9 May
2010
9 May
'10
10:32 a.m.
Dave McGuire wrote:
On May 9, 2010, at 2:58 AM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
...
Dave McGuire wrote:
Well, fifty bucks would be "idiosyncratically high" for this list,
you've gotta admit. ;)
All I'm saying is that value is determined by the buyer and the
rest of us don't necessarily know their reasoning and don't really
have any room to say they're wrong.
.. which I'm allowing for, I'm not saying they are 'wrong'.
I see from web pages that the (Boston) Computer Museum declared it the 'first
personal computer'. To phrase it as a question, one could ask were it not for
that declaration from a 'recognised' institution, would it have near the dollar
valuations that it is receiving?
Idle musing, I was interested in asking for examples of programs - period or
new - that have been written for and executed on the kenbak. In answer, I see
on Erik Klein's page there is some mention of programs, including
Blankenbaker's own 3D tic-tac-toe which just squeezed into the 256 bytes of memory.
Further idle musing, does anyone have some figures for how much a Busicom
calculator using a 4004 has sold for in recent years?
Apparently other people have different ideas of why it's
important. Lack of commonality and lack of influence in the future
are only two possible things that one might find important.
Yes, yes; other people have different values, etc., that's well and
fine,
but it doesn't answer what values are being applied to the kenbak
to give
it such a high dollar value (it's not just one or two individuals).
I understand there is some claim, by some definition, to it being
the 'first'
'personal computer', and it has it's place in computing history;
but in context
of the period, other items from the period, etc., it strikes me as
idiosyncratically high.