15 Jul
2019
15 Jul
'19
3:21 a.m.
Thanks to everyone who came to the celebration in Seattle!
If you missed it and want your own copy of historical (old) Usenet maps,
you can download it now.
I have updated the PDF online to include everything that was in the
display copy. The full copy is at http://www.stargatemuseum.org/maps/ .
ThisPDF is intended to be printed, because most of the pages are in
landscape.
Mary Ann
On 7/9/19 9:28 AM, Mary Ann Horton Gmail wrote:
I've succeeded in copying the files from floppy.
Thanks to everyone
for the great suggestions!
I used a USB-to-serial adapter, combined with PuTTY and the usual
serial tools (DB-9 to DB-25 adapter, gender changer, and null modem).
I even dug out my AT&T PC 6300 MS DOS manual for details on writing
BAT files (although the main script had a bad habit of exiting after
the first file got copied). I wound up calling a 3 line script
separately for each file to be copied over, and using PuTTY's
scrolling history to save the files.
I've collected these and other old Usenet maps here:
http://www.stargatemuseum.org/maps/
I hope to display these (and hand out a few copies!) in Seattle this
week.
Does anyone have anything put together that can easily do the "leroy"
thing described here:
http://www.stargatemuseum.org/maps/032383.GRF.txt
and produce the graphical map it contains?
Mary Ann
On 6/23/19 4:10 PM, Mary Ann Horton Gmail wrote:
> Hunting around through my ancient stuff today, I ran across a 5.25"
> floppy drive labeled as having old Usenet maps. These may have
> historical interest.
>
> First off, I don't recognize the handwriting on the disk. It's not
> mine. Does anyone recognize it? (pic attached)
>
> I dug out my AT&T 6300 (XT clone) from the garage and booted it up.
> The floppy reads just fine. It has files with .MAP extension, which
> are ASCII Usenet maps from 1980 to 1984, and some .BBM files which
> are ASCII Usenet backbone maps up to 1987.
>
> There is also a file whose extension is .GRF from 1983 which claims
> to be a graphical Usenet map. Does anyone have any idea what GRF is
> or what this map might be? I recall Brian Reid having a plotter-based
> Usenet geographic map in 84 or 85.
>
> I'd like to copy these files off for posterity. They read on DOS just
> fine. Is there a current best practice for copying off files? I would
> have guessed I'd need a to use the serial port, but my old PC has DOS
> 2.11 (not much serial copying software on it) and I don't have
> anything live with a serial port anymore. And it might not help with
> the GRF file.
>
> I took some photos of the screen with the earliest maps (the ones
> that fit on one screen.) So it's an option to type things in, at
> least for the early ASCII ones.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mary Ann
>
>