[ih] FTP RIP

[Noel Chiappa]

    > From: Jack Haverty

    > I lost my own packrat stash when I failed to find a way to move info
    > from Dectapes to a more modern medium.

Oh, you didn't pitch them, did you? There are a couple of people in the
classic computer community who have working DECTape drives. (I have a TU56
and TC11 controller, but don't have them working yet.) So if you still
have them they could be read. Ditto for RK packs, etc, etc.

    > the message archives Noel has saved for almost 50 years.

Err, I didn't save them for the whole 50 years! About 10 years ago, I noticed
that stuff that _used_ to be available on the Web had started to disappear.

(There was one particular list archive which the person hosting it had taken
down because they had developed an objection to it. I can't remember which
list it was now; it was something from the early commercialization of the
Internet. Maybe something about email?)

So I went out and scarfed up all the archives I could find for lists which I
remembered as early and important, and which seemed to me to be in danger of
going offline. (As in, hosted by individuals, not institutions.) The Internet
Archive was, IIRC, a big help; I had old URLs for some things which weren't
up anymore, but the IA came through.

A lot has gone, though, sigh; e.g. the DARPA Internet group had a list, one
whose archives would be invaluable to historians of technology, but I think
they are gone (although if institutions still have backup tapes from that
era, perhaps they could be recovered).

Speaking of which, Lars has found a copy of the two earliest Hearer-Prople
archives (the ones I'm missing) on ITS backup tapes at the MIT Archives, and
I'll be working on getting them released so they can be put up. Thanks, Lars!

	Noel