30 May
2006
30 May
'06
3:28 p.m.
After a while, when parts and consumables can no
longer be found or
fabricated, old computers, like, say, old motorbikes, are going to
become purely museum pieces, that cannot actually be *run*. They're
already no use - you wouldn't go to work on a 1905 Douglas and you
wouldn't run a PDP-8 to read your email. Doesn't mean they're
Why not? I would think a PDP8 would be a lot easier to keep running than
a modern PC. You are speaking to somebody who is reading/writing mail on
an old PC mainly because it is easier to maintain than a more modern machine.
valueless. Better to preserve them in their original
state in a museum
than to bodge together some hybrid of ancient and modern kit.
No, I disagree totally. I have no problem at all with making reverseable
modificuations to old machines (be they computers or anything else). I
certainly see no problem in plugging in a modern peripheral.
Are you trying to convince me that I shouldn't use 74Fxxx parts to repair
a PDP11 (they are much easier to get than 74Sxxx and work in most
circuits). You'll really hate what I've done to a lot of machines here, then
To give people the experience of using them, write and emulator & make
it perfect & faithful. That way,m the OS, the software, the data
So far, no emulator has come anywhere near the experience of running the
real machine. And I don't think it ever will for me. I want to be able to
connect my 'scope (a real Tekky 555, please) to any pin of any component
in the machine. And have all the feelings associated with so doing.
files, the *feel* of the machine can be kept alive
indefinitely.
-tony