Just thought I'd pass on what happened to me this week. Early in the week I
got a call from my son who said they had some kind of device that his
manager was going to get rid of but thought I might be interested in getting
it. He sent me a follow up email that included a couple of pictures of it.
It turns out it was a Data General Eclipse computer and looked like an
S-140. I called him back and told him I was interested in getting it
because it was an old Data General mini computer. His manager wanted it out
of the warehouse which they had dropped their lease on right away. They
couldn't wait for me to come up on the week end. (I live in Colo. Springs,
the unit was in a warehouse in north Denver) I told my son I could get up
there as early as Thursday but Friday would be better. I needed to make
arrangements at work since this would be about a 3 hour round trip just to
pick it up.
When I called my son on Thursday to make final arrangements, he said it
was too late. The night shift maintenance crew who were cleaning up the
warehouse had not been told to leave the computer there for another day.
During the night they took it and a couple of old 286s and threw them in the
dumpster. Then, being the efficient crew that they were and since they had
filled the dumpster, they called for it to be removed. Well by the time my
son's manager got to the warehouse that day, sometime after noon, everything
was gone.
I think this has taught me a valuable lesson which I guess most of us in
the "rescue" business learn at one or another, "Don't Wait". I
just wanted
to share this with the board and say I won't make this mistake again. The
next time I hear of an old computer that is available, I'm going to head out
that same day and worry about my work getting done later.
Bill Machacek
Colo. Springs, CO