18 May
1999
18 May
'99
12:54 p.m.
On 18 May 99 at 19:37, Tony Duell wrote:
As I said I'm not from Texas, so BIG don't mean shit to me.
The Dec PDP8/e attraction goes way back to my digital course when a friend
gave me a DEC 8/e maintenance manual which outlined the CPU processes with the
Fetches and responses and helped me understand how a computer works. A little
like studying an unknown processor and following it's processes. The
explanations were so clear and precise that I've always wanted to have the
machine so I could follow its functioning. The book turned me onto the machine.
ciao larry
lwalker(a)interlog.com
Let us know of your upcoming computer events for our Events Page.
t3c(a)xoommail.com
Collectors List and info http://members.xoom.com/T3C
Well I'm
a collector of the "disdained" and we are Legion. You can't have been
looking around the I-net lately if you haven't noticed the burgeoning number of
micro collectors. Mini and Main -frame collectors are a distinct minority.
True enough. A lot of people want to collect what they remember using
('Hey, I used a PET back in 1979, and I'd sure like to have one now').
Rather fewer want the big iron. And very few want the obscure machines
that were very nice in their day, but expensive, so nobody bought them,
so nobody remembers them...
Doesn't bother me at all. For one (selfish) reason, it means more minis
for people like me :-). But more seriously, it's good that different
people are collecting different machines - that way at least one of
everything will be preserved.
I collect "home" computers. Original
IBM's including some "classic" PS/2s as
well as Apples, Ataris, Commodores, and Tandy. WE don't want no "steenking"
minis. I wouldn't turn down a PDP8/e mind you.
Why the 8/e in particular? The PDP8 is a very elegant machine, so I can
understand wanting to own one (I have a couple...) but I can't see why
you'd pick that one model. It is the most common one, I guess...
Now possibly you mini drones don't consider
that "collecting" but I am
I do consider it 'collecting', don't worry. I guess I just prefer large
boards of TTL that I can understand to large ASICs that I can't....
-tony