31 Oct
2022
31 Oct
'22
7:25 a.m.
Unless you gave something to them with conditions,
that's unlikely to work. Normally, when you give a thing to another person, that
person is free to do with it what he wants. For example, if someone doesn't like a
birthday present, he can throw it away, or give it to someone else, and you have nothing
to say about that.
There is a very nice note in the door panel of AI saying that if Paul
ever got bored of the system, tired of it, or just went broke that I
would come out there with a U-Haul and pick it up.
Because that happened. Time and time again. MIT, FTP software,
Sandstorm, Digex, etc... All people who said to me "don't worry, we'll
give it a good home" then I'm called 6 months later to find it's on a
loading dock to the dumpster....
Part of the reason I ask any museum or collector who has one of the
three (AI, BLT, MC) to agree to that. Not so much because I want them
back, but because I was charged with them as a "sacred oath" or whatever.
All that said, if I have to drive out to Seattle with a U-Haul I'll do
it. Again. But I would prefer them to be displayed, taken care of, loved.
In the meantime the last ITS system sits in my storage shed. MC is a bit
lonely these days, and is a bit of a mess: When it blew up with a
massive system failure they took out the CPU core and scrapped the rest
of the chassis before I could get to it. However the CPU core box,
boards, Massbus, power supply, and chaosnet interface are still intact.
I've been pulling the parts together over the summer, many of the boards
were in a closet here at the house when I was using them to test AI and
the power supply was removed and stored in another closet. I think I
have everything accounted for, so maybe this winter I'll roll the
chassis box into my workshop for a good cleaning and photography session....
CZ
And on top of that, various courts that don't like paying attention to law and
contract have in the past allowed museums to go against the explicit written restrictions
of gifts made to them. My conclusion from all that is: if you want any chance of
controlling what happens with your stuff, don't donate it -- lend it instead on a
long-term loan agreement.
paul