18 Oct
2010
18 Oct
'10
2:17 p.m.
I completely agree... but then again, when I rescue
something, it
kills me if it's just sitting there, not doing anything. :) Right
Yep. The purpose of a computer is to 'compute' (whatever that may mean).
I try to get all my machines operationa, but I keep them as origianl as I
can. What I mean by that is that I replace the smallest part I can (chip
rather than PCN, for example), but I don't worry too much if the
rpelacement is not exactly the same as the original part (I'll replace a
74xx with a 74LSxx if it'll work and I can't get the former). Of course I
keep record of what I've done.
There are plenty of machines I've not got round to working on yet, but I
will...
I just realized I had written this and still
hadn't made a point. I
believe that preserving classic computers is VERY different from
preserving many other types of collectibles. I know of very few
possessions that can become unusable paperweights when something
ethereal (like disk contents or tape records) become unreadable, and
Or EPROM contents, of course.
this is something a lot of people (outside this
industry) understand.
When I rescue something, I want to make it WORK, damn it. :)
Indeed. Whike I generally keep the casaings on my machines (at least when
I am not usinfg them :-), _I_ am not very interested in the styling. Some
people woould want an HP2623 terminal for the rather odd styling, I'm
interested in it because of the little state machine to draw lines. And
thus my inteest comes from the intnerals, and they have to work to be
interesting.
-tony