28 Sep
1998
28 Sep
'98
9:27 p.m.
On Mon, 28 Sep 1998, Christian Fandt wrote:
The point is that if we know of, work with, have in
the family, run into on
the street, share a jail cell with or any other way discover an old time
computer industry person who could have some 'lost' history to offer, make
an attempt to let them know you are interested in the history of computing
and would like them to help you preserve what he/she knows or otherwise
owns about the long obsolete hardware/software that that person had a hand
in. If you are shy about approaching that person maybe another fellow
This is probably the most important part of being a computer "collector"
or "preservationist": getting the stories. The hardware is tangible, and
easy to acquire. The stories require more work to acquire and preserve,
but they are more important than th artifacts themselves.
collector could help you break the ice. Or, simply
screw up the gumption
and introduce yourself and hope for the best. Quite often when a person
sees you are sincere about learning what he/she has once had been working
with and hears your request to learn what he/she has to offer as far as
preserving the history of something they once had a hand in they will be
open to you.
Old computer people LOVE to talk about their past work. I especially love
to talk to the old timers, since they are the most generous with their
stories. They love to recount the contributions they made to computing
history since nobody really cared (or could comprehend) what they were
doing during the time they were doing it. I had a chance to talk to a
couple of old guys at a Computer Museum dinner function last week,
including a programmer of the SAGE and another old guy who went around
introducing himself to people and talking their ear off with computer
history anecdotes.