15 Oct
2010
15 Oct
'10
1:02 p.m.
Teo Zenios wrote:
I feel even more strongly about this, having dealt with some particularly
clueless people at musuems and related organisations [1]. To the extent
that no part of my collection is ever going near a museum.
[1] My 'favourite' story is the chap from the British Library who didn't
realise that thermal printouts fade quite quickly, and thus any such
printouts of historical significance need to be photocopied or scanned
ASAP.
My experience suggests that few museums would dismantle a rare machine to
produce documetnation and then fix it, whereas quite a few enthusiasts
would. Giving a very rarew machine to such an enthusiast is more likely
to produce inforamtion of benefit to the rest of the classic computing
community than would be produced if it was given to a museum.
There are many old machines that are worth
preserving but are better off
in a museum then in somebody's cluttered basement left to rot.
There are cases where that's true - but I know how museums can't possibly
(I often think that the downside of ebay is that an item goes to the person
with the deepest pockets, and they're not necessarily the best person to treat
an item nicely)
Particularly as hackers (in the origianl sense) are not often well-paid,
if they can find a job at all.
-tony