Machine dates - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

5 Aug 1997

Marvin &lt;marvin(a)rain.org&gt; wrote:

...
 > There are over 800 machines with unknown dates,
would the list members 
...
 > be upset if I do a weekly posting of, say 10 names
in an attempt to
> get
> more info? If you do object send me Email and I will stop. 
...
  This sounds like a good idea as well as one that is
appropriate for this
 group!  Are you looking for the date that the computers first shipped or
 perhaps rather advertised that they would ship :)? 
Thanks for the encouragement! 

Yes, the date of a machine is a problem, ideally, for mainframes I would
like the date of running the first significant program. I have taken to
using the date of publication of an announcemnt in for example IEEE
Computer. Any reasonable and hopefully verifiable date would be
welcomed.

I have been browsing the back issues of PCW magazine of which I have a
complete set of the first 8 years or so, and it is amusing to see the
adverts for the Sinclair MK14, they start out as rough drawings, then
more detailed ones and finally after 8 or so months we finally see a
photograph. It would be interesting to see a the sequence of these ads
juxtaposed, hmmm, yet another project ;-)

Regards,

Hans