Old Captain's Logs

Steven Petrick writes:

Captain's Log was never intended to be kept continuously in publication. Each issue was intended to be a stand-alone, and once sold-out to be no longer available.

With the instigation of "self-publishing", we have decided we could make the older issues available again for those that wanted them, but then ran into a problem (what does not run into a problem?). The earlier issues were done with computer programs that have been upgraded several times since, and the upgraded programs cannot read the original program.

Not only that, but the older version of the programs will not run on the newer computers, and old computers cannot run the newer versions of the program. After several experiments (involving trying to scan copies of the books), we have started a system of taking the oldest computer we have, opening the files and updating them to a newest program the computer can handle. Then we transfer the files to a new computer, and starting with the oldest program the new computers can handle, we update the files to the newer program.

At each step, if we miss something before the file is saved, we have to go all the way back to start and begin again.

It is time-consuming and laborious, but soon the older issues will be available again, although they will have simple paper covers rather than color cardstock covers (there is not enough of a demand to cover the cost of reprinting the cardstock covers).