What's your specialty?

Hmm... speciality. I collect all sorts of things, like beer bottle tops and teaspoons. As far as computers are concerned, I've started to weed out the less interesting (to me) from my fifty-something collection. I have quite a few Acorn machines from the '80s, because I worked for them or places that used/repaired their machines for most of that decade. I have a fair collection of Acorn-related software, lots of old price lists, sales brochures, etc, and a pretty good technical document collection. Also a few unusual items like a prototype BBC-ARM inteface card which was used when they were developing what became their first RISC-based machine, and (thanks, Kevan!) an ARM Development System which was a semi-commercial co-processor for the BBC Micro. Most of the rest are things I've collected because I lusted after them years ago when they were unaffordable, or they have some special significance, or they round out a family. An Exidy Sorcerer was the first machine I owned, so I have one of those, and the same monitor, printer, etc as I had originally (they're not all the same ones I originally owned, though). An Apple ][ was a machine I used at college, and a //e is a better version so I have both. To follow the line, I have a Mac Plus with some add-ons because it's cool as well as being the ]['s successor, a IIvx, and finally a NeXT slab -- another machine I lusted after at the time. Another line has to do with PETs. I have a 2001-8K, and to go before it a KIM-1, and to follow, a Vic 20 and a C128 (not interesting so relegated to an attic), and an Amiga 500 Plus. Contemporaneous with the Sorcerer, Apple ][, and PET is my Nascom, and a ZX81. I nearly had a ZX80 twice, but not quite. That's followed by a Sinclair Spectrum and a Spectrum II to contrast with the BBC Micros, and a Sinclair QL to contrast with slightly later machines. I have a few DEC machines. I got to know the QBus machines quite well when I worked for a third-party maintenance company, and I always wanted an 11/23. A few years later, I got one -- CPU box only, no storage, and that's really what started the collection about 15 years ago. I would go looking for some part or device, and when I found it there would inevitably be other parts too. The other parts wouldn't make a whole, so I'd collect still more. I've had at least three 11/23s, a couple of 11/73-S's, a few 11/03's, part of an 11/24, an 11/83, and a fairly good 11/34. I traded the 11/34 when I got an 11/40, and now I have a PDP-8/E (which was the first machine I used "hands on"). I also have two MicroVAXes which will run VMS "one day". My third 11/23 came with 7th Edition UNIX and a lot of disk and tapes, which is how I got into UNIX just before I went back to University. There I discovered SGIs, so I now have a collection of Indigos and Indys. And the inevitable Sparcstation and the like. There are a few others of course, which roughly fit in with the ones i've mentioned. There's even a PC (an early Intel model)! Networking equipment too, because that's what I do (and on a few occasions, my hobby helped get whatever the job was at the time: Acorn, UNIX, networking). What else do I want... Well, space is limited so an ASR33 that folds up and fits on a bookshelf would be good. More bookshelves, too. More DEC microfiche. An MMU for my 11/40. A copy of Spacewar to run on my 11/40 and VT11. More shelves. Dev Pak and manuals for my Sorcerer. I've asked for a 25th hour in the day for the last three Christmasses and four birthdays. ... not much, really ;-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York