Totally OT, but frustrated.....

[Tony Duell]

> 
> At 12:38 AM 3/26/2005, Eric Smith wrote:
> >I'm not sure I buy that either.  Hundreds of years from now (or after
> >the singularity), when most machines are designed by other machines with
> >no human intervention other than stating the requirements, will there be
> >anyone who understands the lowest level of how they work? 
> 
> Sure.  Sellam's and Tony's heads will be preserved in jars
> and still talking.  I saw it on TV in a show about the future.

I'm not sure what use my head would be without arms/hands to type in 
replies and/or discover new ways of maintaining these machines.... :-)

However, this does remind me of a fairly important point. Many of us have 
discovered useful tricks, have sketched out otherwise unobtainable 
schematics, and so on. It would be a great pity if all this was lost in 
the event of said person passing away.

Most of us (I hope) have made formal or informal arrangements as to what 
happens to our collection should this happen. But have you made 
arrangements to preserve your hacks too? 

I would suggest recording everything as far as possible -- and labelling 
it with whatever machine it goes with. And making it be known that in the 
event of your death, every bit of paper should be examined by a clueful 
hacker. And yes, I have done the latter (in the event of my death, my 
entire collection goes to a trusted friend who knows to check every last 
bit of paper for useful clues as to what I was doing. Anyone likely to be 
informed of my death knows to contact this person should it be necessary. 
And he knows to contact my other friends should he need more help)....

-tony