31 Oct
2006
31 Oct
'06
6:04 p.m.
On 31 Oct 2006 at 20:31, Tim Shoppa wrote:
Private collectors fall into the same trap as the
institutions
and museums, ending up with lots of CPU's but few of the necessary
peripherals.
Bravo, Tim!
In my way of thinking, the LEAST important part of a system is the
CPU--heck, you can easily recreate that (or at leas a simulacrum)
using modern components.
But peripherals are a whole 'nuther smoke. Very difficult to
reproduce without expending large hunks of labor and money--and
essential to resurrecting the recorded media of bygone days. And
it's the peripherals that are the very devil to keep in working
order.
Heck, if you want to show folks a Spectrola 70 CPU, just keep the
empty cabinets and blinkenlights and stick a PeeCee inside with lots
of I/O lines to run the switches and lights. You'll have less grief
in the long run than if you had the real innards..
Bits are bits; they don't care how old the iron is.
After alll, it was the tape drives that defined a computer for
Hollywood for many years...
Cheers,
Chuck