History

From ADB to SCSI

by

I share Jim Nielsen’s delight in the words of Tyler Gaw:

I just dug to the bottom of my Big Box of Cables to find two cables that I needed for something. They’ve been in the bottom for 10+ years. So, “when are you ever gonna use these?” was today. Don’t ever let anyone take your Big Box of Cables away.

Four cardboard boxes storing redundant cables

My box of cables and gubbins had expanded to four boxes which are augmented by a stack of drawers and hanging racks for those likely to be needed more often.

Rack of hanging assorted cables

Have we reached a point where we can fill an alphabet: ADB, BNC, DIN … RSS-422, SCART, SCSI? Leave it with me.

Adding benches

by

The Open Benches site collects images of memorial benches; usually comprising a close up of the memorial plaque, a view of the bench and the view from the bench. Previously I have failed to add a bench because of some GPS problem – possibly because I was uploading from the library on the iPad. But I found that I can add them directly from the phone so added this splendid example from St. Paul’s at Horn Hill on a recent trip to Chalfont St. Peter.

I have a few more to add.

Name? Age? Who knows?

by

The Buckinghamshire Archives said…

We’ve had a few enquiries come in after chatbots told researchers that we hold documents we don’t actually look after

…in response to a warning from the ICRC about AI nonsense-bots generating fabricated references because they are designed to spew out something that looks like an answer even if there is no answer available.

Having fallen down a family history rabbit hole recently it seems that such erroneous content is not limited to AI bots.

    Birth dates before 1st July 1837, when a national register started, are endlessly variable and a person may have five or more different years recorded as their birth year during their lifetime.
    As old records are handwritten details such as surnames may not be deciphered correctly.
    Just because somebody ticked the box confirming that all the information provided on a census form is true and accurate does not mean that all the information provided on the form is true and/or accurate.
    The transcribers of census forms can miss people from a listing because they were ‘hidden’ on the next page.
    Even if somebody is included in another family tree it does not mean that person actually existed.