Bay Area: IBM 4341 and HP3000

Jacob Ritorto jacob.ritorto at gmail.com
Sun Jan 11 22:13:02 CST 2015


heh, 1969 Volkswagen Bus for my daily.  (I know, I know, it's not really
"antique".)

On Sun, Jan 11, 2015 at 9:29 PM, Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> wrote:

> > > Now, question to ponder, was the market for automobiles *created* and
> > > manipulated into existence by market makers and public relationists?
>
> On Sun, 11 Jan 2015, Al  Kossow wrote:
> > Automobiles were used by individuals for four generations, the models
> > are built to appeal to different personalities and social strata.
> > A significant number of people in three of those four generations fixed
> > their own cars, so they had some knowledge of how they worked.
> A "significant number" of people prior to PC fixed and programmed their
> own computers, so they had some knowledge of how they worked.
>
> > Consumer computers are commodities. You throw them out, and since their
> > performance improves orders of magnitude over time most people could
> > care less about trying to use an old one.
>
> Most current cars are commodities.  (Kia, anyone?, YUGO???) You throw them
> out, and since their gas mileage and reliability improves magnitudes over
> time, most people could care less about trying to use an old one.
>
> > A person in 2015 can pretty easily pick up how to drive a car from their
> > great-grandfather. They might even remember the car their
> > great-grandfather owned. If you could find one, only an expert who knew
> > where to look would have the faintest idea how to use a computer from
> > the 1950's or would want to try.
>
> Besides me and you, . . .
> What percentage of current "drivers" know how to adjust ignition timing?
> What percentage of current "drivers" know how to use a manual choke?
> What percentage of current "drivers" know how to crank start?
> (and if they tried, they would probably recreate the apocryphal legend
> about WHY Kettering developed the starter motor)
>
> > if you wanted you use it, you wouldn't be able to because the network
> > infrastructure that makes it function will be gone.
> leaded gas, and some of the other early fules) are kinda hard to come by.
>
>
> > So, no, there is very little in common with the base of people
> > collecting cars and computers and there will never be a popular movement
> > to preserve them other that as a platform for playing games.
>
> Most obsolete cars and computers end up kept for nostalgia, or as
> ornaments and toys.
> Few, other than ARDs, use the really old ones for their daily driving.
>
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred                 cisin at xenosoft.com
>


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