[TUHS] Floppy to modern files for Usenet maps

[Larry McVoy]

I'd look around for an external floppy drive, plug it into a modern machine,
download knoppix, boot that and it will read the disk.

On Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 04:10:22PM -0700, 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
> 
> 



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Larry McVoy            	     lm at mcvoy.com             http://www.mcvoy.com/lm