Documenting how old computers were used

From: Mark Gregory <mgregory_at_vantageresearch.com>
Date: Fri May 26 11:49:08 2000

When people receive complete systems (with software, manuals, etc.) do you
make any attempt to document the state of the system when you received it?
For example, do you record what programs were on the hard drive, what
peripherals were included, what the system was used for (either what you
were told, or could infer), etc?

It seems to me that increasingly, social historians and museums are more
interested in _how_ an artifact was used than in the thing itself. But
often , especially when I receive multiple examples of the same system, I
mix and match parts and programs to suit myself, and lose track of which
disk drive came with which CPU, which software was originally installed on
each, etc. Information is obviously being lost here.

I'd be interested to know what other list members are doing, and how
important you think the information being lost is.

Regards,
Mark Gregory
Received on Fri May 26 2000 - 11:49:08 BST