23 Aug
2011
23 Aug
'11
2:34 p.m.
On 08/23/2011 05:24 PM, jim s wrote:
honeywell had one PDP-1
they probably had 100 engineers using it or designing for it. I don't
know how many had Dec manuals, but I have the engineering notes of a
fellow who had both the original documents and copies.
they were doing a variety of projects, and moved on with other PDP's
with their subsequent work, but started with a lot of people using the
PDP as a potential asset. Some of the memos have fairly long cc: lists,
and I know several seem to have been managers, so the 100 might be on
the high side, but there were a lot of managers with minions on the list
in 62 or 63 for the info.
I don't agree bullshit, but agree with Bill's somewhat description. Who
knows how many will jump out of dad's or grandpa's pile, or get burned?
I recently rescued some Lunar Orbitor 1 photographs, and may get some
other artifacts, so something as mundane as PDP1 documents must rank
below that when the people who go thru estates see things. (saying if
they missed space stuff, we are probably way behind that).
The reason for my calling of "bullshit" was that there were 53 PDP-1s
built. Even if we generously say there were ten copies of that manual
printed per system, and optimistically say that only 90% of them were
lost or destroyed, that means there are maybe 53 left.
In all my years of eBaying (I was one of their first few hundred
users) this is the second one that has appeared there. I was the winner
of the first one in 1999, at about $200. I never got it; the seller
flat-out admitted to me that he had sold it to someone else for more,
and mailed back my money order.
This other one we're discussing is the only other one to have
appeared there.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL