North Star Horizon

Gee, if only there were 30,000 IBM 709s made... Rare? I do not think so. I tend to use the following condition to label something as rare: If there is a machine that I am actively looking for, and I have a pile of money to spend, yet I forsee a search that will last _at_least_ a couple of years, the machine is rare. Examples (of significant machines, anyway): Any pre-S/370 IBM big iron, Apple 1s (you knew that), any pre-KS DEC 36 bitters, Interdatas, Lisa 1s with Twiggies, Sun-1s, pre-AGS Ciscos, etc. * Note that I do not consider IMSAIs and Altairs all that rare. Why? Because I am sure I could get one in a manner of a few months, just I might have to drop a four figure sum to do it. My reasoning is based on some of my experiences with finding the old junk - there is just an enormous amount of it out there, waiting to be found! And yes, in the 1960s and 70s, when some of the really cool old stuff was being taken out of commision, there were people just like us that dragged the stuff home from work - that is how things like a PDP-1 gets found in a barn in Kansas (I think Kansas, I will have to look that up). * Yes, I know the list is not complete, and I invite anyone to add to it. Wow, that might even qualify as being on-topic! William Donzelli william(a)ans.net