22 Jun
1997
22 Jun
'97
6:12 a.m.
At 00:02 22-06-97 PDT, you wrote:
<snip>
Well, to get more specific, I have the (perhaps wrong)
feeling that:
a) You are against collectors who collect for the historical importance
onyl and are not really worried if the item works or not (as long as all
the parts are in there and the thing can be made to work if and when
required). I have been ridiculized when I suggested this one way to go
about collecting.
??? What on God's green Earth would make you think that? I collect a few
bits and pieces mainly for historical value (I've got an original Seagate
ST212 in one of my Micro-PDP11's that I don't ever plan to use; just
exhibit), and I've never been ridiculed.
Even if you have been jeered at, what of it? People have taken plenty of
pokes at me for my open criticism of Bill Gates, Microsoft, Intel, et al,
and my collecting of DEC stuff that's at least ten years old. My take on
this? Let 'em jeer. I see them as narrow-minded victims of the Wintel
monopoly's marketing sharks, and I am confident in the fact that I'll
likely forget more about computer hardware than such people will ever learn.
b) You are against collectors who want ot take out bits
and pieces from
the systems in order to show them separately (but retaining and perhaps
even ehibiting the "crippled" item). I have been refused help in thsi
respect when it became apparent I was going to do this.
I don't see an issue with this. What I do have a problem with is people
who just blindly throw 'bits and pieces' or entire machines on the scrap
heap just because they think they're "obsolete" (an overused word if ever
there was one!)
c) You are against helping "foreigners" (and
therefore "different")
collectors to export "your" stuff perhaps in the wrong perception that
it will diminish the heritage of the country (yours). I have striken a
?!? Good Lord, man, who's been beating you up? I would WELCOME aiding
anyone, in any country, that wanted to restore or collect some piece of
hardware that I'm familiar with and needed help to get it going (I
obviously can't be of much help with stuff I don't know anything about).
Tell you what... if you want proof of this, at least from me, I'd be happy
to offer any aid I can with the equipment that I'm familiar with. That
includes DEC stuff, from the PDP11/03 on up through the MicroPDP's and
VAXen. There are others on here who, I'm sure, would be willing to help you
in their particular areas of expertise.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."