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The Issue Is Documented Open Standards
Whether it be 100 or 500 years from now, computers and other information storage devices will be radically different from today's. Heck, today's languages may not even exist; understanding modern English may be a field of classical literature akin to reading ancient Greek or Latin.

But if we leave behind detailed instructions on how to read these then-ancient files, they'll know what they're trying to extract and how to get to it. I seriously doubt that Microsoft and other proprietary software companies are carefully documenting their formats for the future (witness Microsoft's present difficulty in documenting their network protocols and APIs for the EU). Just thinking of that reminds me of the UserFriendly comic of the other day where Miranda and Sid are discussing a piece of ccode that Miranda had written. Sid's comment was that you couldn't tell what was regex expressions and what might be line noise.

Only documented, open standards will preserve this information for future generations.
Posted by: dumptux   Posted on: 07/03/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
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All of this Babble as an excuse to rant  No_Ax_to_Grind | 07/02/07
Did you even read the article?  Michael Kelly | 07/02/07
Read until I fell asleep  No_Ax_to_Grind | 07/02/07
It was very good reading, and points out a lot of the problems of  DonnieBoy | 07/02/07
A fancifull read, nothing more  John Zern | 07/02/07
Back up, back up, back up  LordLiverpool | 07/03/07
I agree 100% !  John Zern | 07/03/07
Best Practice; Move to New Media Types Regularly  dumptux | 07/03/07
Formats Should Worry You  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
The Issue Is Documented Open Standards  dumptux | 07/03/07
Not Really.  osreinstall | 07/03/07
Yes, Really  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
Never had a proprietary format problem.  osreinstall | 07/04/07
Microsoft Office is Only The Start  dumptux | 07/03/07
Standards can limit the immediate future  Patanjali | 07/03/07
Job getting you down ?  JeremyAllison | 07/03/07
How do you know?  Ole Man | 07/08/07
Histroy will always be the story told by  jacarter3 | 07/02/07
You've Never Studied "Lower Criticism", Have You?  dumptux | 07/03/07
Message has been deleted.  tracy anne | 07/04/07
Off Topic AND Off Kilter  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
Lower and Lowest;)  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
Did you learn your History from Cartoons?  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
Well, we will certainly have more archived from the current generation than  DonnieBoy | 07/02/07
Emulators and abandonware  scott1329 | 07/03/07
Borland Museum  tct | 07/03/07
Good article  Ivystung | 07/03/07
Not Necessarily So  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
They buried another...  Narg | 07/03/07
Birth, Marriage & Death Records (UK)  john.foggitt@... | 07/03/07
Which Reminds Me:  mejohnsn | 07/04/07
Cemetery 2.0  zmelkin | 07/03/07
Has a man ever been on the moon?  Mantvis | 07/09/07

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