At 06:22 PM 1/16/2004 -0500, you wrote: Hmm, I have two DEC tapes: BB-CJ34A-DE VAX-11 RSX V1.0 1984 BB-CJ34C-BE VAX-11 RSX V2.1 1986 I wonder what they are worth? --tom

On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Zane H. Healy wrote: It's only 264 Euros :) Why, I remember all the way back to last summer when it would've been 264 DOLLARS and 333 EUROS (sigh, thanks George DICKWAD bush). -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

Here in the UK it definitely seems to be Euros - maybe we'll switch if we ever join :-) Certainly in Italy the plural is "Euro" and if the signs in France are anything to go by, it's "Euro" there too (but that could just be their equivalent of the greegrocer's apostrophe!). Still, multiple hundreds of monetary units still seems to be a considerable amount to pay for a tape of unknown provenance and condition. (I know back in my first paying job the system manager would recycle old distribution tapes - I doubt he was the only one doing this!) Antonio

Well, if they got all the rest of a PDP system for nothing, and then never found RSX, and contacted the seller for a guarantee, then yeah, but that's a lot of ifs. I've gotten a few good systems together for free but sometimes I just gotta think of all the _time_ I would've saved If I had just paid the reseller price with one phonecall. John A.

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, Teo Zenios wrote: Face it: the reason we collect at all is because of the fun of the hunt! That's why we always refer to it as "collecting" and not "storing and preserving". Because once we find it, the "collecting" part is mostly done :) -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

----- Original Message ----- From: "Curt vendel" <curt(a)atarimuseum.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 2:06 PM Subject: Re: why ? track The fun of the "chase" all depends on your finances and how much effort it takes to get one. If your into apple I's you can spend 10 years digging around for a lost one in somebody's attic before you find your gem, or if your bill gates wave some cash around and have one delivered the next day without getting off your couch. Its not just the chase but the good story behind it that you can tell others about when they ask about your collection. I bet the thrill of the chase can be addicting, just like collecting can turn into an all consuming desire to have one of anything made whether your going to use it or not. I found myself a few times getting ready to bid on some rare item for a machine I have and had to ask myself what the heck I really wanted it for or what use it would serve. My collecting research involves old magazines, joining forums that cater to the systems I collect, email usergroups, swaplists, googleing old emails on the subject to name a few. You find alot of information these ways and also get to talk to people all over the globe with similar collections without pounding the pavement or spending a ton in gas money/plane fare. Yea its nice having a machine that cost $10,000 new for $20 now or a $1M system for a few hundred if thats what you get into. My collection consists of common systems with less common add-ons running common to harder to find software (some very uncommon). Mostly stuff I never had when I was young that still interests me today (funny how these things add up quickly, take up quite a bit of space, and lead me to expand the area I collect in).

----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Finnegan" <pat(a)computer-refuge.org> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 6:36 PM Subject: Re: why ? Don't think anything I have costs more then $10,000 new, but at least I can move them without a forklift and they run on 110vac. Exactly what machines was this $2,000,000 monster is there a pic of it somewhere?

----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick Finnegan" <pat(a)computer-refuge.org> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 7:23 PM Subject: Re: why ? The direct link doesn't work but I got to the picture from the main site. The IBM machines has an impressive case but I don't see what your friend is going to do with it. The NCR machine on the other hand is impressive to me (always like the ppro architecture and having 32 of them is even better). Any idea what kind of power requirements there is for a machine that large? Would make one hell of a webserver (assuming you can find an OS to run off of it). Computers like those 2 are cool but the power requirements and custom software required to boot them make it difficult to do anything with them let alone fire them up. I find it amusing that on the same page as those multimillion dollar computers the guy has a link to his dreamcast ($300 machine on launch) and how he got it to play NES games through an emulator. I also have a dreamcast with emulation cd's for all kinds of systems like nes, atari 2600/5200/7800 coleccovision and others. Maybe you can get the NCR machine to run a MAME cabinet at full speed!