Much of the discussion so far has been about whether old software and/or old gadgetry works or not.
'Solutions' such as robust, open source, non-proprietary software may only hold true so long as we confine ourselves to individual programs or machines. This is, if you like, a diachronic issue: backwards compatibility. What about synchronic compatibility? Network compatibility. My code may be fine, but if it looks for something on the network and that disappears: we get an error. The best we can do is to maintain the work (when you make a machine you also make a machine-minder). But that may not be enough. It can be that someone changes the format of the page unawares. Or someone's website disappears. But, the problem can be deliberate. A well-known wiki-based 'open content' project recently changed their page format to thwart one of my programs (not paranoia: they recorded the decision for posterity!). My point is that, obviously, networked art/media is vulnerable whatever programming language it uses. Wayne. www.in-vacua.com ___________________________________________________________ Yahoo! Answers - Got a question? Someone out there knows the answer. Try it now. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/ # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]