Australian footage of Neil Armstrong's moon walk | Hacker News Reader

Australian footage of Neil Armstrong's moon walk

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40 pointswiks17 comments

Is it just me or is it amazing to think that such important footage could be lost and left to become damaged?

I think when it was on video, it got erased. When it was on film, they kept it because they couldn't erase it...

Many of the NPR audio archives were at risk because it turned out that the audio tape formulations of the 70's were defective. Many CDRs and writable DVDs use dyes that will become corrupt in about a decade. Charles Stross has the early 21st century comprise a "digital dark ages" in some of his books because of a proliferation of proprietary/DRM formats.

It is both amazing and understandable.

" Charles Stross has the early 21st century comprise a "digital dark ages" in some of his books"

Which ones? I'm trying to read more of his stuff, so far it's been hit or miss.

Glass House is one. Read Accelerando first though, Glass House is set in the same universe but a bit later on, plus that book is awesome :)

Anyone got any other recommendations? I've really enjoyed his scifi but not so hot on demons (they were fun, but not as interesting I don't think)

I really enjoyed Iron Sunrise. I'd also recommend Iain M. Banks and Vernor Vinge as other authors you might enjoy.

Oh yes, Iron Sunrise was cool. Love Ian M Banks too, The Culture is incredible as a vision of a far future utopia. I've not read any Vernor Vinge but will check it out, recommend any starting points?

Read "A Fire Upon the Deep" then "Deepness in the Sky", those are his best works that I've read. His other stuff is solid ("Rainbow's End", "Tatja Grimm's World", etc.) but not nearly as excellent.

Banks Culture books are terrific. Interesting world, great ideas, and terrific storytelling. Not a fan of Vinge myself.

Also, it's "Rainbows End", no apostrophe. Oddly, I found this book a bit retro in its application of tech.

Also, it's "Rainbows End", no apostrophe.

Indeed, shamefully my fingers auto-corrected.

This is the correct answer. Also, the sequel to Fire is coming out in February. :)

I love the Culture books, but don't count out The Algebraist (possibly my favorite of Banks's books) or Against a Dark Background.

Most floppy disks only have a life span of 10 years, there are a number of computer games form the 90s for which we only have hacked/pirated versions of because no-one has a 100% working original anymore.

It's more than just footage, the hardware itself can be a problem.

In this same vein, here are some other old and NASA media- and hardware-related materials that may be of interest:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/22/nation/na-lunar22

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1066370...

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/25183

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwbw1vhtZ0g

I went to a lunch-time talk at WWDC'09 on this stuff (I forget the name of the guy presenting unfortunately, but I presume he was mentioned in those articles). Absolutely mind-blowing.

Two things I recall, apart from the stunning images: * This was all done in analogue of course; the camera of the lunar orbiter had a 24" aperture from memory, and essentially a mechanical film processing lab onboard (then stitched back on earth by manual layout and re-photographing). "They knew how to build stuff back then!"

* As you said, he was emphasising that while data formats are important, the hardware is even more crucial. For the tapes they were recovering, there were only 4 machines left in the world that could read them... and only one human who knew how they worked and could repair them! I went and started reading up on the long-now project after that.

* Bonus recollection: the reason the tapes hadn't degraded and lost their magnetic material, like many others their age, was because the binding agent used was... whale oil.

Actually, I've found the slides: http://www.slideshare.net/kcowing/presentation-by-dennis-win...

Thanks so much for the reminder.

It's sad, but an aspect of human nature. It's all too easy to avoid responsibility, push it off as someone else's problem, concentrate on more immediate problems, etc. Or to live in denial about the limited lifespan of magnetic tape, for example.

Fake.

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