Jason Scott Talks His Way Out of It

Latest Episodes:

The Halo Championship Episode Jan 26, 2026

Show notes

The Halo Championship Episode: Heading to the Championship, Missing Out, The Layout of the Championship, Missing Out Again, Not Missing Out, Lineups, AARP, Competition, Amazing Staff, The Results, Shotgun.Some experiences from when Kyle and I went to the Halo Championship to finally compete against people half our age and surprising things that happened. Well, perhaps not that surprising.

The Final March of the Floppies Episode Jan 23, 2026

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The Final March of the Floppies Episode: A Visit with John Morris, The Applesauce, The Imaging of Floppies, An Office Becomes a Battlefield, The Forever Trickle, Images and Analytics, The Final Boss of the Floppies.A celebration of what may turn out to be one of the most definite major projects in the big-office era of my work - taking down the thousands of floppy disks people have sent me over the years.

The Mirrorball Episode Jan 19, 2026

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The Mirrorball Episode: A Very Intense Machine, The Birth of Mirrorball, What Mirrors Are, Online Culture, Demoscene, The Ebb and Flow of Interest, A Lifetime of Mirrors, The Harvesters of Data, The Mantle of Honor, A Lottery Win, Holding To The Future.A little bit about the Mirrorball, at http://mirrorball.textfiles.com. No particular indication in the episode, but wow! 350 Episodes!

The Excessive Air Filtration Episode Jan 16, 2026

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The Excessive Air Filtration Episode: Why Am I Like This, Air Filtration, The Old and the Plastic, Environments, Buying an Air Filter, Going Hardcore, Features and Facts, Health and Home, 50 Degrees, A Soon Forgotten Appliance.About the excessive air filter I got for the office. This is not an endorsement or a paid promotion - it's just a ridiculous thing to have gotten and having to turn it down from "Storm King" setting to "Off" to be able to record an episode reminded me this little bit of intensity was in the area.

The Upstairs Downstairs Episode Jan 12, 2026

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The Upstairs Downstairs Episode: Watching Gosford Park, The Simplicity, Upstairs Downstairs, Process, Exactitude, Logistics, The Archive's Stacks, Users, Servitude, Class, A Pleasant Movie Theater.A rumination on finally seeing Gosford Park (2001) and being fascinated at the arrangement of the kitchen, and, reaching out a bit, comparing it to the arrangements of the Archive.

The Sorting Stacks Episode Jan 09, 2026

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The Sorting Stacks Episode: Light After Shadow, Facing Down The Stacks, The Nature of Chaos, Order From Chaos, A Lifetime of Sorting, Millions of Choices, Oddity And Insanity, The Joy Of 50 Percent, Amy.With the settlement of Internet Archive's last major public lawsuit, a chance to burst out into the fields of Valhalla and appreciate the great stuff I get to do with an incalculable island of data. https://hiphopradioarchive.org/ was mentioned; I always love that effort.

The Video Files Episode Jan 05, 2026

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The Video Files Episode: Hard Drives Locked, Thousands of Hours of Video, Television, Audio Versus Video, The Missing Dates, The Usefulness of Video, The Sheer Disk Space, The Future of Analytics, The Unknown.About how the thousands of hours, soon to become tens of thousands of hours, of television will find a home at the Internet Archive and maybe, with some luck, the future.

The HOPE Seminar Episode Jan 02, 2026

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The HOPE Seminar Episode: Attending Hackers on Planet Earth, A HOPE Workshop Building, Presenting a Class, The Process of Interviews, The Goals, The Process, How I Apparently Teach, Thoughts of Preparations Beyond, A Different Kind of Hope.I decided to do a workshop/class on interviewing at the HOPE Conference in NYC this year. I've not taught a class before in any way - now I know what kind of teacher I am.

The Decay and Entropy Episode Dec 29, 2025

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The Decay and Entropy Episode: A General Store, A Long Bike Ride, The Accident, The Changes in the Neighborhood, Decay, Buildings, Malls, Arcade, Personal Times, Formation of Memories, The End of it All.A rumination on a general store that once operated at my childhood home for over 100 years before it came to an end, and what that trend means generally.

The Yard of Hard Drives Episode Dec 26, 2025

Show notes

The Yard of Hard Drives Episode: Throwing Hands with Backlogs, The Literal Yard, Drives Cast Out, The Grind of Pain, Survivorship Bias, The Success and the Failure, The Arcane Nature of Repair, The Realization of Entropy, The River Styx.I find myself staring down many, many hard drives left in the yard, and try to find value and rescue in what I can get. It's going fine! But it's noisy.