25 May
2010
25 May
'10
2:39 p.m.
On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 9:08 PM, Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
[Replying to me]
I do use emulators sometimes, but it's not the same. I like the feel
and the sounds and smells and so on of running real hardware, and I
enjoy the feeling of using something that is a bit different, not just
another x86 PC in a world with billions of the things.
I get that one a lot, but usually from people who actively enjoy
working on their vehicles. I detest it. I hate working with machinery,
hate getting my hands dirty, and don't trust my own meagre mechanical
skills. This is very hard for many an inveterate fiddler to
understand, though, it seems.
The few times I've tried motorcycle maintenance, I've usually got it
badly wrong and done serious mechanical damage that cost many hundreds
to thousands of pounds to repair. I don't even change my own oil.
Primarily, social. To meet and talk to other people who share your
interests; to perhaps get a club magazine or mailing list or go to
club events where you can listen to talks, meet heroes or idols, and
chat about the area of interest.
Most of this sort of club that I'm in - which means a dozen or so -
are run by volunteers, but the committee or whatever of volunteers do
everything. Members occasionally join the committee but that is the
only primary way of contributing.
As far as I can tell, this is the norm, this is how pretty much all of
these things work.
What you want seems like a different type of organization altogether;
something more like the Bluebell Railway, say, which has hundreds of
workers doing all manner of jobs, as if they were running a transport
business, only they do it for fun.
But still, it's funded by thousands and thousands of members who
/don't/ work and don't contribute anything except their money.
I guess so.
But if I were you, I'd have been flattered that so many people said
that they felt that you should be there and that the event would be
better if you were there. As it is, your rejection of this seems
rather churlish, to be honest.
It's your life; nobody is compelling you to go, but if a bunch of
friends offer to sub you and take you there and back, I would have
thought a better response was "thanks very much indeed, that is very
nice of you, but it is not my sort of event", not "pah, they're
running it wrong, I'm not interested."
--
Liam Proven ? Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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I don't
regard myself as a collector - I lack the money or the space.
I do have a small collection of interesting 1980s kit, though, which I
enjoy getting running, playing with, learning a bit about and so on. I
like learning about them, talking about them, reading about them,
discussing them and so on.
But I don't solder. I don't make cables. I never conduct board-level
repairs. I might swap add-in cards when needed or in extremis things
like motherboards or CPUs. I have no knowledge of compenent-level
electronics nor any great interest. I'm a software man myself, really,
that's what interests me.
Fine. I do wonder why you want to run the software on the original
machine rather than under emulattion, though. And how you would keep the
original machine going if you don't ever want to repair it.
Unfortunately, as far as I know there are no repair services for classic
computers, so you virtually have to do it yourself.
Frankly, I won't. If any of my kit dies, I'll try to fix it by board
or major component level swaps, and if that's not enough, find some
collector or something who'd want it rather than binning it.
I'd ask around here and one or two other places to see if anyone had
the time and skills and inclination to fix it, perhaps in exchange for
a pint and a curry or anything, but I can't afford more than a token
of gratitude, really.
Similarly,
with my motorbikes and bicycles, of which I have a small
and ever-changing collection, I pay pros to keep them running well for
me. I hate getting dirty & scraping my knuckles repairing them, and
why should I?
I can think of one very good reason. Your life, and the lives of others,
depends on that work being done correctly. And having seen what some car
repairers -- even official dealers -- get up to, I wouldn't trust one, alas. The idea that,
for example, a group, club or society should consult
its members for help, and if it doesn't, then it's flawed, is quite
bizarre to me.
Eh? Cam you please tell me what the point of the club is then, other than
to share the knowledge, experience, whatever of the members? If one is a
fan or expert of something, and other such fans are
organizing a rare get-together in one's area, to denigrate it as "the
wrong sort of get-together" or say that they are the "wrong sort" of
fans, or that they don't do it right, or anything like that, is
small-minded, petty, childish and unpleasant. It lessens the speaker
But surely to decide that, for whetever reasons, you are not going to
enjy the event is a good enough reason to keep away. Otherwise you may
end up spoiling it for others.