[TUHS] Floppy to modern files for Usenet maps

[Mary Ann Horton Gmail <mah@mhorton.net>]

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Hunting around through my ancient stuff today, I ran across a 5.25" 
floppy drive labeled as having old Usenet maps. These may have 
historical interest.

First off, I don't recognize the handwriting on the disk. It's not mine. 
Does anyone recognize it? (pic attached)

I dug out my AT&T 6300 (XT clone) from the garage and booted it up. The 
floppy reads just fine. It has files with .MAP extension, which are 
ASCII Usenet maps from 1980 to 1984, and some .BBM files which are ASCII 
Usenet backbone maps up to 1987.

There is also a file whose extension is .GRF from 1983 which claims to 
be a graphical Usenet map.  Does anyone have any idea what GRF is or 
what this map might be? I recall Brian Reid having a plotter-based 
Usenet geographic map in 84 or 85.

I'd like to copy these files off for posterity. They read on DOS just 
fine. Is there a current best practice for copying off files? I would 
have guessed I'd need a to use the serial port, but my old PC has DOS 
2.11 (not much serial copying software on it) and I don't have anything 
live with a serial port anymore. And it might not help with the GRF file.

I took some photos of the screen with the earliest maps (the ones that 
fit on one screen.) So it's an option to type things in, at least for 
the early ASCII ones.

Thanks,

     Mary Ann



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