Today, I’ve been debating how deep into encoded digital records that I need to take first semester students. I typically have them work on more management-focused activities such as creating a virtual machine or managing a free/low-cost server/website. I decided to change courses this year and have them create a small development environment based on […]
Author: joshuakitchens
I was working on a revision of an article this a.m and reread Verne Harris’s “POSTMODERNISM AND ARCHIVAL APPRAISAL: SEVEN THESES.” I regularly teach this piece in an appraisal class, but I was struck by a line this morning. Harris remarked, “Who would want to be an appraiser? Only the feverish”. This line directly references […]
Right to Repair = Right to Preserve
I’ve been following the discussions centered around the right to repair farm equipment for a couple of years. Here’s a couple of articles that will give you a primer on the issue: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bvgx9w/farmers-are-buying-40-year-old-tractors-because-theyre-actually-repairable?fbclid=IwAR0rP3Yy8wNABaxSTe9ggcwZmhGnmMClvG5ORioV2VoBucZqne9wlik88ag https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xykkkd/why-american-farmers-are-hacking-their-tractors-with-ukrainian-firmware Why would an archivist care about this movement beyond my general distrust of companies that don’t allow people to tinker with […]
Historic Juxtaposition
Working on another research project this afternoon, I stumbled across this image. I immediately recognize the stereotyping of an African American man as a jovial waiter happily ready to serve a cold beer. This type of imagery was common in print and media through the early part of the twentieth century. So why did this […]
Recipe: Cold Brew Tea
Recipe: Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup

This recipe in experimentation in making a quick and creamy chicken and rice soup in an instant pot
Recipe: Easy Lasagna
People can tell you how many levels, what patterns to follow to beat the levels and how to get a “perfect game”. But until now, no one’s ever told you how people really played the game in The 80s. — Read on retrobitch.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/pac-man-the-untold-story-of-how-we-really-played-the-game/
The Problem with the Pinkertons

Recently, the security company that owns the IP attached to the vernarable complicated and tarnished name of Pinkerton decided to send a cease and desist letter to Rockstar games requesting payment for use of their name in Red Dead Redemption 2. Take-Two, the publisher of the game, has since countersued the Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, […]
Digital Diplomatics
A recent Ars Technica article demonstrated that there’s a great need for diplomatic training in the record keeping profession. This case from Canada revolved around using fonts for forging records, but the would-be forger used a series fonts that would not have existed at the time the documents were created.