CHM's PDP-1 (was Re: PDP-8/I at the RICM)

From: Al Kossow Sent: Friday, January 20, 2012 8:38 AM My apologies, Al, if that came off a little more strident than I intended it to. I'll plead cabin fever (I've been at home due to snow storms in a region with no snow plans even though we're 7.5 degrees north of Chicago), exacerbated by the power outage that woke me up when my CPAP stopped working night before last and which had me running my emergency generator until after 12:30AM this morning. In the context of the discussion (which had gone on to the perennial topic of replacing vs. "reforming" capacitors), our desire to keep those systems which it makes sense to run 24/7 up and running means that we do not use what we consider, based on experience, to be half measures. No, it may not make sense to run the PDP-1 24/7, but the fact that a potential visitor must know when the PDP-1 *will* run, rather than being able to see whenever she has an opportunity to go to to CHM, makes for a different experience. We have similar systems in our much smaller collection, which we are happy to turn on for any visitor any time, if they have been made runnable at all. That's all that was meant by the telegraphic statement you quoted. Rich Alderson Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer Vulcan, Inc. 505 5th Avenue S, Suite 900 Seattle, WA 98104 mailto:RichA at vulcan.com mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/