11 Feb
2007
11 Feb
'07
6:44 p.m.
[...]
An aside... About 15 years ago I managed to buy a pretty rare manual
(HP71B service manual) still in the original shrinkwrap. I amazed other
collectors preseent by immediately ripping of the shrinkwrap and starting
to read the manual. But of course I'd bought the manual to learn how the
HP71 works and how to repair it, not to have some object to put in a
glass case.
) I have other friends in the vintage computer
community who own very
valuable and rare items and have loaned them to me with the understanding
that I wanted them to duplicate them. They were more concerned with
shipping damage than anything else. ; )
This is exactly how I feel. I have some fairly rare documentation, and I
don't feel it's value to me would be reduced if it was scaned and made
available to others. But I don't have a scanner, and don't have anything
I could connect one to.
I've always found fellow classic computer types to be a very honest
bunch. I know full well that if I lent a menual to one of them they'd
return it to me in the same condition that I lent it out in. But alas the
postabl 'service, at least in the UK, is not something I'd trust with an
irreplacable manual. So alas I can't think of an obivous way to share
said manuals...
[...]
pending assembly... Out of the Altairs I've seen
on ebay, it is easy to
see that maybe 10% work. Thats good for a collector who wants it behind
glass, bad for an experimenter. ; ) The kit comes with a guarantee that
Well, unless the buyer is the sort of experimenter who likes faultfinding
and repairing things :-)
-tony