Re: [TUHS] Floppy to modern files for Usenet maps

On 6/23/2019 7:10 PM, Mary Ann Horton Gmail wrote: Hunting around through my ancient stuff today, I ran across a 5.25" floppy drive labeled as having old Usenet maps. These may have historical interest. First off, I don't recognize the handwriting on the disk. It's not mine. Does anyone recognize it? (pic attached) I dug out my AT&T 6300 (XT clone) from the garage and booted it up. The floppy reads just fine. It has files with .MAP extension, which are ASCII Usenet maps from 1980 to 1984, and some .BBM files which are ASCII Usenet backbone maps up to 1987. There is also a file whose extension is .GRF from 1983 which claims to be a graphical Usenet map. Does anyone have any idea what GRF is or what this map might be? I recall Brian Reid having a plotter-based Usenet geographic map in 84 or 85. I'd like to copy these files off for posterity. They read on DOS just fine. Is there a current best practice for copying off files? I would have guessed I'd need a to use the serial port, but my old PC has DOS 2.11 (not much serial copying software on it) and I don't have anything live with a serial port anymore. And it might not help with the GRF file. I took some photos of the screen with the earliest maps (the ones that fit on one screen.) So it's an option to type things in, at least for the early ASCII ones. Thanks, Mary Ann