Sunday, May 8, 2011

Found: Andrea's Computer



It's been a while since I've collected data from a discarded computer. I haven't really bothered doing this for a while since I haven't had the time. Collecting, sorting, and reading someone else's writings takes a lot of time.

I picked up this discarded computer for the sake of having an IBM Model 5150. It has a couple of nice upgrades, namely the 3 1/2" floppy drive, and the 20 Megabyte hard drive (which was completely full). Since this picture was taken, I've also found a matching IBM monochrome monitor to go with this system.

In the picture above, I am transferring the data onto my trusty little Sharp laptop. I tried connecting my netbook to the 5150, but the USB serial adapter and Linux weren't very co-operative in communicating with it. There's nothing that works like good ol' DOS when it comes to these old computers.

The hard drive contained stories and poetry written by a 13 year old girl named Andrea Woodrow. Her name has been changed for obvious reasons. I did a Facebook search on her real name, and found that we have a mutual friend on Facebook. It's VERY tempting to contact her and send her a copy of her own work.

The stories are generally incomplete, and so is the novel series that she was writing. Her poetry is actually quite decent though, but perhaps I should let you judge the content for yourself. I hereby bring you, The Writings of Andrea Woodrow!

3 comments:

lifeforms said...

Awesome. Old computer contents are the best.

H said...

My family's first computer was stolen from my grandmother's house in the north end a decade ago. I would pay good money to see all the Kid Writer Gold stories that me and my sisters had stored on it...

Anonymous said...

Love this stuff; by far my favorite part of your blog. Keep finding these lost treasures!