Revenant (3/25/2013)
Jim P. (3/23/2013)
Will anyone care what we left on our hard drives? Does anyone care what is punched in the cards that were processed 50 years ago and which are, in some cases, still in storage?
Yes, you bet. Historians love this kind of stuff. Just look at the excitement every time a new document is found from Bach, or Newton, or Picasso. I am not saying the some day the "Dead Sea Harddrives" will be something that changes history, but there are those who are interested in almost anything.
And not to tee up those who bad mouth the government funding odd or irregular projects, but if the US government will fund research to see how frisbees fly they will one day pay for someone to research old spinning disk technology or how Holllerith card readers really worked. And the feds will probably fund it to the tune of a hundred and fifty million over 20 years and not bat an eye at it.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!