Build a Cheap Media-Reading PC?

tsm_sf writes "A recent Slashdot article got me thinking about dead and dying media. I'd like to build a cheap PC with the goal of being able to read as many old formats as possible. Size and power consumption would be design considerations; priority of media formats would be primary. How would you approach such a project?"

Over 5000 pages per gigabyte of data

[Joce640k]

Sounds like a winner to me!

A backup of my PC will only be about five million pages or so.

If the disk ever goes down then rescanning the pages will be a doddle.

Re:Super-8, 4-track and 8-track

[greenguy]

That's nothing. Wait 'til they get to the wax cylinders and player-piano sheets I have.

Re:cant resist

[ciderVisor]

a tyme masheen

That ride sucks !

A pr0n-viewing PC?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like someone, probably their "friend", wants to view their old pr0n.

oldest disk drive...

[retech]

If you want to start at the bottom...

figure out how to read the oldest disk first...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaistos_Disc [wikipedia.org]

Re:cant resist

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm you from the future. They did. You are. All ACs are actually registered users from the future who have nothing better to do.

Tape??

[Anonymous Coward]

What about punch cards? What, you dont dabble in programming by election ballots from florida? Line by line, byte by byte, just make sure you keep them in order and no hanging chads!

Re:Over 5000 pages per gigabyte of data

[bigjarom]

Hey hey hey, you're forgetting that you can print on both sides of the paper!
2,500 sheets of paper is only like 2 feet high. What's the problem?

Re:existing pc

[savuporo]

>>mpd on Ubuntu ... I can read most formats!!

Try UFS-formatted compactflash ..

Re:Magic Wand

[Gewalt]

/sigh. of course, I meant Olivander's [wikipedia.org], not the bookstore. While you're accidentally in Flourish & Bott's, please be sure to check out my new book "Pedantical Me".

Wangtek?

[Loki_666]

Wang-tek? No, i really don't want to know what sort of interface cards they make!

Re:See...

[Linker3000]

1: Once you take out your operating system, applications, porn...

You had me right up to that point.

Re:Big long SCSI bus

[NeilTheStupidHead]

There's something about having half-wit control freaks in positions of authority that disturbs me.

So... you don't normally deal with middle management?

Re:cant resist

[badboy_tw2002]

My God, the future has already been altered! He's using a modem!

Re:See...

[bigstrat2003]

Pictures? Truly, sir, you are stuck in the dark ages of porn. We have moving porn now.

Re:See...

[Bob McCown]

The pages would stick together.

Re:Get busy with eBay

[gooneybird]

"Get yourself a big tower case" and you can call it: "The Tower of Babel"

Re:Get busy with eBay

[fat_mike]

The sad thing is that I actually have all of those plus a few others.

MFM Controller - Check
RLL - Check
Actually working parallel and usb Zip drives - Check * 23
Parallel Iomega Taravan drive - Check * 8 tapes of late 80's early 90's porn
All ISA motherboard - Check, Check & Check

Monster giant mammoth case that has 7 5.25" drive bays - Check

I think I failed my New Year's Resolution from 1997 to stop being a pack rat.

Re:Big long SCSI bus

[NeilTheStupidHead]

Fair enough. I work in a very large organization where the majority of people have no idea what happens when they push a button on a keyboard. I had an office manager once that had index cards with stepwise instructions of everything she had to do with her computer. EVERYTHING. She had to write out a new index card every week when her password expired and she had to change it... but first she had to consult the index card that told her how to change her password. They replaced our old CRT displays with LCDs and she freaked out. The worst is that she actively refuses any attempt to explain even simple things to her, like what a right click is. It's infuriating some days.