Post

Could've used a cross on that zed

I’m pretty sure this is why half an hour ago me hides the remote.

Archives and also anything with the message "You have the right to request a copy of your data"

😍😍😍😍

My mother-in-law holds onto old tech for that reason. If she needs Win 98 or XP or needs a floppy or CD-ROM she has it.

read "ZOOS" as "2005"

Brings back memories from another time…

You can never have too much enrichment in your enclosure.

BBC announcer voiceover "Other nations' archivists are available"

Again no privacy?

Our head of libraries IT did have to create a defunct technology room for old computers that can read certain file formats, but we try not to inflict it on the researchers.

Smart.

xkcd is my one of my favorite web comics

This reminds me of how Foone ran into needing to use something odd to support a particular flavor of tiff image that was never supported by anything after win 98 (Or was this straight up inspired by that story? I'd believe that)

This makes me think of Musk’s young wunderkinder in his Doge gang not knowing the COBOL significance of using May 20,1875 as a placeholder date when the real birthday is unknown.

If the archive is being run by zookeepers who are modeling the year 2005, that would explain a lot about the technology we're forced to use.

I thought the same too.

Me too! 🤣

Windows takes great pains to make sure as much old software works as possible (a Microsoft employee wrote about it, e.g. making a specific memory allocator for Windows 3.1 SimCity in Win 95). The archivists work hard in subverting these measures in their software.

This made me laugh so hard. Thank you

*form

☠️☠️☠️☠️

God forbid. I ran one of those clunky f'ers in the 80's. We would draw straws to see who was the next victim.

A fax machine may be involved. Maybe punch cards for giggles.

Please use our BBS to file all requests.

I mean.... *I* would be entertained.

But what's the purpose of the zoo, and the animals..?

Seriously recommend keeping old Operating Systems as VMs. I regularly use 64bit Windows XP to maintain access to legacy software and models

Heard a story from someone who worked in Congress that some agencies would deliver legislatively required reports on encrypted CD, but that for security reasons the congresspeople could not put the CDs in their computers. Enrichment for congressional IT in between teaching 80 YOs how to use zoom

Updating the undocumented data schema, for improved .. user xp.

good job maintaining kayfabe, it keeps the researchers happy.

But it should be

I am a narcisstic smarty pants and noone can see through my projecting....

Lol

It was a scam lmao

I actually have a couple of Zip drives in the garage, but don't have an LPT1 or SCSI interface anymore. And I hear that USB adapters for them are inconsistent.

I’m happy to hear :)

The ultimate #HILT (Human In The Loop)? Thankfully still have a lot of years of paper records that #ChatGPT has not seen.

@heli.pet

Ha! Satire!!!

You're right... It does feel good to hold the physical formats, like the techbro equivalent of touching grass. Or the audiophile's vinyl record

Hahaha

Hah!

How very kafkaesque

When I had issues with one of my SSDs, I contacted support and they wanted me to install their approved software to do a SMART test (I already did one with another software but they wanted to make sure ig). Problem is their Linux version is garbage. This is why I still have a Windows boot drive lol

😂😂

Pavlov's bell but it's the old Windows startup sound.

I will always love you for the slime mold appreciation.

They could create a botnet of computers in academia and all kind of institutions easily.

counterpoint, gun

Randall’s been posting his handwriting on the internet for two decades. Let’s try not to make him self conscious about it now.

Perfect enrichment 😂💪🏼

Ah yes, proprietary formats: where data goes to retire. Nothing says ‘cutting-edge tech’ like needing Windows XP to decode a digital fossil. What’s next, dial-up support?

I read "zoos" as 2005

Any good excuse to use 86Box

😂

Prachtig! Dit sluit nagenoeg naadloos aan op onze toekomstvisie

cute how we all think the formats we store everything in now are the pinnacle and in a century they won't be cursing us for exactly this

I love the spirit of "because we can" that you get in free software projects. My favorite is "VLC can play movies as ASCII art" (#10 on the list). lifehacker.com/the-best-hid...

I recommend a felt snuffle ball for the dog or the academic in your life.

People have hacked Theme Hospital ans Transport tycoon to run on modern computers. I got through most of Star Control II whilst in Covid isolation.

I'm still not sure how possibly the nerdiest webcomic in the world doesn't use alt text on bluesky - is it missing from the API or something?

There's a magnus archives reference here some where

This is mis- information… From my Columbia Archive librarian: “They seem to offer digital scanning. Columbia does this for researchers too.” www.archives.gov/frc/smartscan

🤣

This triggered immediate imaginings of a block of ice full of frozen microfiche 🤣

I've started university this year and this is how doing real subject research feels

Please share widely: substack.com/home/post/p-...

Go see "The Day The Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie", in theaters March 14

Trump fired our National Archivist last week. That is an extremely important job!

It all adds to getting a better understanding of the original information. Very important for researchers. If they like it, or not. Choose your job wisely. 🙊🙈🙉

Things are already gone 😥. I tried reading this "coordinated raccoon attack" article. But it just sends you to a login for Fermi lab now www.fnal.gov/pub/today/ar...

Bruce Springsteen (well, not him personally) recorded shows from his 2002-03 tour in a then-new digital format which is already obsolete. They have only been able to recover and release the recording from one show, and that was done in 2018. www.nugs.net/10-05-2018-w...

Linux wine emulation ftw.

Yeah, just like zoos.

Melons minions everyday after daycare: youtu.be/vXYvQdQEt00?...

I liked XP, thought it was really solid. My parents had ME and it was such a pain to troubleshoot

I watched a sun bear find hidden fruit in the Ueno Park zoo once. It was delightful!

Enrichment is a critical part of what keeps Researchers thriving, without it they withdraw from their environment, many even stop applying for grants.

"archivists actually have everything in digital repos now" *grote bulderlach*

Look, those archives are at risk... distributing hard copies may be the only way to assure they don't disappear forever

This is real “Jerry from Rick and Morty” energy

I loved XP ,was so easy to use

Also the form is a plain text file that needs to be filled according to the syntax described in the header comment so it can be parsed by a perl script after upload.

Otherwise they just listlessly pace their cages.

I love the implication that Windows ME and 2000 are explicitly *not* supported.

Title text: "They just want researchers in the enclosure to feel enriched and stimulated. ('The Enclosure' is what archivists call the shadowy world outside their archives in which so many people are trapped.)" Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3052#Transcript

*Client waving contract* Hey, you have to provide us with 2 paper copies of the data, a 21-track reel-to-reel tape, 2 TIFFs at (72 and 300 dpi), a PDF, the raw HDF5 and an inscription on a grain of rice. The 72dpi TIF was missing from the data pack so we need a rebate for 50% of your invoice.

In 1992 I wrote to my MP asking why the "Income Support for Pensioners" form was 64 pages with insane questions like "Are you or your partner pregnant?" in it, I got back a 3 page single space 10 point font answer on foolscap from the Southampton form office explaining why they were right...

immediately thought of @philsalv.bsky.social reading this one