Jason Scott

https://mastodon.archive.org/@textfiles

Free-Range Archivist at the Internet Archive

Public Key

npub1k79wnpksqxmm6vjc837z80t4dc6cd2xu4wyxn5phkql854cpsxcq7utp5x

NIP-05 Address

textfiles_at_mastodon.archive.org@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqst0zhfsmgqrdaaxfvrclprh46kudvx4rw2hzrf6qmmq0n62uqcrvqpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0dsawzxwy

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1k79wnpksqxmm6vjc837z80t4dc6cd2xu4wyxn5phkql854cpsxcq7utp5x

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Last Notes

2026-05-25 00:51:11 UTC

It's not normally a good idea to share internal security processes, but I did want to offer the funniest trivia in my work to fight spam - I just added gamepad support to my spam-fighting client, meaning I'm literally using a joystick and buttons to do the work.
Turns out, if you can consolidate part of your job to an Xbox controller, you can speed it up significantly.

2026-03-26 22:41:08 UTC

Fifteen years ago, offered a job at the Internet Archive two days previously starting in two days.
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/116/297/882/538/109/151/original/8c198a922d7fe33d.png

2025-07-03 03:21:24 UTC

Loren and Roger Cox were two brothers whose lives were radio and satellite. They collected them and loved them. When Loren and then Roger died, the antique radios were sold. But the reels of media were considered trash. Tim Stamps saved them, and helped get the rest to the Archive.
Tim has digitized the first 300+ reel to reels from the brothers, and they're amazing:
https://archive.org/details/loren_and_roger_cox
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/114/787/144/946/045/591/original/f9e0b4265aa0b14f.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/114/787/145/026/907/266/original/7c3d778354987924.png

2025-06-16 23:50:44 UTC

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These are audio tapes he used to do those interviews. He would often use the same tape multiple times, overwriting with each new interview, but he obviously didn't know I'd be coming down the line decades later.
In the 56 interview tapes we recovered, digitized, and put up, we have extensive interviews with stars both here and gone, television and movies, stars at the end of their careers and stars just starting out, speculating on what comes next.
All are of spectacularly terrible quality.

2025-06-16 23:49:47 UTC

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Bob Lardine was a journalist all his life, doing writing and interviews. Among his long history, these interview tapes are from his time working for the NY Post in the 1970s and 1980s. His work included the Hollywood beat, talking to actors, producers and directors about their projects and life, and then putting them into the Sunday NY Post edition.

2025-06-16 23:47:53 UTC

The Internet Archive gets many donations over the months and years - some are dealt with immediately, while others might not be gotten to for some time, or are redundant. In one case, a treasure trove sat for a few years and has finally come online: The Bob Lardine Tapes.
https://archive.org/details/boblardinetapes
There are three sets of materials here: Interviews, Personal Tapes, and Jewish Hour Radio Tapes. Let's talk about the first.

2025-05-02 19:11:02 UTC

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went amazing!

2025-04-30 23:52:08 UTC

Tomorrow at noon, Pacific time, I'll be livestreaming from the one and only @npub1umd…wfr7 for a few hours to celebrate it and enjoy the first of May! It'll be at twitch.tv/textfiles - see you there!
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/114/429/599/882/060/417/original/daf6d2d8aa713723.jpg

2025-04-28 20:02:32 UTC

The Physical Donations (and Rescues) of the Internet Archive.
https://www.reddit.com/r/theinternetarchive/comments/1ka51t4/the_physical_donations_and_rescues_of_the/

2025-04-28 17:34:23 UTC

At noon Pacific Standard Time (California) I'll be hosting an informal but fun May Day celebration at the Internet Archive. just vibes and Internet Archive - https://twitch.tv/textfiles - see you Thursday!

2025-04-26 06:12:36 UTC

It'd be cool if you signed this petition.
https://www.change.org/p/defend-the-internet-archive

2025-04-19 14:16:02 UTC

The folks rushing to want to make up this direct shortfall in the grant is very inspiring, but it's better just to donate to archive.org/donate if you want to do that.
But also, don't sacrifice funds you don't have if that's the case. The archive will just seek funding away from where it has previously come.

2025-04-18 13:46:48 UTC

It was only a matter of time - a contracted, approved grant to the Internet Archive was cut with no warning.
https://sfstandard.com/2025/04/17/doge-neh-funding-cuts-sf/

2025-04-02 14:01:03 UTC

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I don't want to be negative, but walk away.

2025-03-28 03:26:35 UTC

I was kindly handed another virus for the Malware Museum! We now have a (de-fanged) version of what's considered the first microcomputer virus, "Elk Cloner", in the Museum:
https://archive.org/details/elk-cloner-virus-demo

2025-03-24 23:33:06 UTC

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Info on the screening:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/staff-picks-from-the-prelinger-archives-tickets-1261633011299?aff=oddtdtcreator

2025-03-24 23:32:19 UTC

Moved 15,000 items around the archive today, didn't break a sweat. A great start to the week on-site.
There's a Prelinger screening tonight. See some of you there.

2025-03-24 18:23:42 UTC

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I suspect those will come soonish, maybe through a service (in the US they use a functional job search site so the applications are consistent)

2025-03-24 17:06:59 UTC

What have we here!
https://www.internetarchive.eu/

2025-03-09 14:57:14 UTC

It's my 14th year work anniversary at Internet Archive!

2025-03-04 00:41:09 UTC

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"DEEP" does the same as fuzzy.

2025-03-03 15:57:43 UTC

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to be clear, I'm just the front guy

2025-03-03 03:19:04 UTC

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throw em on archive and we will see

2025-03-03 00:32:18 UTC

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If you missed it the first time, DISCMASTER does semantic search after analyzing hundreds of millions of files locked deep down inside ISOs and BINs of CD-ROMs from the era when the CD-ROM reigned. We've already found long-lost media, buried citations, and forgotten applications and items. What now?

2025-03-03 00:31:47 UTC

In 2022, I introduced the project DISCMASTER, which is a unique project to make the internals of tens of thousands of 1990s-2000s CD-ROMs findable in a semantic search.
Today, I'm announcing the team has now made DISCMASTER 2, a ground-up rewrite with so much improvement.
http://discmaster.textfiles.com

2025-03-02 14:38:35 UTC

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in my case I had a posterior vitreous detachment, and a few days after I noticed it, I had some blood which indicated I was beginning to get a tear, which they quickly lasered and sutured together. No cutting

2025-02-20 12:31:36 UTC

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he knows it extremely well but really appreciates you wanted to make sure of that

2025-02-18 01:12:31 UTC

Power outage at the internet archive. Systems will take a little while to get up.

2025-02-08 20:07:28 UTC

https://sfstandard.com/2025/02/08/aaron-swartz-marble-statue-unveiled-internet-archive/

2025-02-06 18:23:22 UTC

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This is the absolute first time I've ever heard of Lemmy, and the 16th year I've heard of Reddit.

2025-02-06 17:59:02 UTC

I created a subreddit for the Internet Archive which is a little more information and substance-based and intended for deeper focus topics that don't make sense as blog entries, but have interest for the users. Join if you'd like:
https://www.reddit.com/r/theinternetarchive/

2025-01-30 00:15:52 UTC

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Over 7,800 scanned pages!

2025-01-21 00:51:21 UTC

Very busy year ahead!
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/863/601/761/168/869/original/9176dd7a1a4bda3b.jpg

2025-01-19 23:40:05 UTC

An Internet Archive user named
issung has begun uploading lots of photos of LAN parties from the 1990s and 2000s. Grainy, wired hanging-out goodness!
https://archive.org/details/@issung
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/857/655/527/418/082/original/0dd3c945fd89cd42.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/857/656/576/950/337/original/6cfb9c4f6becd09e.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/857/657/710/742/878/original/dc81ed9db8f2320d.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/857/658/778/399/020/original/a5984c3a297ad38d.png

2025-01-16 01:00:02 UTC

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Don't miss that we're now emulating the Tiger Electronics GAME.COM console!
https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_gamecom
Oh, it's so bad!

2025-01-16 00:58:57 UTC

As you might imagine, recovering from rebuilding the Internet Archive systems from a new perspective took time, and the priority was super important systems, and ones merely "working" were left alone. But that's changed - we updated emulation at the Internet Archive so it's more secure, and the systems we're offering just added a few!
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/835/310/567/377/457/original/74707d9dbbf2d638.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/835/313/875/510/712/original/570eb414fdecb260.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/835/319/846/193/752/original/cca4bf3cf6d4854d.png

2025-01-15 16:29:45 UTC

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george blood is the absolute best. Pay the money

2025-01-01 21:38:52 UTC

I wanted to correct something, because I know the archive's actions/function can encourage tea-leaf reading, but:
There is no throttling on the upload speed/bandwidth. There's no actual "well, only give this person X amount of speed, ha ha, tally ho" in effect.
What IS in effect, post-hack, are re-factoring of the security and networking aspects of the Archive's internals, with a focus on security before speed, and getting speed back to full is taking some time.
So there you go.
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/755/259/887/195/833/original/66c0fb4cccd92c8d.jpg

2024-12-14 03:01:11 UTC

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yes, buy it and I'll take it

2024-12-12 18:53:32 UTC

There's other details, but I wanted to say:
ZIP ON THE FLY IS BACK AT INTERNET ARCHIVE.
You can go to an item, click on a file type on the right, and you can download all the pdfs, the mp3s, or whatever else, in a zip. We missed you, little bulky! So glad you're back.

2024-12-07 18:06:43 UTC

The archive is absolutely overrun with my favorite kind of scanned history: Family or community cookbooks, including art and writing style befitting the audience they're intended for, often the other parts of the family or people.
Has there even been more love than shared food ingredients in a spiral-bound photocopy
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/612/865/266/723/296/original/b5c4ba8394e6df82.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/612/866/174/914/740/original/ba65a375c77d6984.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/612/866/998/705/686/original/b479e6f1fbb00ccc.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/612/867/586/491/662/original/1e592c4f7fa32479.png

2024-12-04 03:42:38 UTC

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technically, all websites allow the execution of arbitrary code and a browser. Anyway, there is a command line interface to the archive if you want to use it. It's how I do 99% of my work.

2024-12-01 17:21:17 UTC

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Nobody's jumping on me here about this yet, but I wanted to note each of these has a URL back to the original MIT Press landing page for the books in case you wanted to buy the wood versions, or to get as gifts, etc.

2024-12-01 14:50:50 UTC

MIT has a set of books labelled "Open Access" but it's a little clunky to find them on the MIT Press site, and so I've gone ahead and mirrored 400+ of them here:
https://archive.org/details/mit_press_open_access
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/578/123/886/518/741/original/3f7c155a0cfa30e4.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/578/124/144/692/781/original/a694a24e82b62eb2.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/578/124/378/688/899/original/6e5090b4e8c1fc30.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/578/124/751/980/915/original/6cd65503144f2305.png

2024-11-24 15:39:12 UTC

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If it's not in this list it may be hard to find:
https://www.solutionarchive.com/list/orderby%2Cyear/orderdir%2CASC/platform%2C32/

2024-11-23 07:16:03 UTC

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unsubscribe

2024-11-23 06:45:04 UTC

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https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/113/530/916/247/409/340/original/e01846b6798e8923.png

2024-11-21 14:59:51 UTC

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Money.

2024-11-21 05:23:50 UTC

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They're using over 1,000 domains to do this so there's not even a good one I can point at.

2024-11-21 05:10:43 UTC

Someone felt they needed to upload 60,000+ documents to Internet Archive for spam purposes. (This was across the last three months.) They're not even good spams, they didn't render right.

2024-11-07 03:49:44 UTC

The Archive's quickly moving into the phase of "what's left to get back up and running" and "what's with this little bug and that little slowness" and with "down" in the rear view mirror. What a tough time! But a lot of people recognize what it was providing and it's nice for people to know.
Time to mirror us some government stuff.

2024-10-17 02:47:47 UTC

It's rare for our in-person once a year event in SF to sell out, but this year, a lot of people are going to be more grateful for us than ever. So, if you're in the SF area for next week, get a ticket:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/escaping-the-memory-hole-in-person-tickets-999812906317

2024-09-28 22:46:28 UTC

Multiple folks are launching a spam assault on the Internet Archive that are, basically, next level stuff. Literally tens of thousands of additions/attempts a week. Please be patient while it's sorted out.

2024-09-05 00:52:22 UTC

When Don Joyce of Negativland died, Internet Archive took the back catalog items and band materials to house for nearly a decade. The tape materials are now out to get archival quality captures, and the archivist Taylor posted a cut tape track from Escape From Noise, "Gun and the Bible", being digitized.
You can see the cuts!
https://youtu.be/xML3I0j2nQM?si=kxUvIUJT_4FpWRtP

2024-09-01 23:09:06 UTC

I was going to write some sort of "please don't do this" but that's not going to stop the people who do it, so I'll just say: be a good Internet Archive Patron. You're our favorite.

2024-06-29 09:00:29 UTC

The Internet Archive is hiring a Director of Platform Engineering. In my opinion, this is the most crucial and important position we have had open at the company in some time. The right person in this position is not just helpful, but a make or break key between success and merely acceptable levels of technological advance for the archive. It's a non-profit level of pay but the work is world changing.
https://app.trinethire.com/companies/32967-internet-archive/jobs/91807-director-of-platform-engineering

2024-06-20 01:05:49 UTC

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just the imdb.

2024-06-19 03:18:07 UTC

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they have told me that after the July Premiere will be going straight to streaming like all quality Cinema

2024-06-07 19:21:10 UTC

A few years ago, I had a role in an Austrian Sci-Fi movie about a rogue AI and its attempts to interface with humans via a car, and the question of the roles of humans in a world with AI. Nothing from it is relevant today. Anyway, the premiere is July 1, Austria Stadtkino.
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/112/576/957/313/926/950/original/5aa092d81fefbd2c.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/112/576/957/712/119/383/original/ccea0f19e781b82e.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/112/576/958/031/872/707/original/0488045d6a7430ee.png
https://mastodon.archive.org/system/media_attachments/files/112/576/958/795/482/486/original/48486880b1d0358b.png