20 Mar
2002
20 Mar
'02
2:14 a.m.
The London Science Museum is open every day (AFAIK),
and is now free for
everyone to go in.
That's exactly what I did. Especialy since my returndate changed to
Monday a week later.
They've got a few computers on display (alas
nothing
actually powered up), including an Apple 1, a Cray, the Pilot Ace, an
HP65 (and the CPU hybrid from one with the can removed), and so on.
I couldn't find an A1, but there was a nice Apple ][ (no plus)
on display. It's been my first visit to the museum, and I'm
somewhat thorn apart. On one hand some real nice artefacts and
great explanations (Shure, brit-centric, but who expects different).
But then again some 'new' parts which i'd rather call advertisement
areas. Wasing an awfull lot of space for colourfull nothing. Also
(qualified) maintainance of existing areas seams to be a problem.
They also have a nice collection of mechanical clocks,
which fortuantely
hasn't been modernised (read : ruined). No silly lighting effects, no
stupid layouts. Just the clocks, running, with descriptios. What a museum
should be.
Well, it is by far smaler than the Deutsches Museum, but at least
in the 'old' parts you feel the same attitude of 'good old' education.
A place where you can go an study the material to _learn_ about.
Anyway
Gruss
H.
P.S.: Waht I said about the 'new parts', exactly the same is true
for the Deutsches Museum colourfull nothing ... and they want to
'redesign and enhance' the Transportation part ... Which means
less displays with less information and less background but way
more emphasis on architectural gimmicks like 'creative walkways'
--
VCF Europa 3.0 am 27./28. April 2002 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/