Phil PennockJul 12, 2024

Digital Preservation, old video storage mechanisms, and important parts of computing history colliding in this issue of NSA declining a FOIA request because they can’t view the results to audit/redact before sharing with outside experts for re-encoding.

https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2024/jul/10/grace-hopper-lost-lecture-found-nsa/

Admiral Grace Hopper’s landmark lecture is found, but the NSA won’t release it

In a vault at the National Security Agency lies a historical treasure: two AMPEX 1-inch open reel tapes containing a landmark lecture by Admiral Grace Hopper, a giant in the field of computer science. Yet this invaluable artifact remains inaccessible, trapped in an obsolete format that the NSA will not release, stating that the agency is unable to play it back.

MuckRock
Show threadlonely extrovert
@philpennock @overholt i wonder if the nsa would accept a donation of one of those tape players if one were to find such a thing on ebay or whatever. here, i have the equipment, now look at this and see if you can release it. (they probably wouldn't, i suppose.)
Jul 12, 2024 at 5:55pmWeb