Jason Scott's Weblog
Of the barrage of advice the world was prepared to give me from the vantage point of the Internet, one unique bit of advice came from a long-time collector and rescuer of older computer documentation and equipment. It’s definitely the all-around best advice, and was, in fact, truly unique: nobody else brought it up. The […]
I know it’s been announcement city over here for the past week and a half. Here’s the last piece in the puzzle: trying to solve the biggest looming problem for online libraries and archives. So, people get it: When items are online, they become infinitely more useful. They can transfer instantly, they can be viewed […]
I’m just keeping the theme with the title. Future postings will be less obscure. This is a wrap up and list of conclusions after this grand experiment. And an announcement. But first things first. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT WARNING TIME. In my inbox, going back over a year (and going back years in my mail […]
As the story of the saved manuals gained steam, a greater audience of people began to be aware of it. Once you get past a few thousand, people start showing up who…. don’t forward the conversation. I just wanted to talk a little bit about that situation of the modern era, since I consider it one of […]
When I can feel my face again, and after I finish cleaning up my untouched-for-a-week life up in New York, I will sit down and write a proper Post-mortem of everything, but here’s the high level news. The goal, as you might recall, was to go into a closing warehouse of manuals, take as […]
This time, I’m sitting in my car, & I don’t feel broken, simply renewed. It’s ten o’clock, and we probably have a couple more hours to go. What we are trying to do is ensure that everything is in a box that is going out. Then, tomorrow can consist of two things: moving items to […]
I’m kind of broken. It has been a very productive day. I have been here since 8 in the morning. We have boxed over 400 boxes of material. There have been about a dozen and a half of volunteers working like mad to put this together. It seems to have adequately impressed the owner. He […]
A day after my previous post, and things have been happening. SHORT TERM: First, I asked for people to send money if they couldn’t help any other way, and people have. This took away any concern on my part that 1. The materials are not recognized for their value, 2. I would blow out my […]
Earlier this year, a number of kind folks told me that an esteemed seller of manuals was going to be getting out of the business. I lamented but didn’t give it much thought. As the months went on, I eventually got into contact with them, and they with me, and we discussed a possible contingency […]
It’s been a nice bunch of years for presentations and talks I’ve been giving. I started getting on stage to make noise around 1999 (I’d been on stage before that, but for other things). From about 2002 onward, I added slides to the mix, and for most of the 2000s, every talk was usually different […]