New CPC 464 owner needs help

[MacDeath]

These machines were still available till the early nineties IIRC. Another backup solution gem: print your data on paper, then sca them back. Seriously.

This is some sort of High Tech Punched card then.

[IanS]

These machines were still available till the early nineties IIRC. Another backup solution gem: print your data on paper, then sca them back. Seriously.

You can still do it. PaperBack

[Badstarr]

In a way the paper solution ain't half bad as a concept. If the data is printed onto ( or encoded onto) something with a bit more longevity it could be a good way to preserve precious data, albeit in very small chunks. I know it's unlikely to ever happen but if our CPC softwares starts to disappear in 200 years time due to some Armageddon virus that wipes out the Internet and anything connected to it, future CPC'ers may wish we had an alternate back up that in theory could be read by pretty much anything programmed to do so.

[protek]

Matt Honan should've probably used this method.

[Gryzor]

500kb per page. Hm.

[Badstarr]

I know it's not massive capacity but it's enough for one CPC disk, I have downloaded just about every archive I can find for the CPC and have (I believe) probably just about everything that was written for the CPC stored on two SD cards and also on two hard drives. Obviously this doesn't include things that weren't released into the wild or are currently in development. I would imagine a few others have more or less identical backups of the sum of CPC knowledge. It's amazing that digital storage is such that we can store what would have required a room full of disks 25 years ago on something that is smaller (in the case of micro SD ) than a postage stamp!


The Internet seems to ensure that our data will always be there, but what if the Internet gets wiped out? I watched a documentary about this very subject and it concluded by pretty much saying that the best way to preserve digital information was on punch cards.

[TFM]

I know it's not massive capacity but it's enough for one CPC disk, I have downloaded just about every archive I can find for the CPC and have (I believe) probably just about everything that was written for the CPC stored on two SD cards and also on two hard drives. Obviously this doesn't include things that weren't released into the wild or are currently in development. I would imagine a few others have more or less identical backups of the sum of CPC knowledge. It's amazing that digital storage is such that we can store what would have required a room full of disks 25 years ago on something that is smaller (in the case of micro SD ) than a postage stamp!

Yes, one stamp to destruct, and everything is lost. I like real discs, because data is seperated, so only small pieces can get lost - and only if you have no backups ;-)

The Internet seems to ensure that our data will always be there, but what if the Internet gets wiped out? I watched a documentary about this very subject and it concluded by pretty much saying that the best way to preserve digital information was on punch cards.

Well, never before so much information was lost, as in internet age. And yes, the internet will be down beginning at 12/22/2012. But just for 3 days, then darkness ends. It's not a bad thing to print out things though ;-)

[beaker]

Would really love to have a small retro TV for my kitchen... not that I watch much TV, mind you, but just for the looks of it...

They're awsome. Pang looks like a hi def on it 

[Gryzor]

Hm, lovely photo there! And yes, I guess I know what you mean about HD Small AND scanlines!

[Badstarr]

Pang also looks rather special on a GT65 too! Maybe it's because I grew up using a GT65 but I always liked the lovely phosphorescent glow especially when you set it up as the manual suggests, lowest brightness and highest contrast. I'm used to colour displays now but I still fire up the GT65 every now and then the image just seems more alive on that screen!