Re: VECTOR:

Kev,

You make a very valid point. The data, unlike a music CD, will be
updated at some point. However, I would hazard a guess that about 95% of
all manuals, schematics, etc. that you would ever need, are already out
on the net somewhere thanks to the tireless efforts of a few. Yes, yes,
I hear you saying "but what about those Bradley Trainer schematics which
might be scanned any day now?" or "the simple three wire hack that
converts a Foodfight board into a Nightmare?" :) Much like that elusive
Grateful Dead master soundboard recording from 74 *might* pop up
tomorrow to replace the 8th generation partial show you currently have,
you have to start with something.

It is, however, currently impossible to tell what is current and up to
date on the net without going to someone's site (assuming it still
exists and I think that is the primary motivation here) and
redownloading a document you may already have. There is also the fact
that people modify and remove material from their websites often. I do
it. I know a lot of other people do it too because I have a LOT of
content that I've downloaded over the past four years that isn't
available anywhere anymore.

Since there are only a finite number of, and I will return to your Dead
example, live shows, a database can be constructed with a modest amount
of work. However, there are many, many types of arcade data that aren't
very well classified, and might therefore contribute to thousands of MD5
sums and keeping up with all that and places to store all the content
start to get unworkable IMHO.

I say get a list of the material to be 'archived', get some DVDs
authored and send them out. :)

tm

Kev wrote:
>
> Once upon a time I participated in the sharing of digital music,
> specifically Grateful Dead. The community had developed some pretty good
> methods for distributing & preserving music.
>
> CDs are first mastered, then the audio files are extraced & compressed. The
> MD5 files are used as a sanity check.
>
> Distribution is done via a sign up tree starting with a few sets of masters
> which are then duplicated & sent on. The distribution continues on to the
> leafs (end of the tree), the leafs get uncompressed files.
>
> www.etree.org for more info.
>
> I would suggest that we discuss methods for formatting & tracking this data.
>
> What happens when spies is updated or someone wants to add/update/change
> information?
>
> Who will be the ultimate keeper of this information? This could be a web
> site with zip file MD5s and be "open source form"?
>
> If we can develop a good, workable protocol now that would make the DVD/CDR
> distribution a good viable alternative.
>
> If we fail then we will end up with alot of DVDs/CDRs in people hands with
> no idea what is good & "up to date".
>
> Kev
> mowerman@erols.com
>
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Received on Thu Jun 27 15:10:39 2002