8 Sep
2011
8 Sep
'11
4:46 p.m.
On 8 Sep 2011 at 21:03, Tony Duell wrote:
I never said you should run one as your only (or main)
printer :-).
It's probaby uneconomical to run a PDP8 as your only computer system,
but plenty of u run PDP8s from time to time.
Space is money. And lots of unused bulky stuff makes me uneasy.
I keep thinking about the scenario of me dropping dead tomorrow (a
friend who's quite a bit younger than I did just that over last
weekend) leaving my widow to dispose of this stuff. I know her--
she'll pay someone to pull up two big trucks. One will be hauling a
big dumpster; the other will haul a trailer heading for the local
electronics recycler.
I just can't do that to her, sorry. Someone wants this stuff, they
can come and get it or have it shipped. Otherwise, I'll salvage
the interesting bits and dispose of the rest.
That/'s why, incidentally, in a couple of days
time I am demonstating
a printer that's almost 40 years old, taking it apart to show the
internals, nnd describing the intricacies of the control system (it's
beautiful, and to think the ROM is only 32 bytes long.
What, you've found a 1403?
I've not used either, but I can think of one
possible reason to keep
the older unit going -- because it's more relaible.
I'm not convinced of that--it's only 300 DPI, and requires special
(expensive) supplies and is incredibly messy to refill (the toner is
loose in a bottle and is dumped into a compartment when refilling.
Gloves are included--and required). Better than the old wet-process
printers, but not something I care to fool with.
--Chuck