27 Jun
2000
27 Jun
'00
11:20 a.m.
On the gripping hand, I know of some
"collectors" (as
in they acquire large amounts of stuff without looking for
commercial gain) who will, for example, rip all the boards out of
a working VAX 8650 but leave the chassis behind, because they have
no way of hauling the chassis cabinets nor a place to put them. As
far as I can tell, nobody wins here, because a working 8650 was turned
into a pile of nearly-worthless parts that will simply sit in the basement
for a couple of decades. Does this stop the offenders? Of course not!
What if the machines are to be scrapped in a hurry, and no one can take
the whole thing? I would think that gutting the things is the best
option. A few parts are better than nothing...
I have done this - specifically with a VAX-11/750 and 4D/380. These were
advertised on this list in the very early days, but I was apparently the
only one that could even get close to the machines. Needless to say, I
couldn't take the machines as a whole, so the cards were pulled.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org