9 ms·

I'm the same way. I can read my ascii files from the early 90's. Old msworks, corel, etc files... not so much. Maybe you'll be able to read your OneNote files c

by howeyc 11y ago

I'm the same way. I can read my ascii files from the early 90's. Old msworks, corel, etc files... not so much. Maybe you'll be able to read your OneNote files created today in a decade or two, I don't know. I've actually been shifting personal files (less Excel if I can, as an example) to more text-based, or at least much simpler file formats when I can because I worry about this sort of thing. I'm a little different that way, perhaps I shouldn't be, and I should be fine not being able to read a file I created over a decade ago. Perhaps the newer cloud-based apps will always "auto-upgrade" your files/documents for you now (MS Office is pretty good at backwards-compatible files, and reading older versions, but Microsoft seems an outlier in this regard, to me anyway)? I guess we'll find out.

idm 11y ago
Bit rot, in one form or another, has been causing trouble since we started doing this computer thing. I have nightmares about my thoughts being stored on a punchcard but having no punchcard readers to read my own thoughts.
- PhantomGremlin 11y ago
  my thoughts being stored on a punchcard but having no punchcard readers to read my own thoughts A single punched card?[1] That's only 80 chars, very low density, not much room for any nuance in any given thought. As to information retrieval, punched cards are very easily decoded by hand, without a reader. I used punched cards IRL as a student, and I had to decode occasionally when there was a problem with the printing on the card. Not a big deal. The real "nightmares" came about when you punched a program, trudged down to the computer center, read it in, and then waited anywhere between 5 minutes and 24 hours before the computer operator took a bunch of output from the line printer, separated the individual jobs, and placed the output in racks for you to retrieve. And then you found out you had a syntax error. One plus side was that, since this took so much time, you learned to take a little care in writing your program and in checking it for typos before submitting it. That sort of discipline turns out to be quite useful in many activities in later life. On another plus side, the cards were made of relatively thick paper, and there was only printing on one side. So the flip side of an unpunched card was absolutely great for writing little notes. Those, sadly, are just about the only "plus sides" I can think of for punched cards. Fortunately I've never ever had any nightmares about those days. :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

by howeyc 11y ago

idm 11y ago

Bit rot, in one form or another, has been causing trouble since we started doing this computer thing. I have nightmares about my thoughts being stored on a punchcard but having no punchcard readers to read my own thoughts.

PhantomGremlin 11y ago
my thoughts being stored on a punchcard but having no punchcard readers to read my own thoughts A single punched card?[1] That's only 80 chars, very low density, not much room for any nuance in any given thought. As to information retrieval, punched cards are very easily decoded by hand, without a reader. I used punched cards IRL as a student, and I had to decode occasionally when there was a problem with the printing on the card. Not a big deal. The real "nightmares" came about when you punched a program, trudged down to the computer center, read it in, and then waited anywhere between 5 minutes and 24 hours before the computer operator took a bunch of output from the line printer, separated the individual jobs, and placed the output in racks for you to retrieve. And then you found out you had a syntax error. One plus side was that, since this took so much time, you learned to take a little care in writing your program and in checking it for typos before submitting it. That sort of discipline turns out to be quite useful in many activities in later life. On another plus side, the cards were made of relatively thick paper, and there was only printing on one side. So the flip side of an unpunched card was absolutely great for writing little notes. Those, sadly, are just about the only "plus sides" I can think of for punched cards. Fortunately I've never ever had any nightmares about those days. :) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card