What will happen to your computer gear when you’re no longer with us?
Rather than a guest speaker, the next RISC OS User Group of London (ROUGOL) meeting – which will take place on 18th March (tomorrow) – will take the form of an open discussion, with Bernard Boase chairing the meeting.
Inspired by a discussion on the Stardot forum entitled‘What happens to your collection when you pass?’, the aim of the meeting will be to explore the possibilities for what might happen to your computer equipment when you have passed away.
While you may own gear that is fairly ordinary, it may also be that some of your kit is of historical interest or noteworthy in some other way – particularly true if your interest lies in a niche platform like RISC OS or in the retro Acorn platform – so one question is what will whoever handles your estate make of it? They may not recognise the significance of one computer over any other. Would it be better to ensure all of your kit goes to a fellow enthusiast who can recognise the things that matter, and deal with them appropriately?
And what about the bits and bytes stored on even those less interesting computers (or associated discs, etc.)? It might be wise to ensure that whoever receives the equipment and storage media is someone capable of ensuring valuable and interesting data – including source code – is looked after appropriately, perhaps making it publicly available if appropriate, while ensuring any personal data is wiped before the computers themselves are disposed of.
In addition to that discussion, anyone attending the meeting in person will be able to see Wi-Fi in use on a Raspberry Pi and a Pinebook Pro, and give it a hands-on try out (something that’s not really practical over Zoom).
The in-person meeting will take place at:
The Duke of Sussex pub,
(Usually upstairs in either the Chichester or Petworth room),
23 Baylis Road,
London,
SE1 7AY.
The meeting will officially begin at 7:45pm, but ROUGOL members should be around from 6:30pm or thereabouts.
If you’re coming by public transport, the pub is very close to Waterloo Station, and for drivers there is car parking right outside. More details about both travel options can be found on the ROUGOL website.
The other option, for those unable to attend in person, is to join online via Zoom. The session will be open from 7:30pm, and the credentials are the same as other recent meetings – contact ROUGOL if you don’t have them.
