Internet Archive Newsletter: The Wayback Machine's Brave New World

Plus—the books that made Bowie, archiving the coronavirus, and how a copyright error created the modern zombie.

Archive    Donate     Blog     Jobs     Volunteer     February 2020 Browsing the Archive A Brave New World The Internet is a messy place, littered with broken links to defunct web pages. How many times have you stumbled over the dreaded 404 error message: Page Not Found? Enter the Brave desktop browser, now partnering with the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. With this week's release of version 1.4, Brave's desktop browser users may be able to "heal" those broken links with one click, taking you to the most recent Wayback Machine version of the missing webpage. You can add a Wayback Machine extension in Chrome, Firefox, or Safari to do this, but in this huge step forward, Brave is the first browser to automatically offer a less frustrating browsing experience, including a memory for the web. Now that's a brave new world. READ ALL ABOUT IT The Books That Made Bowie Bowie How do some artists, long gone from our midst, continue to be such creative forces? Tracing David Bowie's arc through plastic soul and glam rock to Ziggy Stardust and Let's Dance-era mainstream hits, we recognize immediately that he was a changeling, constantly morphing, exploring, and responding to art, film, and literature. What made Bowie Bowie? A significant part of it was his voracious appetite for books. The artist left us a list of his 100 favorite books and magazines, most of which you can read for free at archive.org. Browse the books that Bowie loved—to trace the sources feeding his restless imagination. DIVE IN TO DAVID BOWIE Catching COVID-19 (Online, That Is) The Internet Archive and our partners are working hard to gather and preserve content related to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, and we're asking you, our community, to lend a hand. We've put out a call for the public to nominate relevant publications, websites, and other online works for inclusion in our collection of coronavirus-related material. When medical historians look back on this epidemic, you can help determine what they find—learn how in our blog! START ARCHIVING Night of the Living Adaptations Zombies have long captured the pop cultural imagination, from the White Walkers in Game of Thrones to the adorable opponents in Plants vs. Zombies. But did you know that our modern conception of the monster wouldn't exist without a copyright mistake? Check out how clerical errors, Haitian legends, and the public domain all combined to create an enduring horror icon—as well as the Internet Archive's most popular film. GET BITTEN On Her Majesty's Secret Radio Service For decades, amateur radio operators have encountered "numbers stations": mysterious broadcasters reciting random strings of letters and numbers. These odd transmissions are actually secret messages sent by intelligence agencies—while anyone can tune in, it's impossible to track down a single recipient, and the encrypted messages prevent eavesdroppers from understanding what they hear. That doesn't stop anyone from recording, though; check out this collection of encoded transmissions! Sugar Rush, Ahoy! No Saturday morning cartoon marathon is complete without a big bowl of breakfast cereal—which is why many advertisers made cartoons about breakfast cereal in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. The Internet Archive's Classic TV Commercials collection contains several gems from the genre, with brands that range from modern favorites like Frosted Flakes and Rice Krispies to the now-defunct King Vitaman and Sugar Jets. Take a voyage with Cap'n Crunch, meet Tony the Tiger, and see Franken Berry rise in this collection of TV ads! We're Hiring!   Digitization Manager Human Resources Coordinator Supervising Senior Financial Analyst What We're Reading CNET:  Brave Browser partners with Wayback Machine to fight 404 errors TECHROUND: GitHub Preserves Open Source Software In Arctic Vault INSIDER: The death of Club Penguin isn't the first time money killed an online community and it won't be the last HARVARD GAZETTE: Harvard librarian puts this war crime on the map VENTURE BEAT: Brave browser taps the Wayback Machine to show deleted web pages MEDIUM: Well, we're all in the mood for a melody… VICE: Musicians Algorithmically Generate Every Possible Melody, Release Them to Public Domain CREATIVE COMMONS: The Public Domain is Alive and Well (for Now)   DONATE TO THE INTERNET ARCHIVE Share Tweet Forward Our mailing address is: Internet Archive 300 Funston Avenue San Francisco, CA 94118