14 Aug
1997
14 Aug
'97
9:07 a.m.
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 1997 07:40:20 -0700 (PDT)
Reply-to: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)crl.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: A moment of silence, please
On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, William Donzelli wrote:
This newsgroup is a real savior. I was beginning to think my friends
and relatives references to my "lunacy" might be justified. But NOW I
realize that I'm not the only obsolete computer nutcase. Kind of
gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling all over.
I must, however, admit to a transgression of which I am still in
deep denial. In a pique of " I have to make some room in this bloody
1 bedroom apt." I threw out a bunch of mono monitors as well as a
working LANPAR terminal. From the guys that Lotus reputedly stole
their system from. Lotus won the court case because of some
technicalities in LANPAR's copyright application. I only shudder to
think that it might have been the last one in existence.
ciao larry
I also talked to a guy that deals with old
computers. Two weeks ago, he
_finally_ scrapped out a bunch of old machines - really old. Amongst the
deaths were various PDP-8s, two PDP-9s, a Burroughs mainframe, and an IBM
7090 of some sort.
Of course I wretched. The loss of the PDP-8s is bad (I do not know
specific model numbers), but the others are a real shame. Known PDP-9s
number in the _low_ single digits, the 7090 perhaps less, but old
Burroughs equipment is probably extinct.
In any case, this shows that the stuff was not _all_ scrapped years ago.
This shows the need to get the word out to people that you collect old
computers. You never know who's going to say "Oh really? My dad has
this old mainframe in his garage that he's throwing out next week." Once
word gets out that you collect old computers, people will be coming to
you. It gets in their head and they start to find the opportunities for
you through casual contacts with friends and relatives. This has
happened to me on a few occassions; people I have explained my hobby to
have come back to me saying they saw System X or heard of someone wanting
to get rid of System Y.
Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass