8 Sep
2011
8 Sep
'11
1:03 p.m.
On 7 Sep 2011 at 21:22, 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.
I know I'm strange, but being a hardware person I do find interest in
things other than the processors. If nobody preserves printers, plotters,
modems, etc, then part of the history of computing is going to be lost.
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...)
This of course assumes you don't rgard laser
printers as part of
computer history and therefore worth preserving. I cuuld mention that
many computers hve nice mais transofrmers in them too (PDP8s, PDP11s,
P850s, HP9800 calculators, HP9826s and HP9836s, etc), but anyone who
strips those for parts is liable to be LARTed
After a time, it simply becomes uneconomical to operate one, compared to a modern laser printer. Take, for example, the
Panasonic KX-
P4451, fairly representative of these old beasts. Circa 1990, uses a
massive print engine that was also shared with their plain-paper
faxes and compiers. 13 PPM, Appletalk interface as well as the usual
serial and parallel. Nice printer, but the separate toner, OPC drum,
developer and ozone filter units will set you back a lot now per copy-
-assuming you can find a functioning OPC unit (they do have a shelf
life).
Why bother when you can buy a Brother desktop laser that costs almost
nothing to refill, runs just as fast and even has ethernet
I've not used either, but I can think of one possible reason to keep the
older unit going -- because it's more relaible. The fact that the newer
unit is cheaper to run, and cheaper to replace, doesn't help much when
somethign failes on aSunday afternoon and you need to get printout done
for monday morning...
connectivity? And printers appear to have very little
collector
value, judging from the units I can't even give away.
You know full well that financial value is not a reason for collecting
something.
-tony