Progress report

Early in the summer I got involved with a fellow who is attempting to start a science museum in Windsor, Ont. and undertook to work on the computer collection. Following Sam's suggestion I inserted a small ad in our local weekly shopping guide: "Old computers wanted, working or not, for museum collection." with my name and phone number. This has been in three times at about three week intervals, and so far has resulted in turning up over fifty computers. Apparently word is spreading, for I have had calls as much as two weeks after the ad ran. Also I feel having my name in it is important for it lets people know who they are dealing with. Also on two occasions folks who I knew years ago in other organizations have brought me their unwanted machines. How one answers the phone can be important. What seems to work best, when some one asks if I am the fellow collecting old computers, and what kind, or how old, is to ask "What do you have, and how much are you asking for it?" In a lot of cases they will say they don't want anything for it, they just want it out of the basement, and even an XT or an Apple clone might have a lot of useful parts. So far we have turned up lots of XT and Apple clones along with an assortment of TRS-80s, T.I.s Commodores, Ataris and Timex Sinclairs, but an Osborne and a DEC Rainbow have come along as well as the fragments of a Basic 4, a Philips Micom, and a Wang wordprocesser. Also about a dozen assorted calculators have made an appearence. While I keep dreaming of a PDP11, or a VAX, we have to realize that Windsor, (pop 200,000) is not as fertile a field as you folks have in the western states. Cheers Charlie Fox