Researchers from New Zealand have restored the very first recording ever made of computer generated music. The three simple melodies, laid down in 1951, were generated by a machine built by the esteemed British computer scientist Alan Turing. READ MORE: Listen to the First Music Ever Made With a Computer | Gizmodo
Tag Archives: preservation
The #Future Of #Libraries Is Collaborative, Robotic, And Participatory | FastCompany #learning #community #collaboration #technology
To look at the state of many libraries after the recession, facing cuts and closures and fundamental questions about “relevance,” you could be forgiven for being gloomy about their future. But gloomy is not the predominant tone of a terrific new report from Arup, the well-regarded design consultancy. It shows that some libraries, at least, are undergoing a “renaissance,” and that the future could be good for others. Arup organized workshops in four cities, bringing together a range of people interested in libraries. The report collects ideas from existing projects, as well as ideas for future spaces. There are four main themes…READ MORE: The Future Of Libraries Is Collaborative, Robotic, And Participatory | FastCompany
Calgary Man’s Quest to Develop Abandoned Rolls of Film… | Calgary Sun #photography #photos #images #collections #preservation
Until Azriel Knight developed the film in his darkroom, no one had ever seen these photographs, or hundreds of others like them, dating back decades and showing everything from mundane life to the historically fascinating. “It’s easier than throwing the film away — I come across them by happenstance, by buying old cameras,” said Knight. “In the photos, a lot of the time the people seem really happy, so I figure they would probably like to have them back.” Like a voyeuristic Indiana Jones, Knight is an archeological treasure hunter, sifting through forgotten rolls of film for clues as to who lost them, and when and where they were taken.
Knight’s website, Mysterious Developments (http://mysteriousdev.com), contains 61 documented cases of lost film so far, presented both as still pictures and as narrated video episodes, explaining what’s known so far.
READ MORE: Calgary man’s quest to develop abandoned rolls of film leads to interesting find | Calgary Sun
The #Internet Is Failing The #Website #Preservation Test | TechCrunch #digital #content
If the internet is at its core is a system of record, then it is failing to complete that mission. Sometime in 2014, the internet surpassed a billion websites, while it has since fallen back a bit, it’s quite obviously an enormous repository. When websites disappear, all of the content is just gone as though it never existed, and that can have a much bigger impact than you imagine on researchers, scholars or any Joe or Josephine Schmo simply trying to follow a link.
Granted, some decent percentage of those pages probably aren’t worth preserving (and some are simply bad information), but that really shouldn’t be our call. It should all be automatically archived, a digital Library of Congress to preserve and protect all of the content on the internet.
As my experience shows, you can’t rely on publishers to keep a record. When it no longer serves a website owner’s commercial purposes, the content can disappear forever. The trouble with that approach is it leaves massive holes in the online record.
Cheryl McKinnon, an analyst with Forrester Research, who covers content management, has been following this issue for many years. She says the implications of lost content on the internet could be quite profound. READ MORE: The Internet Is Failing The Website Preservation Test | TechCrunch
Smithsonian’s @Kickstarter to Show Neil Armstrong’s Spacesuit Blasts Past Goal | Mashable #libraries #museums
May inspire other museums, libraries and archives to launch Kickstarter campaigns!
When the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum launched Reboot the Suit, a Kickstarter campaign to preserve and display Neil Armstrong’s iconic Apollo 11 spacesuit, they set a goal of $500,000. With two hours left of the campaign, they’ve raised over $715,000 from more than 9,400 backers. READ MORE: Smithsonian’s Kickstarter to show Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit blasts past goal | Mashable.
How a Museum Restores a Beautiful Painting from Hundreds of Years Ago | SPLOID #art #paintings #museums #restorations
Charles Le Brun’s painting of Everhard Jabach and His Family was finished in 1660. Now that it’s 2015 and hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, my favorite museum in New York, it was in need of a little bit of, um, reviving. The Met guides us through as it restores the giant piece of art and shows the steps the artwork needed to shine again. READ MORE: How a museum restores a beautiful painting from hundreds of years ago | SPLOID
Beyond History Books: Trove of Rosa Parks Memorabilia Opens to Public for First Time | Mashable
Rosa Parks was more than just the woman who refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in 1955. Letters and photos that belonged to the civil rights activist offer new insights into her complexities. Parks legacy has been somewhat simplified by the history books.
Her archive goes on display for the first time on [February 4, 2015] at the Library of Congress, after long legal disputes hid the documents from public view for years. Researchers and the public will have full access to Parks archive of letters, writings, personal notes and photographs for the first time. About 7,500 manuscript items and 2,500 photographs from the civil rights activist, including a pocket-sized Bible, letters from admirers and her Presidential Medal of Freedom, are part of the collection.
READ MORE: Beyond history books: Trove of Rosa Parks memorabilia opens to public for first time | Mashable
X-ray Reveals the Secrets of Burned Vesuvius Scrolls | CNET
Scrolls that were damaged, but not destroyed, in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius may now be read for the first time in nearly two millennia.
READ MORE: X-ray reveals the secrets of burned Vesuvius scrolls | CNET
How An Octogenarian Preserved An Endangered Native American Language | Gizmodo
Marie Wilcox is the last fluent speaker of Wukchumni, one of 130 different endangered Native American languages in the United States that dont have any kind of digital—or analog—legacy.
Over the course of seven years in Californias San Joaquin Valley, she worked with her daughter and grandson to catalog everything she knows about the language. First, she hand-scrawled memories on scraps of paper; then, she hunt-and-pecked on an old keyboard to complete a dictionary and type out legends like “How We Got Our Hands.” Next, she recorded the whole thing on audio for pronunciation—its very specific!—and posterity.
via How An Octogenarian Preserved An Endangered Native American Language | Gizmodo
Definitely recommend watching the video. I am in awe of Marie’s dedication to preserving the Wukchumni language. Amazing, inspiring story!
Expiring Facebook Posts | Mashable + Mark Cuban Cyber Dust | readwrite + Print SMS to Scrolls | TechCrunch
The ephemeral messaging apps space dominated by Snapchat keeps growing. Now it seems Facebook is adding to the trend again — in a whole new way. In a question and answer section on Facebook, the company now describes how to set a post you’ve published to expire, a process that allows the message to disappear. READ MORE: Facebook Experiments With Disappearing Post | Mashable.
Mark Cuban doesn’t like the trolls on Twitter. According to the startup investor, star of Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, he has to think twice before tweeting anything, because there are hordes of jerks on the social network who want to pick him apart. That’s why his application Cyber Dust makes everything disappear. READ MORE: Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban Wants To Erase Your Digital Footprint. | readwrite
What kind of stories are locked up in your Messages app? Love stories? Tales of friendships made, and lost, and patched up once again? What about the story of your first funding, or acquisition? Txto.io is ready to remind you of those stories, from start to finish, with a clever little service that lets you print out your text history on a miniature scroll. “Unroll your story,” they promise. READ MORE: TxTo Unrolls Your Story By Printing Out SMS Conversations Onto Scrolls | TechCrunch
infophile 