13 Jan
2010
13 Jan
'10
10:40 p.m.
+1... computers can be a fun hobby... but they won't love you back or take care of you
in your old age.
________________________________
From: Brian Lanning <brianlanning at gmail.com>
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wed, January 13, 2010 3:57:13 PM
Subject: Re: Be careful handling computer racks
On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 3:31 PM, Evan Koblentz <evan at snarc.net> wrote:
Yeah really! PERSPECTIVE is very important in a hobby
like ours. I've seen
people get divorced over technical collections; I know one person who
committed suicide (he was a slide rule collector -- it ate up his home and
caused endless tension with his wife.)
How far would I go for an extremely rare / old / valuable computer? Pretty
far, but not if it would bankrupt me, cause me to lose my job, or cost me a
spouse .... and certainly not if it required major bodily harm!!!
Hopefully the previous responder was only joking.
(I know this is getting way off topic. And my reply is likely to
irritate some people. But I think perspective is important also)
My wife is a frequent reader of a yahoo internet support group for
wives of men with asperger's syndrome. The Tony Attwood book says
that about 85% of AS men have a "special interest". Generally, but
not always, this takes the form of collections of things of a
technical nature. There are husbands (married to the wives) on that
group who collect old televisions, washing machines, vacuum cleaners,
lawnmowers, and yes even old computers. One man has a washing machine
collection that overflowed onto the front porch causing nasty letters
from the home owner's association and much
embarrassment for the wife.
Whether you believe that you have AS or not is sort of irrelevant.
Please recognize that this hobby isn't exactly normal, and has a good
chance of irritating a wife or girlfriend. If your collection is
overflowing into the rest of the house or overflowing the finances
(guilty), marriage and family or even a rudimentary social life are
more important than our hobby, even if it feels otherwise. Believe
me, it's not worth getting divorced over a computer collection.
I bet there was more to the divorces you've seen than the technical collections.
brian