27 Mar
2012
27 Mar
'12
2:34 p.m.
On 2012 Mar 27, at 2:13 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
On 03/27/2012 05:05 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
Everyone that wants some [rosewood/whatever] can come up with some
excuse for why their particular use is special and worthy ("I had a
deprived childhood and now I deserve a rosewood bedroom suite"). If
you're going to get it from the market it all adds to demand. And if
one subscribes fully to capitalist theory, it doesn't matter if it's
old and already harvested: new or old it all fits in one supply-
demand equation.
Perhaps there are worthy uses of rosewood - maybe a PDP-8 front panel
is one of them - but simply saying 'this is just one little bit, it
doesn't matter' isn't an argument.
--
If these are the sort of panels at issue:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theodric/6296473924/
I highly doubt that they are solid rosewood. It was expensive even
back then, and solid wood planks have a tendency to warp and crack -
not a good idea for fitting to a comparatively precise metal frame.
They might be veneer on plywood or particle board, they could be mac-
tac stuck on particle board or mac-tac stuck on aluminum. All of
those were common in the period, solid wood is about the least likely.
I don't know where the original suggestion of rosewood came from, but
mahogany, walnut and teak (or simulations thereof) were more common
for such purposes in the era.
On Tue, 27 Mar 2012, Mouse wrote:
Sure, but how many Straight-8s are there? A handful. This is a
self-limiting problem. Specifically without commenting on whether the
issue is worth
worrying
about, that is, addressing only this comment: "mind the pence and
the
pounds will take care of themselves".
"Little by little makes a great pile". Thinking in the "one tiny
little additional load won't hurt anything" mindset is exactly
what got
us in the environmental binds we as a species are currently in.
More importantly, it's how Microsoft software ended up as what it is.
"It's only a few more bits/clock-cycles"