Oldest file competition
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Was just clearing up an archive directory, and found a spreadsheet I created to sort out costs for a ski holiday. In December 1992.
I'm sure you guys can beat that :)
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That's quite impressive. I suspect the oldest file I'd be able to find on my home computer would be from around 2000.
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That's not fair.
The measure should be accounted for the age of the owner of such file. I proposeownerage/fileage
.
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I didn't own a computer back then. I don't even think I could spell.
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Was just clearing up an archive directory, and found a spreadsheet I created to sort out costs for a ski holiday. In December 1992.
I've got a few tapes with things from the 1980s, but I've no idea if its readable. Nor is there good metadata on the creation date. Oldest PC files β the oldest things I might have with a proper date β will be from around 1989 or 1990 provided I've still got that disk or a copy .
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VALOBJ.SCR 3.6 KB Text file 30 Jul 1984 (a list of valuable objects in my home, for insurance purposes - maybe it needs updating by now)
And of course I have files where the content is older, but did not carry their date stamps with them from the mainframe system where I originally created them. Somewhere I have files from 1980, potentially earlier. Yes, munchkin, dinosaurs and mainframes still roamed the Earth then, and these fields were covered in bright shiny one-bits that had never been used.
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VALOBJ.SCR 3.6 KB Text file 30 Jul 1984 (a list of valuable objects in my home, for insurance purposes - maybe it needs updating by now)
You should update the extension so Windows does not think itβs a screensaver.
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I deal with classic computers. Have a DEC PDP-8 that is operational (I fire it up every few weeks/months). The oldest (confirmed usable) files are dated from early 1971.
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Mainframes still "roam the earth".... Working with a client that is still "Green Screen" on Big Iron (although not nearly as big as my old friend the 3090)
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Oldest file that I created on my machine is dated July 8th 1996 (some throwaway QB program).
Oldest two files on my machine are AAMENU.FNT and AAHRMENU.FNT dated 20th November 1985. I think they're part of DOS-based Autodesk Animator player, but I can't be sure because they're in the directory that contains about 200 other programs.Found basica.com dated 8th March 1983 - just a tiny bit younger than me.I've got some ZIP disks that should contain the full backup of both my (father's) 286 and 486, and could contain my files dating back to 1989, but I don't have a power supply for the ZIP drive, so I can't check.
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Pretty good! I do have an IBM XT in the loft I bought on eBay but I won't count the files on that since they are not mine. I think your dad's 286 would qualify though.
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A good point,
but that gives a big advantage to the younger members since they probably started much younger. There was little access to computers until 1979/1980 here in the UK, and I was already 13 then
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Looks like this is the current leader...
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What is this "Windows" of which you speak?
I left Windoze a long time ago. Even when I was still using it, I didn't care for its ignorant assumpion that it knew better than I did how my files should be named. SCR is the extension for a Script file (aka GML, Bookmaster etc).
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@devmonkey - "little access to computers until 1979/1980 here in the UK". No, my young padawan. The IBM London Datacentre service bureau came into existence no later than 1961, before mainframes. I myself have programmed computers there through the front panel, in binary, direct into memory, before there was such a thing as a console keyboard. By 1965, mainframes were being delivered to customers in huge numbers and access to work computers was becoming widespread (I grant that private computers were still a rarity until personal computers of various types started appearing late 70's).
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Not much good for a 13 year old @Greywolf though?
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In Dec 1992, I was attending K.G. school in India.
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My oldest file on my PC dates back to the first PC I personally owned, in early 2000. I still have a downloads directory I keep copying forward that is pretty much useless since every install file in it was targeted for windows 98/2000 (I'm going to pretend WindowsME never existed).
I could go dig up some floppy disks with files from the mid 90s though.
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Oldest file on my network share drive is dated 2006. I am not the original creator for this file, but the name is Siebel WSDL.WSDL
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I definitely can't beat @GreyWolf, but I still have 5.25" floppies with my university senior project from 1987. I seem to recall at least one floppy (may or may not be the senior project) that is CP/M, rather than DOS. I think I may still have a 3.5" floppy for the Lisa 2 with files dating to around 1984 or 1985. I wonder if they're still readable (or would be, if I had devices capable of reading them).
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Well I do have an Apple Lisa (also in the attic) but alas it doesn't power up, so I can't test that one.
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Well I do have an Apple Lisa (also in the attic) but alas it doesn't power up, so I can't test that one.
Sell it as junk.
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I have an 8GB directory full of DOS games from about 1985 - 1995.
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I have stuff on tapes from 1982, stuff on ZX Spectrum +3 disks from 1987, stuff on Amiga disks from 1989 and stuff on PC that dates back to 1985 (but the earliest files I have that I made myself are 1994)
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I have some files from 1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
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I have an 8GB directory full of DOS games from about 1985 - 1995.
Plz send me Prince II if you have it. Hacked version if possible. Thx.
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hi I am 12 and what is this?
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Oldest file: 13 Jul, 1987. It's a sound sample that could play on a Mac SE, and it's from the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey.
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Do disk images count if I made them last year from 5.25-inch disks for an Apple II? These being disks I used to store the stuff I did on said Apple II (well, a clone, actually) in the mid-β80s. On booting in an emulator, one says it was initialized on 02-02-1985, but this being a DOS 3.3 (no, not MS/PC-DOS 3.3) disk, the files themselves have no date stamps. I might have some ZX Spectrum tapes with files made even earlier, but Iβd have to find a tape recorder to attach to my Spectrum to try and load them, and of course theyβre also without dates.
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It's a sound sample that could play on a Mac SE, and it's from the movie 2001, A Space Odyssey.
βͺβ« ...give me your answer, do. I'm half crazy.... β«βͺ
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<insert bit with Holly shutting down at the end of the episode "Queeg" here>
Youtube is not being cooperative :(
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Goodbye To Love?
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Goodbye To Love?
Yes! Wow, to meet a greater Red Dwarf nerd than myself, it is truly an honour sir!
The point of course is not the song itself but the way it was executed, which is a clear homage to / ripoff of the Daisy scene from 2001.
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Not me.... it's mentioned in:
I was trying to find the clip and looked it up there to see if anything useful was listed.
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Wikipedia? I retract my accolades due to cheating!
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I was just trying to help you out with the lack of YouTube No cheating intended...
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Oh all right, you are forgiven. But only because Queeg is one of my favourite pieces of television ever and there can't be enough clips of it found, watched and shared.
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Indeed. The nearest I found was the set up for the chess game but instead replaced with a Go game.
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Wrong Go.
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There's the board game that's for people smarter than me. Any other kind of Go is the symptom of NIH syndrome.
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Yes, @Arantor, you got the musical reference. The oldest files in HAL 9000's system were of "him" learning the song from Dr Chandra when he was first activated.
That gives us several candidates for the official age of this file:
- January 12th, 1997, the date HAL first came on-line.
- 1968, the release date of both the movie and book versions of 2001.
- 1892, the original date of publication of the song "Daisy Bell" aka "Bicycle Built for Two".
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First computer console keyboard.... 1948, the Binac computer . 12 years before your quoted date.
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Found "BIN\SCREEN.COM" dated 10/6/1985 on our network drive.