18 Jun
2005
18 Jun
'05
9:10 p.m.
-----Original Message-----
As I'm watching War Games, there is a scene about 1/2
hour in, just after Lightman finds the phone number for the
WOPR. He goes to see his friends at the computer company to
decipher the list of games.
Lightman walks through a datacenter and then to the
back room. Do we know what company's datacenter that was?
No idea as to the DC, but the story on the streets around Cambridge
Massachusetts is that most of the "junk" used to make the film props
came from Eli Heffron's & Sons on Hampshire Street in Cambridge. At the
time, they sold "stuff" by the pound in piles. As "stuff" aged it got
moved to cheaper piles.
Eli's was good stuff until lately. You can still get just about any
minicomputer/test-gear part you want, but not at bargain prices.
I'll never forget the day I saw a beautiful redhead girl walk in to
Eli's, immediately notice a PDP-8 board and get all excited about the
bargain find (and she correctly identified it). She had been looking for
one for *her* PDP-8. I was in love.
My favorite Eli score was a TDC Microfiche camera, with lens and film
reels for $50.00. Since I worked for TDC I recognized it and parted out
the camera to my customers for about $2000.00.
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There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand
binary and those who don't.