16 Oct
2010
16 Oct
'10
2:02 p.m.
On (21:02 15/10/10), Tony Duell wrote:
Tony, does a week ever pass where you don't feel the inescapable urge to
Yes. Plenty of such weeks exist. Like the current one.
Teo Zenios wrote:
I feel even more strongly about this, having dealt with some particularly
clueless people at musuems and related organisations [1]. To the extent
that no part of my collection is ever going near a museum. There are many old machines that are worth
preserving but are better off
in a museum then in somebody's cluttered basement left to rot.
There are cases where that's true - but I know how museums can't possibly flame those who work at museums, regardless of their
knowledge, ability and
track record?
Hang on a second... I said I had had dealings with some particularly
clueless msueums. I did NOT say that all museums are clueless. If you
can't understand the difference then I am afraid I regaurd you as
somewhat clueless.
You are rude and insulting. Yes, damned rude even. How
dare you make such
sweeping generalisations? If the subject of your disapproval were a
particular race or subscribers of a certain religion this would not be
Hang on a second. There is a big diffenrce between criticising somebody
becuase of their racial background of beliefs and criticising somebody or
some organisation because of what they do. It is completely wrong to,
say, attack priests or burn down churches, or anything like that. But I
have no problem with a statement of the form 'I disagree with $religion
on $matter'.
I am not advocating any form of harm or damage to computer museums or the
people who work there. This does not mean I have to approve of everything
they do.
tolerated. Yet somehow it is and you get to flap your
jaw, spewing out utter
nonsense asserting that everyone who works at a museum is an idiot, and we
have to put up with it. And *you know full well* that there are plenty of
people who work and volunteer at museums on this list. Oh, I'm not one, in
case you wondered.
And one can only assume that you intend to be buried with your collection
when the day comes, since at this rate when the day approaches there is
unlikely to be a living soul that will match up to your exacting standards.
There are plenty of private collectors who I would be happy to give my
collection to. In fact I have already selected one (he knows who it is).
[1] My 'favourite' story is the chap from
the British Library who didn't
realise that thermal printouts fade quite quickly, and thus any such
printouts of historical significance need to be photocopied or scanned
ASAP.
To the gallows with him!
So, how about this. Have you ever considered that if you slightly adjusted
your attitude and learnt to work with people rather than lambasting them,
you might actually contribute to the preservation of computer history for
future generations.
I am this close {fx : holds up fingers <1mm apart) to making sure I don't
contribute anything. That is, I will send e-mails to the Australian HP
musuem asking them to stop distributing the 100 or so scheamtics I've
produced (many unavailalbe anywwhere else). I will ask that the docuemnts
I wrote are removed from bitsavers [1[. I will make sure there are no
more CD_ROms of my diagrams. No more distrbituions of my tools to read
certain disk on PCs. No more repair tips. No more me running to find
amnauls to aswer all the private e-mails I get on how to fix <foo>. I
can't see I'll be the loser.
But no, I won't do that. Becasue I happen to want to help get computers
preservedm repaired, restored, and working.
[1] Actually, I don't think I ever gave premision for them to be there in
the first place. Not that I mind, as far as I am concerned the more
people who get information on how to repair old the machines the better.
But, no, it's much easier to take the moral high
ground and boast about how
clever you are and how much of an idiot most everyone else is.
I assume you work on some machines that I am not especially interested in
(there are many...) which is why I don't recall your work anywhere. Could
you enlighten me as to what machine(s) they are?
-tony