PaperBack [software, free] Serious Software That Started As a Joke

PaperBack v1.00

Oleh Yuschub | 2007

1. What is PaperBack?
PaperBack is a free application that allows you to back up your precious files on the ordinary paper in the form of the oversized bitmaps. If you have a good laser printer with the 600 dpi resolution, you can save up to 500,000 bytes of uncompressed data on the single A4/Letter sheet. Integrated packer allows for much better data density - up to 3,000,000+ (three megabytes) of C code per page.

Installation options for PaperBack. Source: http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/

You may ask - why? Why, for heaven's sake, do I need to make paper backups, if there are so many alternative possibilities like CD-R's, DVD±R's, memory sticks, flash cards, hard disks, streamer tapes, ZIP drives, network storages, magnetooptical cartridges, and even 8-inch double-sided floppy disks formatted for DEC PDP-11? (I still have some). The answer is simple: you don't. However, by looking on CD or magnetic tape, you are not able to tell whether your data is readable or not. You must insert your medium into the drive (if you have one!) and try to read it.
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Paperback is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
PaperBack is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/

<more at http://ollydbg.de/Paperbak/; related links: http://www.i-programmer.info/news/85-humour-/4662-paperback-joke-or-not.html (Paperback - Joke or Not? August 17, 2012 "Most of us will have at some point talked about taking a paper copy of important documents, but it’s unlikely you’ve ever considered taking backups onto paper with the expectation of being able to use them on a computer at some point in the future.  Think again - a free application that can do just that.
Oleh Yuschuk developed the application as a joke, but it really works.The program isn't new but it seems to have suddenly been reported on a number of websites - for reasons that are difficult to guess at other than its a really fun idea.") and http://www.ollydbg.de/ (OllyDbg)>