12 Apr
1998
12 Apr
'98
9:01 p.m.
Tony Duell wrote:
2) Finding out what the machines I grew up dreaming of
were really like.
I'm especially fond of this reason. I could never afford Apple II or
S-100 equipment, and eventually got inexpensive Vic-20 and
Timex-Sinclair machines... Then some Atari8-bit stuff... I really wanted
to give Mac, ST, and Amiga machines a whirl but had to pass them up in
order afford the PC stuff I really needed for my job... The urge to
backtrack and finally play with machines I reluctantly skipped over is
my main reason for starting a collection. And once I was in a
collecting mindset, and getting familiar with "families" of machines and
the complete history of computers, I found myself reading old literature
and becoming interested in things I was pretty much oblivious to at the
time they were new--like minicomputers, Euro home machines,
Alpha-Micros, HP85's, etc...
I won't claim I run all my 150+ machines all the
time. I have a few that
I run quite often (the PDP11/45, the PDP8/e, the PERQ 2, a TRS-80 M4,
this PC/AT, etc). Others I only run from time to time when I need them.
But I do try to have all my machines operational if at all possible.
I'm of the same feeling, yet I run across more machines at flea markets,
thrift and surplus stores than I have time to work on, and am building
up quite a backlog. I feel better getting them for either a) later
tinkering, or b) someday passing the project off to someone else who's
better prepared to make the effort--than leaving them there, running the
risk of them being trashed... So, despite considering myself a
hacker/user, I've become as much a straight collector, hanging on to as
many machines I may never use, as ones I am continually getting to know
better...
--
mor(a)crl.com
http://www.crl.com/~mor/