On February 24th the Rosetta spacecraft successfully completed its somewhat hairy slingshot around Mars with a copy of our Rosetta Disk on board. More here: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/

Here is agreat photo forwarded by Stewart Brand shot from Rosetta as it swung by Mars. . .   Read More

A piece in Forbes Magazine

Publish And Perish
Elisabeth Eaves, 12.01.06, 12:00 PM ET

Nothing is safe. Not your e-mails, digital photos or Word files. Not old newspapers or books. When it comes to storing information, everything will disappear into digital obsolescence or crumble to dust.

Even White House e-mails. . .   Read More

 
A good article on the digital preservation problem in Popular Mechanics:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4201645.html?page=1

When the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz takes to sea, it carries more than a half-million files with diagrams of the propulsion, electrical and other systems critical to operation. Because this is the 21st. . .   Read More

Storing information is easier than ever, but it’s also never been so easy to lose it — forever. We could end up with a modern history gap.

By Charles Piller, LA Times Staff Writer
September 13, 2006

Carter G. Walker remembers the day her memories vanished.

After sending an e-mail to her aunt, the. . .   Read More

Original recordings of Apollo moon missions are missing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” a NASA spokesman said on Monday.

Armstrong’s famous space walk, seen by millions of. . .   Read More

Community-built content rules
Vision is one of the most powerful forms of long-term thinking. Jimmy Wales, founder and president of the all-embracing online encyclopedia Wikipedia, examines how vision drives and defines that project and its strategy— and how it fits into the even larger world and prospects of “free culture.”

“The design. . .   Read More

Long Now collects stories of the “digital dark age”.  Originally these were kept in discussion boards, but we have moved this to our blog as of 02007 (Acknowledging that the present will in fact be known as the digital dark age, since all our digital data has no forward migration path.)

I thought that the. . .   Read More

Categories go nova

It is fortunate that the leading thinker in “social software” is one of the best speakers in the high-tech world, a hot ticket at any conference that can get him. CLAY SHIRKY gave one of his dazzling presentations Monday, Nov. 14, examining a new dimension in one of the most vexed. . .   Read More