Did you really have to quote over 80 lines of text to add one word? ANd then top-post it? Yes, you know. Light-tight boxes containing a suitable substrate (often cellulose acetate, but maybe glass) coated with a sliver halide emulsion. There's a lense system o nthe frotn of said box.... More seriously, I have a number of oolder cameras. Some quite good quality, others less so. Some interesting form the mechnical design, agian otehrs less so. Nothign _spectacualrly rare or valualbe, but certain;y soem fun items. -tony

Sorry to hear about your Dad mate, big hugs from the flatlands up north! -- Adrian/Witchy Binary Dinosaurs creator/curator Www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the UK's biggest private home computer collection?

On Apr 6, 2013, at 7:40 PM, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: I'm highjacking this thread. I'm debating starting a museum locally, as we don't have anything like this in the Indianapolis area. For those who have started such endeavors, what are your stories in getting the ball rolling?

I was part of a small group that tried to start a computer museum in the Minneapolis area in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Unfortunately, there were few computer museums to relate to at the time and selling the vision was not always easy. Our break through came when we met with the governor, Rudy Perpich, who had worked for Control Data Corp. He liked the idea and arranged a meeting with Bill Norris of CDC. He also liked the idea and gave his support for the idea along with people and access to the Control Data warehouse containing some early systems for starters if the museum found a home. We approached a couple local museums with the idea of joining with them. Both liked it so much that a small political battle resulted. In the mean time, DEC announced the opening of the Boston Computer Museum and support for opening another museum dwindled. It was a great experience and in that 5 year period, I even collected a few systems with hopes of displaying them. Burlington Northern gave us a Univac III system and Pillsbury gave us a GE timesharing system that was originally at Dartmouth. I also had an operational Bendix G-15 in my classroom. Wished I still had some of these today! I do have about 100 micros yet and many boxes of miscellaneous items that I have started to sort through now that I am retired. I have done a YouTube video with an overview of some interesting items that I collected, if you want to take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDeKUrOpFiU You might want to consider an area science museum and approach them with the idea of having a display area. I wish you luck with your efforts!

-----Original Message----- From: Jonathan Katz <jon at jonworld.com> To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Sun, Apr 7, 2013 2:31 am Subject: Mulling a museum On Apr 6, 2013, at 7:40 PM, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: I'm highjacking this thread. I'm debating starting a museum locally, as we don't have anything like this in the Indianapolis area. For those who have started such endeavors, what are your stories in getting the ball rolling? FYI 1. You need lots of money 2. You need a great board to help make it all work 3. You need a SUPER grant writer 4. Again you need lots of money 5. If you plan on running it yourself get some trainng or take some museum classes at a school I started one back 2003 and still have not got any funding to fully support it. JK

At 08:58 PM 4/7/2013, Mouse wrote: I called the web page for my collection "a museum" and I get one or two people a year who call to say they'll be in the area and they'd like to visit. - John

could allways have a store thats got a computer musuem taged on the side of it

It's hard to GIVE collections away! I could will it all in a will, but then my executioner is stuck with getting it OUT. Physically disposing of all of the old computer magazines, etc. will cost more in time and effort (for which she will need to be compensated) then she will be willing to deal with. What is a stack of untested ST-4096s worth? NO, she is NOT going to test them in order to get "full value" for the ones that work. When I closed my business, there were only a few people who would come get things. Sellam hauled away quite a few cubic yards of stuff. I need to move out of my [jamful] office at the college, when I retire at the end of this semester. I have several cubic yards of goodies to get rid of. But, "Free Pickup In Berkeley" doesn't work! When I list a handful of items, people want me to ship it to them. Half never reimburse me the postage! I'm swamped, exhausted, ill, caring for my even more incapacitated 90 year old mother, and unable to get done what NEEDS to be done. I can not deal with packing each item one at a time, and PAYING to get rid of them. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com 0.42 semester left

And a number of current independent computer museums are in the process of failing - they just do not realize it yet. Startup museums should study the history of museums, and maybe learn something from what they find. -- Will

On 04/07/2013 01:33 PM, Fred Cisin wrote: Hey, if you just happen to have a stack of untested ST-4096s.. =) -Dave -- Dave McGuire, AK4HZ New Kensington, PA

------ Original Message ------ From: "Rob Jarratt" <robert.jarratt at ntlworld.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: 07/04/2013 18:50:20 Subject: RE: Re[2]: Who might want my collections (but not yet!)? Sorry, don't touch the "collections" box, just put "computer" into the "Object Summary" box. It should then become obvious as to why you leave collections blank... The DataFlow project probably fits with the collections policy. Oddly Pete Lomas of Norcott Technologies who designed the Raspberry PI Hardware worked on the Dataflow project... If it has Northwest connections then it may be of interest. So I know GEC Althsom who designed the Metrolink trams were a big DEC house, as were BNFL , so kit with connections to these may be of interest... Dave G4UGM

True enough, and I don't expect them to be. On the other hand perhaps they should be prepared to sell on the more ocmmon items from a donated colelction in order to keep the rare ones(and, indeed, to get the money form the deceased owner's estate). I don;t know how the law waorks in other countries, but in the UK if you mention a specific object iin a will, then it's that object, and that object only that is passed on. Not a similar object. So if I said that I leave my Philips P850 to $museum and then by the time I die I have traded the P850 for a P855, tyhe msueum gets nothing and the P855 does nto get preserved. Quite honestly I can;'t update my will every time I change the contents of my colelciton. Findign a collector is the obvious solution, and indeed I ahve done that. But (again, this is the UK,m other countriess mmay be differnet), if said colelctor dies before me ten the will ahs no meaning. Of course if he dies years before me and I am still of sound mind I can make a new will. If not, then again the stuff is not presereved. That is what I want to avoid. -tony

Me too. I have maybe a vague idea what it's like, from losing my own parents, which was, to put it mildly, Not Fun At All. I agree that this is seriously broken. But, as for the pragmatic matter of what to put in your will, maybe you could, rather than willing your collection to a museum, specify that the museum is to get whatever subset they want, with the rest to be disposed of otherwise? (Of course, this does mean choosing a value of "otherwise". I suggest it just as a workaround for such broken museum policies.) /~\ The ASCII Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse at rodents-montreal.org / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B

* Tony Duell <ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk> [130408 16:17]: I'm sorry for your loss as well. [..] First of all, the usual disclaimers, I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV. I haven't even stayed in a Holiday Inn Express (ever, not just last night.) I'm in the US and not the UK and don't know how estate law works there (though we're both common law countries starting from the same point so maybe some of it applies.) But I have done estate planning here in the US (northeast, MA and NH.) I have a number of collections which I hope to provide a share of to my wife and the rest of the shares to my children. I would think in your case you could set up all of your "collection" (specified in suitable general legalese so that it doesn't require updating your will every time you add or dispose of an item in your "collection") to transfer to a trust that is created upon your death. You can name trustees (hopefully more than one) in the order you wish them and if one is not alive then another can become trustee. To handle the case of all your trustees predeceding you can make arrangements with lawyers offices who generally make a business of being "trustees-for-pay." (I don't know if they have to be lawyers, it doesn't seem like a requirement as long as whatever entity it is can survive you, but the case here in the US in my experience.) You'd have to reach some agreement on how they'd be paid. Perhaps, they can sell items in your collection to pay themselves, or get prepaid, get paid out of other assets you might have outside of the "collection," etc. You could set terms of the trust such that the trustee should offer the collection first to museum A then museum B then for the cost of shipping on this mailing list (if it exists) or any suitable public medium, etc. Of course the tricky bit will be the arrangement with your "last resort" trustee. Another option here is to create an LLC and transfer the entire "collection" to it with you as the manager and sole member. Then in your will specify to whom shares of the LLC will pass. Here in the US there are companies that can be hired to manage the LLC as well in case there is no one else surviving. This can be used as a way to divide your "collection" between more than one entity without specifying specific pieces (with all that entails for issues for the shareholders in the future,) but that doesn't seem to be your problem. Or how about trying to find a number of younger individuals with the same interests as you, becoming friends if you vet them to your liking, and then use them as trustees. Or just a larger number of any age friends with the idea that the chances of someone surviving you goes up the more trustees you get? FWIW. Regards, Todd