learning Archives - ross spencer :: exponentialdecay.digipres

A screenshot of a file format (fmt/983) in 0xffae. The title 0xffae sits over the top of the original image.

File formats as Emoji: 0xffae

tldr: https://emoji.exponentialdecay.co.uk

File Formats As Emoji (0xFFAE or 0xffae) might be my most random file format hack yet. Indeed, it is a random page generator! But it generates random pages of file formats represented as Emoji.

The idea came in 2016 with radare releasing a new version that supported an emoji hexdump. I wondered whether I could do something fun combining file formats and the radare output to create a web-page.

Along came a spare moment one weekend, some pyscript, and bit of sqlite, et voilà. File Formats as Emoji (0xFFAE) was made a reality.

Digital Preservation as a Thought Experiment

Back in 2017, I had an abstract accepted for a chapter in the ALCTS Monograph: Digital Preservation in Libraries: Preparing for a Sustainable Future. With my author’s copy now available, I take a look at the background and its genesis below. The complete monograph is a fascinating read with some great contributors. You can find it online at the ALA Store.

Brainscape Flashcards: For Digital Preservation

Digital preservation is massively multi-disciplinary and it can take time to be able to grasp the skills and concepts cross-discipline, wherever you began your own training.

How do we develop the skills of new folk entering the field today?

How do we re-skill those who have worked in GLAM a long time in disciplines other than digital preservation?

These are questions I think about a lot. I dig into some of those thoughts below and take a look at one approach I worked on for students and very early-career professionals with flashcards using Brainscape.

Tag: learning

File formats as Emoji: 0xffae

Digital Preservation as a Thought Experiment

Brainscape Flashcards: For Digital Preservation

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