spam messages for online poker and hot wet bitches?)
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Monks have done an amazing job preserving important documents over the years. In fact, Xerox worked with Brother Dominic in the field of document preservation. Print out all the e-mails on archive quality paper and store them underground. Be sure they are also translated in Spanish so future Americans will be able to read them.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
That's not much at all. And that's if you store it uncompressed.
And any compression routine will immediately tokenize the long heavily repeated phrases: "September 11, 2001", "Global War on Terror", "aid and comfort to the enemy", "America's will is strong", "central front in the war on terror", "the American people are safer", "9/11", "we will prevail". There isn't a lot of entropy in this particular dataset.
They should experience how the latest version of Microsoft Office can help them better manage documents, organize workload, and collaborate with coworkers--not just from their desk, but from almost anywhere! Why? So that their system will deliver the features, options, and performance they need to maximize their productivity and enjoyment, to insure that their software is authentic, properly licensed and supported by Microsoft or a trusted partner, so that they will get access to updates, enhancements, and innovations that help them protect and do more with their PC! In conclusion, If you don't believe that Microsoft Office has REAL Ultimate Power you better get a life right now or they will chop your head off!!! It's an easy choice, if you ask me.
I know, I know, I know!! Why don't they use Google Desktop!!?
-- Would it be acceptable to just put my name on my sig?