21 Jul
2008
21 Jul
'08
2:04 a.m.
My word! I'm astonished at the levels of interest in this box. I'm
still trying to contact the donor to arrange collection at the moment.
In addition to this thread, I've also had multiple emails from
would-be claimants; between multiple time zones and transmission lag,
I have no idea who was first.
My current thought is this: I could put it on eBay, and whatever the
selling price it goes for, I will donate that to Bletchley Park or
some other suitable charity relating to preserving classic computers.
How does that sound to everyone?
Sounds very fair to me, though I was not one of the claimants as I
have had one of these from new.
On a related subject, the mains cable of my UK101 has become sticky
where it has been in contact with expanded polystyrene for many
years. Has this happened to anyone else and does anyone know if this
is a chemical reaction? It might just be coincidence and maybe I
spilt something on it and have forgotten about it. I used a large
ceiling tile to stand the machine on when I first got it so it would
not scratch the table and its been there ever since. Yes I know NOW
about static and expanded polystyrene (I think its called styrofoam
in the states), but back then all the 74 series chips I bought, came
by post pressed into bits of normal white (non antistatic) expanded
polystyrene so I presumed it was safe, apart from the fire risk of
course.
I bought my UK101 ready assembled though I had to insert the second
4k of chips about 6 months later because every time I rang to
complain they said they went out yesterday and were in the post. By
the time I got them the chips had fallen in price considerably. I
built an expansion board with a 6522 on it though I cannot remember
why, nor what a 6522 can do. About then I was offered a moonlighting
job programming the Apple ][+ with the offer of a machine (with two
disk drives) as payment so I lost interest in the UK101.