Emulation For Preservation of Digital Artifacts 81
An anonymous reader writes "Author Salman Rushdie donated his papers and notes to Emory University a while ago. Not surprisingly, many of Rushdie's original notes, drafts, and correspondence existed in electronic form. Rather than printing them out or converting them to other formats, archivists at the university created an emulated image of Rushdie's old computer, complete with old software. Researchers visiting the archive can read his email in Eudora and his Stickies notes, or read drafts of his books in ClarisWorks. When you leave your legacy to future generations, would you like a virtualized copy of your personal system to be included?"
Re:When I was your age... (Score:5, Insightful)
Now that "the network is the computer", it is not enough to emulate just the local machine... much of what a computer does relies on interaction with a network that will be radically different in just a few years. E.g. how will all those DRM encumbered videos and tunes authenticate? Most of what my daughter regards as being "on the computer" is actually just the local interface of an application running on a server thousands of miles away.
Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Insightful)
Better yet, use the Gutmann method [wikipedia.org].
Re:I pity the future (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Good Idea (Score:3, Insightful)
I think that is awesome.