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(Credit: Jason Scott)

Our guest on the show today is Jason Scott, computer historian and adjunct archivist at the Internet Archives, a nonprofit founded in 1996 to save a copy of every Web page ever posted. He's also responsible for the Netscape GIF graveyard you see above. Also related: "under construction" GIFs!

We want to hear all about the 500,000 books scanned so far in the Archive warehouse, but we'll also talk to him about the Wayback Machine, a tool that lets you click through snapshots of Web sites along a timeline--check out CNET back in October 1996!

The Archive's book-scanning division is the company's foremost project with donated texts making up a big portion of the collection, but the Web site also preserves live music footage, original audio recordings, and various moving images clipped from history, like this compendium of news footage documenting various news organizations' coverage of the September 11 attacks over the course of seven days.

We have a lot of topics to discuss with Jason, including his personal project to rescue data saved on floppy discs (we'll explain what those are in the show, kids) and his personal vendetta against Wikipedia. But we only have 20 minutes for the interview, so expect to see him back on the show in the future.

The 404 Digest for Episode 889

• Is this the end for books?
• Internet archivist seeks 1 of every book written.
• Rescuing floppy disks, by Jason Scott.
• The great failure of Wikipedia, by Jason Scott.
• Ticketmaster tells you where your Facebook Friends sit.
• CorporateTwits--Trolling goes corporate
• How a Tweet Led to a full steak dinner delivered to the airport.
• Netscape GIF Graveyard
• Under construction GIF Graveyard

Episode 889