archiving as opposed to backing up

[Tom Jennings]

On Wed, 2004-09-22 at 21:56, Teo Zenios wrote:

>  People always talk about Atlantis because its something mythical
> to search for, if it was documented 100% nobody would care, it would
> be like
> reading 10 years on income tax forms. 

Wow, so you're arguing that we should lose things so that those that do
remain will be more interesting?!

> I really think people here collect computers because deep inside it
> means
> something to them, not because they want to preserve it for others. 

I agree that's probably true to some degree, large or small.

> Do you
> really want to document every single thing we treasure about a
> specific
> machine to the Nth degree so somebody even 20 years from now could
> just look
> it up as needed,

Well, yes! 

>  or do you really wish something important was forgotten
> from the archive so that somebody decides to find one, put it
> together, and
> find out what the hunk of metal really does?

I find this idea really strange. So we should intentionally leave
puzzles of the present for the future to decode?!