…throw it all in the recycle bin.
In preparation for moving, I’m purging prehistoric software. Some of it goes back to the 1980s, most of it the 1990s. Either way, it’s like several million years old in cyber-time.
I couldn’t get Windows 98 to the recycle bin before it crashed — chaos reigns within.
Chaos reigned within the sbliminal, bit/byte backmasking in these old Microsft CDs.
Chaos reigned within the grocery store when a pigeon perched above the pickles.
If you spin these CDs backwards you see “Bill Gates is Lord! Chaos Reigns Within!”
Chaos reigned within the “sneaker net”. Networking was optional. No cat videos on the Internet.
Microsoft Office 4.2.1 on 33 install disks. Chaos reigned within installing that sucker.
Off Center & Not Even 
Good God, Man! You are thisclose to being a hoarder 😉
Says one who just a couple of weeks ago, finally chucked small “diskettes” full of who knows what as they have nowhere to play…
Hi Dale. I have to keep copies of any old software we are still using, and we do use some old software that goes back quite a few years. But mainly it comes from the boss not wanting to throw anything away. We have a musuem of old Macs.However, the pandemic is what has allowed us to purge. With everyone generally out of the office right now, the three of us who are in daily are throwing, recycling and shredding like mad. Our ever so determined office manager, and a few other staff, have shredded around a 1,000 boxes of notes, draft reports, etc. And there are still hundreds of boxes of stuff.
Well, of course. It’s a business thing, which is different!
Thank goodness for the pandemic, then 😉
There are a lot of things by law we have to make like the Hallelujah Chorus and keep “For Ever and Ever!”
Of course… So crazy.
I assume this is at work (?). Quite a long time ago I cleaned out stuff like that at home, but of course more stuff has stacked up in the interim. It must feel good to get rid of all the chaos…not sure of the pigeon in the store, though. 🙂))))))
Hi Susan. This stuff is at the office. We are going to be moving next year and need to get rid of 44 years of accumulated stuff.
Those darn birds….they’ll perch anywhere.
Hi Maj & Sher. It was cold and snow outside and the pigeon to the oportunity to fly in out of the cold when the automatic doors were open while people were going in and out.
Pigeons have adapted well to the urban environment.
A little too well I’d say.
Dear Tim, chaos does reign within. Right brain v. left brain, what do we save, what will we need as we move forward? This is most thought provoking, thanks, haha! Great photos!
Thanks, Mia. “The ARC Creed” is from one of our now retired curmudgeonly architects. He made that sign years ago and it’s still hanging around my office. It’s amazing how things can persist.
It is amazing! Often there is no expiration date!
Yep. Too many things just keep going like that Energizer Bunny or whatever it was.
Architects never got the hang of ArcView, IMO.
.
Our’s don’t touch it.
Good Lord! That stuff will recycle nicely, Tim. Wow. Best wishes for next year. 👍🏻😎
Talking about talking the Lord’s name in exclamation, in its day all that software piled under the chaos sign cost around $50,000. Thanks, John.
Wow. That is a lot of old software, and worse yet, I recognize it. 🙂
Lol I still remember installing MS Office using floppies… and the 25th or 26th won’t read properly, hence… 😡
I was mentioning the issue of the diskettes in the middle of the install that didn’t read. It was so frustrating. Thanks, Shaunak.
Yup, floppies were real nightmares… 🥶
Sad isn’t it. Thanks, Lavinia.
My goodness chaos chaos everywhere. Why is it the really good things have built in obsolescence ? Good luck there!
We have to keep moving forward they say. Although sometimes it seems like the movement is anywhere but the right direction. Thanks, Holly.
So true Tim.
You realy brought me back in time…. diskettes :-0
Thanks, picpholio.
This post gave me a good feeling. I thought I was the only one with a lot of prehistoric software in my storage room…
The persistence of prehistoric software is with many of us.
WOW. Antiques!!! Truly… we moved house and I found stuff like all this. Every cupboard was like a fossilized lair and layer.
Fossilized is right. Thanks, Shey.
you get there though.
““Bill Gates is Lord! ….” A ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaaa…………You’re only reminding me of something I have to do pretty soon! Attic / storage / and hidden cupboards with all sorts of discontinued appliances / discs / drivers etc 😱🤯
Do you have the custom of gathering up all your old stuff you don’t want or need and throwing it out the window on New Years? I’m happy you got a laugh out of this. Thanks, Marina.
Not exactly… we just throw it to the bin! But out of the window sounds much better!!! 😉
I think the Italians through it out the windows.
It was a Venetian tradition… includes pots too! 😉
Wow! Time capsules.
Thanks, Teri.
We did the same thing several times over recent years. I even finally parted with my 3 1/2 inch floppies. An unbelievable boat load of ancient junk!
Some of those old boxes of software had 5 1/4 is floppies. Those were truly floppy. It’s amazing how much tech accumulates.
Wow, and I thought I was bad, I have like 6-7 old laptops under my bed! 😂
I have a pretty big pile of dead laptops ready to go to recycling. Thanks, Tiffany.
My copy of ArcView dates back to 1999/2000. I had a strange copy of Windows 3.1 that was a beta version that came with AutoCad 10, that, when I sent the first disk (of five total) back to MS for an upgrade they said they had never seen that version before. My AutoCad came with a 12″ X 12″ digitizer tablet with a plastic template with command icons that were picked with a stylus device. I still have it someplace. Mice had not been invented yet. My only regret for lost old software is a 5 1/4″ floppy with an AutoCad drawing of a tropical bird on it. We dumped our mess about 2 years ago, what a relief.
Our first ArcInfo goes back the early 90s. I got MapInfo in the late 1980s along with Foxbase.
They had to go, Tim! Well done!
Thanks, Inchcock.
Somewhere I have a copy of Lotus Symphony and Lotus 1-2-3 from the 80s. It was one of the best pieces of software favored by us science types.
Lotus 1-2-3 was among the old software that got tossed. I think we tried most everything available in terms of spreadsheets, word processors, desktop publishers, graphics programs and databases that came along in the 80’s and 90’s. I threw out 20 boxes of Quark Express. When Apple moved to OS X, Quark was slow to adapt. Adobe had InDesign OS X ready as soon as OS X started shipping, so we switched from Quark Express to Indesign. I would like to get staff to use Affinity Publisher and phase out InDesign, but it’s so hard to get people to learn new software.
Yes, it’s hard to get people to learn new software. In the chemistry field, Lotus Notes became a favorite of many into the early 00s. It finally went away around 06-07. Excel never caught on; I think it’s a piece of crap with limited use. And, for a long while, laboratory information management relied heavily on IE 6, even when the rest of the world was on IE 10. I had already made the jump to the server versions of laboratory MIS. It was a pain because I had to toss a lot of legacy peripherals. In the end, it was worth it. If I need something better, I can unplug a rack module and trade it in for a better one, then reload whatever applications I had on the old one. The plug-n-play world is a nice one compared to the old days.
I remember those discs. If you save them for another 30 years, they would be considered antiques and worth a great deal of money. (At least, that is what I’m telling myself) YIKES!
Hi Rebecca. I think they are way past antiquedom, already. They are relics from the silconithic obsoletetary period of cybertology.
I just added several words to my vocabulary!😂😂😂
That’s the beauty of English.
lol! recycle! recycle! recycle!
No that I don’t cycle, I recycle. Thanks, Holly.
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Good grief!
What a lot of crapola! Hey, I use old CD’s for paint palettes, before I toss them.
At least Bill Gates is not a dead Paul McCartney!
Save the pigeon!
There must be something you can do? Make bracelets out of the installations discs?
Most chaotic post I’ve ever read!
Hi Resa. As for as the CDs are concerned, Dolores gives them to her message therapist who uses them for crafts projects. The most chaotic post? Well there’s a first for everything.
Bracelets away! Any reuse of refuse is an honourable endeavour!
People who are into body alteration could stretch out their earlobes and lower lips to accommodate CDs. They could keep a stash of CDs to match whatever fashion they are wearing.
Ahem! Well, that’s one Eyedea!