To which Tony replied....
I'm gettign that way too...
and
I guess I'm a bit like you here. I like
oddball technology. When it comes
to computers, I like things like a calculator with no ALU or even an
adder. A calculator with a bit-serial CPU. A soft-microcoded workstation
processor. A 32016-based workstation with a bit-serial gtraphics
processor that was acvtually slower than doing the operations on the
32016. A home computer with both a Z80 and a 6809 inside. That sort of
thing.
And every one of those things you mention is on-topic, always has been, and
was never questioned. So what's the beef.
You misunderstood me.
I am not a 'normal' computer collector, if such a thing even exists. For
one thing I am primarily interested in the hardware design (if I can get
a machine running properly so that it boots the normal OS, or runs the
ROM software, or..., then I tend to lose interest in it). I am interested
in the electronics/engineering aspects, the fact that the devices happen
to be programmable computers is secondary to this.
This has several implications. The first, which I think is on-topic, is
that I am equally interested in peripherals as CPUs. I want to run my
PDP11 with RK05s nad RK07s and RL02s, and... Not an IDE drive pretending
to be the above. The design of the servo system in an RK07 is every bit
as interesting to me as the processor.
Another is that I am equally interested in some off-topic stuff. Like
cameras, cars, clocks, ... Yes, I know it's off-topic, and I know I tend
to drift twards it. I am just explianing why I do.
Given that all the above stuff you listed is on-topic
I guess I don't see
the problem. Some of the stuff we have in common (like cars, cameras, etc)
isn't on-topic. There's other lists for that.
Actually, I am not sure there are, or at least I've not found them. There
are lists for the 'stamp collector' type of collectors who can't
understand why you'd ever _use_ the item in question, and less still why
you'd take it apart. There are lists for repairers, which seem to
concentrate on more mainstream stuff, and where anything oddball is
considered to be 'unreliable' and 'not worth bothering with'. I've yet
to
find a list that welcomes the eccentric enthusiast.
-tony