Digital Domesday Rescued By Emulation 395
eefsee writes "The BBC announced that the Digital Domesday project which had become unusable has now been revived thanks to the successful emulation of a 1980's era Acorn computer. Folks at Leeds University and University of Michigan did the emulation work. This is just one early indication of how difficult it will be to maintain our digital heritage. Note that the printed Domesday Book, on which the digital project was modeled, is still quite accessible after almost 1000 years."
The Curse of History (Score:5, Interesting)
It is very much easier to educate a person according to the curriculum you desire if contradictory information is not available, especially regarding the history of a place. The extreme example is that of the Pol Pot regime. But you also see it in a newspaper when they fire all of the old hands who know where the bodies are buried, and only the young bucks are around who can be easily stampeded. No institutional memory.
On another note - if you want to damn a politician to history, make sure to get those stone obelisk and stelli erected with heavy engraving. Make sure some are out in the desert so that they are properly preserved.
Archeologists will come by centuries later and will take what you say as truth. Or at least very seriously. Have a field day.
the digital data will have disappeared, and the testimony on your stone monuments will be one of the few surviving original source records from the era.
What is truly important (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Which computer? (Score:2, Interesting)
The BBC micro was a 6502 based machine that lots of people in the UK bought because the BBC ran a series on how to use one, and it is pictured at the top of the article.
There were a few types, but I have used the BBC's Doomesday Project and it came with a 'Master 128' IIRC.
Brian.
Re:Domesday? (Score:5, Interesting)
Copyright? On a book written nearly a thousand years ago?!
Re:What's so hard (Score:5, Interesting)
A schematic does not contain all of the information needed to build a device, either. Seeing, for example, that a 2N2222 bipolar NPN transistor is required for an amplifier isn't going to be too useful in the year 2100, I would bet. And the paper those semiconductor companies use for those big thick spec books? that crap turns yellow and falls apart in 10 years!
Major reason for open source! (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:copyright/DMCA issues? (Score:3, Interesting)
Emulator:
1.2. (omitted - irrelevant)
3. Computer Science. To imitate the function of (another system), as by modifications to hardware or software that allow the imitating system to accept the same data, execute the same programs, and achieve the same results as the imitated system.
Yes, Virginia, WINE IS an emulator!
decoding old english decoding Acorn computer (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know about you, but not many English speakers can still read/decode old middle English. I haven't tried reading the Domesday book myself, but if it's anything like Chaucer, the spelling is dynamic (i.e. not even consistent within the same document) and obscure by even modern English standards. Let alone the language itself is far different from modern English.
Therefore, saying that the original domesday book is still accessible is like saying the that all my old C64 files are still accessible because I still have the 5.25in floppies. (Note: the C64 floppies had varying number of sectors/track depending how close the track was to the hub ... these floppies can't be read on a DOS machine.)
I was 12 (Score:5, Interesting)
I also remember see the finished version in the Natural History museum (or was it the Science museum?). It had one of those Marble Madness balls on the front for navigating - great fun.
If they put this online it will make a good read.
The original is here. [domesdaybook.co.uk]
Not even carving it onto a rock is enough... (Score:2, Interesting)
Obviously, it is overly simplistic to assume that you, as long as the physical medium is durable enough, your data will be preserved forever. Look at the difficulties we have interpreting the Rosetta stone, the hieroglyphs, etc today! The data IS there, but what use is it if nobody really understands it? Yes, lots of progress has been made in understanding them - but still, look at the difficulties.
The laserdisc was "decoded" with emulation. Any proposals on how to emulate ancient Egypt?
Re:Interesting to think.... (Score:3, Interesting)
What would happen if something as culturally significant as the Bible or other work of a similar level were created and controlled by a DRM system.
What about music? Look at classical music - certainly some of the music created today would be listened to years in the future. But if it is controlled by a "lockdown" method like DRM how are we expected to listen to it?
I guess it boils down to two questions for me:
1. How do we(they?) determine what is culturally significant? Hindsight is 20/20, but we have no way of determining what media are going to be significant at the outset. In other words, we have no way of determining what is culturally significant when it is created.
2. How do we preserve information for the future? It's been stated before, but I'll repeat it - we're in a dangerous period(historically speaking), with most of our information being stored in manners that may not be retrievable in 30 years time, let alone 1,000 or more.
*gets off soapbox* err, sorry.
Re:What about next time? (Score:5, Interesting)
Regardless, the problem mentality is pretty well represented in your post. The assumption in the 80s was to make the discs like the book - make them last forever. The trick with digital is to assume the media and format will expire, become obselete, etc. To preserve the data they should have planned for this (migrating data, etc) instead of keeping the old book mentality of preserving a relic forever.
Aliens (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:copyright/DMCA issues? (Score:2, Interesting)
Repeat after me: Despite what you might think, America IS NOT THE WORLD. This is ABOUT THE UK. THE DMCA IS NOT RELEVANT. You cannot sue the BBC in Britian under the DMCA. America IS NOT THE WORLD. Good greif.
Secondly, the BBC would be stealing from the people that commissioned the creation of this computer. That would be the... wait for it.. BBC.
(This isn't the RiscOS / ARM based boxes - the earlier "BBC" ones.)
Now, would a US equilviant have DMCA issues? Probably. Is this a problem that the authors of the DMCA aren't willing to accept is an issue? Probably. Is a reason why the DMCA is bad? IMHO, Yes.
Re:Interesting to think.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Frisbee (Score:2, Interesting)
On a more serious note - someone working on the project says this...
The main problem with converting the data to another format and making it publicly available was that all the information was copyright the people who sent it in in the first place - lots of school kids.