On Sun, Oct 30, 2022 at 12:34:29PM -0400, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: [...] > Even if it doesn't reopen, I'd hope that its collection would not > simply be scrapped. I imagine a lot of people here would be > interested in parts of it. I'm one of them... If I was a donator, I would now be writing an rather officially looking letter to let them know, that if they have intention to misuse my donation then I have intention to have it back. So they have to stuff this paper into their files and maybe even be nice to donator. I have no idea how this seems from the side of the law - is it at all possible that donator can claim his donation back? If there is a good reason for this, of course. It was given to the museum, with purpose to have it exhibited or otherwise used by some group of people. If museum is being scrapped for good, then this purpose is not going to be fulfilled, so???... Or, if museum decided to give it to some artistic movement, which used it in their performances - say, peeing on olde computer, making it puff and throw sparks, under the slogans painted on the wall, claiming this very computer enabled certain pitiful aspects of western civilization (which I will not name, so as to not have attention of bots). How is that called in English law-speak, abuse of good faith? -- Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_rola@bigfoot.com **

On Oct 31, 2022, at 06:57, Paul Koning via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:  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. 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

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.

That’s really disappointing to hear. I only discovered that museum for myself via their website a couple of years ago and had no idea that it closed. I had planned on visiting next time my wife and I travel to Seattle. I hope that they are able to reopen. Royce Sent from my iPhone cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: abrupt has in the

That’s really disappointing to hear. I only discovered that museum for myself via their website a couple of years ago and had no idea that it closed. I had planned on visiting next time my wife and I travel to Seattle. I hope that they are able to reopen. Royce Sent from my iPhone > On Oct 30, 2022, at 09:22, Michael Brutman via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote: > > My apologies if this topic is a sore point for some of you. Their abrupt > closing wasn't that long ago. > > Does anybody have any insight on what is going on there? The web site has > not been updated in about 2.5 years. The world seems to be moving on; it > would be nice to know if we're ever going to see the museum re-open, and in > what capacity. > > I realize the people are gone and scattered and it's never going to be the > same experience if it re-opens. But there are plenty of us who still > believe in the need for such a place, and starting from scratch would be > difficult. > > > -Mike > > (Off-list replies are welcomed if that makes the discussion easier ...)

That's as much as I know.

First, let me thank Sellam and Tom for inviting me to comment on this topic. LCM+L closed its doors to the public in March 2020, at the height of the initial pandemic (in the sense that it had become clear that the Covid-19 virus was not a passing thing), because our entire mission was to make possible actual physical contact between visitors to the museum and vintage computing engines of various stripe. There was no way to allow visitors to continue to touch all the hardware which would protect both visitors and the equipment. Tour guides and front desk personnel were immediately let go, because it was clear that it would be several months, up to a year, before we could open again. Professional museum staff (curator, educational coordinator, etc.) were retained for a short while, to wind things down. The engineers were put to work winding things down: Creating power-down-bring-up documentation, backing up software on those systems for which that was necessary, and generally making it possible to close up shop with an eye to opening again in a year (the target period). This project was the response to the original order simply to turn everything off. We pointed out vociferously how much damage that would do to the dinosaurs, reminding the nontechnical powers-that-be of just how long it had taken to make most of the vintage hardware work again, and that they could plan on a month of restoration per month of down time, before the museum could be reopened after the decision was made to do so. All of the engineers, which the exception of the manager of the department, were laid off as of 1 July 2020. None of us was allowed to return to the museum at any future time, and no one associated with the mothballed museum was allowed to talk to any of us. All of that is by way of saying that I have no information on the internal state of the collection, or of the museum which we built on it. As for the status of the collection: While we built the museum, there was a private foundation set up which acquired items for the collection, generally by purchase. After 5 years of successful operations, with year over year increases in visitor counts, ongoing relationships with several school districts for instructional field trips, and worldwide acclaim, the decision was to taken to move to a 501(c)(3) public charity. This transition was under way when Paul died suddenly; that placed things into limbo because the transition was incomplete, and the estate could not do things that he could have done in person. That's as much as I know. Rich Alderson P. S. After the layoff, I looked for work for a few months, with nary a nibble. I've officially been retired for tax purposes since September 2021.

First, let me thank Sellam and Tom for inviting me to comment on this topic. LCM+L closed its doors to the public in March 2020, at the height of the initial pandemic (in the sense that it had become clear that the Covid-19 virus was not a passing thing), because our entire mission was to make possible actual physical contact between visitors to the museum and vintage computing engines of various stripe. There was no way to allow visitors to continue to touch all the hardware which would protect both visitors and the equipment. Tour guides and front desk personnel were immediately let go, because it was clear that it would be several months, up to a year, before we could open again. Professional museum staff (curator, educational coordinator, etc.) were retained for a short while, to wind things down. The engineers were put to work winding things down: Creating power-down-bring-up documentation, backing up software on those systems for which that was necessary, and generally making it possible to close up shop with an eye to opening again in a year (the target period). This project was the response to the original order simply to turn everything off. We pointed out vociferously how much damage that would do to the dinosaurs, reminding the nontechnical powers-that-be of just how long it had taken to make most of the vintage hardware work again, and that they could plan on a month of restoration per month of down time, before the museum could be reopened after the decision was made to do so. All of the engineers, which the exception of the manager of the department, were laid off as of 1 July 2020. None of us was allowed to return to the museum at any future time, and no one associated with the mothballed museum was allowed to talk to any of us. All of that is by way of saying that I have no information on the internal state of the collection, or of the museum which we built on it. As for the status of the collection: While we built the museum, there was a private foundation set up which acquired items for the collection, generally by purchase. After 5 years of successful operations, with year over year increases in visitor counts, ongoing relationships with several school districts for instructional field trips, and worldwide acclaim, the decision was to taken to move to a 501(c)(3) public charity. This transition was under way when Paul died suddenly; that placed things into limbo because the transition was incomplete, and the estate could not do things that he could have done in person. That's as much as I know. Rich Alderson P. S. After the layoff, I looked for work for a few months, with nary a nibble. I've officially been retired for tax purposes since September 2021.