Houston, we have a memory
Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. This is cool. “Participants include managers, engineers, technicians, doctors, astronauts, and other employees of NASA and aerospace contractors who served in key roles during the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Shuttle programs.” In addition toh manned (and womanned) space flight, there’s at least one interview that concerns robotic space flight.
This is cool for me, because I attended a shuttle launch in Florida. Just last Friday, I went to a booksigning by Jim Bell, the scientist in charge of the Mars Rovers cameras (Book: Postcards from Mars).
I poked around the site. If you want to browse to see what’s there, here’s an alphabetical list of participants. There are search pages (which I tried first), but I wouldn’t recommend it, as you have to know what you’re looking for in... Read More
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in
• Online Oral History Collections
(0) Comments •
Permalink
CES and Macworld are nigh
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld are this next week. Various news websites are all a-twitter about what news and annoucements will be coming out of each show. Who’s going to introduce what? I’ll be following along, on the lookout for whatever news comes out of each show, especially as it affects tools for recording and preserving family memories.
On the Macworld front, there’ll be software and hardware announcements and new releases. Same thing with CES, only it’ll be more hardware than software.
I wish I were there to speak face to face to the vendors to ask how the new new new stuff they’ve been working on is supposed to last for decades, yea, even for generations. This is a whole part of industry that thrives on innovation, leaving behind yesterday’s woo-woo cool thing in order to focus... Read More
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in
• Audio
• Audio: Hardware
• Digitality
• Longevity
• Video
• Video: Hardware
(0) Comments •
Permalink
The Memories of Others
are the memories of ourselves. A wise, reflective post by Merge Divide. He touches on the importance of hearing stories from your forbears.
I’ll give you a little taste of the post. Really, just go there and read the whole thing.
My dining companions and I discussed the lives of our forebears. Even though I know both of them extremely well, I discovered that there are formative experiences from their lives that I am largely oblivious of. Much of their own personal stories have been influenced by interactions with people who are long gone.
Have you ever sat down and talked about the... Read More
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in
• Genealogy
• Personal History
(1) Comments •
Permalink
Carnival of Genealogy, Episode 15
A Blogger’s Dozen lists of plans for 2007 or reflections on 2006. My overly optimistic list is included among the group. Hey, I’ll be happy if I get some of that stuff done. I consider it an ongoing To-Do list, publicly stated confessed.
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in
• Genealogy
• Links
(0) Comments •
Permalink
The Joy of Obsolescence
Sally Jacobs writes The Practical Archivist, a new blog find (well, I found it through Moultrie Creek’s Family Matters site).
About the site: “Archiving tips and geeky tidbits for genealogists, history buffs, and keepers of the family photo album. Written by an archivist who never met an antique photograph she didn’t like.”
Sally Jacobs is seriously into obsolescence. (!!) No, really. I’m trying to figure out which of her posts to highlight, and I’m drawn like a magpie to her shiny jewels about fading things. Here are the topics of three of her recent posts:
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in
• Digitality
• Links
• Longevity
(0) Comments •
Permalink
Happy New Year
Happy 2007! I live in the greater Pasadena area, and that city throws a big annual floral New Year’s party for a large number of visitors and an even larger television audience. We were wakened by the non-stealthy roar of the Stealth bomber (& 2 fighter escort jets) at 7:30 this morning— the jets fly in wide circles near the mountains before they start the parade just after 8 by strafing the 5+ mile route. We went outside to look, and discovered that the best way to spot the jets is to stand outside and shiver for a bit waiting for the next pass; by the time the sound reached us, the jets receded from sight.
My first in-person viewing of the parade was 1983, and believe it or not, the memory of that day is relevant to this site’s theme of digital tools for preserving memories.
On New Year’s Day in 1983, I worked the parade. I walked up and down two aisles of bleachers right near where the parade turns the corner, smack dab in the prime TV-camera viewing region. I sold Kodak film to loyal alums and boosters of the two college football teams. I did it to raise money for an overseas trip I took in the spring of that year; my school had exclusive rights to sell Kodak film along the parade... Read More
Posted by Susan A. Kitchens in
• Digitality
• Longevity
• Personal History
• Photographs
(1) Comments •
Permalink