7 Nov
1997
7 Nov
'97
2:06 p.m.
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997 14:03:12 -0800 (PST), we heard Mr. Ismail utter:
The Nova will never be featured in the newspapers
because it is not a
socially significant computer.
Two words, one of which is not printable, but the lead-in is
"Bull".
The Nova was one of the early minicomputers which came to be used
by schools in the early '70s. The other one, and slightly earlier in
origin, was the PDP-8. The pdp11 post-dates these by some time.
The Nova was a seminal machine even if it was a "widened/en-
hanced" PDP-8. One of the founders of Apple, who lots of those
here hold in very high esteem, was captivated enough by the Nova
to keep a picture of one tacked to his bedroom wall. (Kids,
sheesh! :-) )
In the great scheme of things, it is but one of many.
So are lots of things, including many of the machines manu-
factured in the last two decades. Like the TRS-80, the Apple II,
the Commodore <whatever>, the ubiquitous PeeCee, and, yes, even
the revered IMSAI.
Drop the rant already.
Yes. Please do.
There's more to life than microprocessors and tiny boxes.
Of course, I may have been trolled here, but if that's the case
I'll learn to deal with it.
______________________________________________________________________
| | |
| Carl Richard Friend (UNIX Sysadmin) | West Boylston |
| Minicomputer Collector / Enthusiast | Massachusetts, USA |
| mailto:carl.friend@stoneweb.com | |
| http://www.ultranet.com/~engelbrt/carl/museum/ | ICBM: N42:21 W71:46 |
|________________________________________________|_____________________|
7 Nov
7 Nov
4:26 p.m.
On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Carl R. Friend wrote:
The Nova was a seminal machine even if it was a
"widened/en-
hanced" PDP-8. One of the founders of Apple, who lots of those
here hold in very high esteem, was captivated enough by the Nova
to keep a picture of one tacked to his bedroom wall. (Kids,
sheesh! :-) )
Ehehe... I did that with a PDP-11/20 picture. It lasted about a week
until my parents demanded I take it down.
And you two stop arguing. You're acting like... children...
(Oh god, I *NEVER* thought I'd hear that coming from *ME!*)
8:10 p.m.
On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Carl R. Friend wrote:
Age has nothing to do with emotions 8-)
The Nova was a seminal machine even if it was
a "widened/en-
hanced" PDP-8. One of the founders of Apple, who lots of those
here hold in very high esteem, was captivated enough by the Nova
to keep a picture of one tacked to his bedroom wall. (Kids,
sheesh! :-) )
Ehehe... I did that with a PDP-11/20 picture. It lasted about a week
until my parents demanded I take it down.
And you two stop arguing. You're acting like... children... (Oh god, I *NEVER* thought I'd hear that coming
from *ME!*)
You're right Dan - I never thought it either 8-)
BC
4:29 p.m.
The Nova will
never be featured in the newspapers because it is not a
socially significant computer.
Two words, one of which is not printable, but the lead-in is
"Bull". There's more to life than microprocessors and
tiny boxes.
Well yes, even though that world is hidden from everyday view. The big
iron touches everyone these days in some way or another - AOL is not just
a roomful of micros, rather they probably have more big iron than anyone
but Uncle Sam - yet look at how many people use the service. In the past,
it was just the same, different application - everyone was processed by
hundreds of mainframe computers.
Of course, I may have been trolled here, but if
that's the case
I'll learn to deal with it.
Yes, but some things need saying. History often gets trashed if you do
not take in the big picture.
Question (maybe a test, but what the hell):
What social impact did the IBM-RT have?
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net
8:23 p.m.
On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Carl R. Friend wrote:
On Thu, 6 Nov 1997 14:03:12 -0800 (PST), we heard
Mr. Ismail utter:
Ok, first of all I'm pretty amazed at the 3rd grade level of mentality
being demonstrated by the whiners complaining about my "foul" language. I
didn't know "family values" were required here. At any rate I'm sorry
that I do not choose to limit my vocabulary to only those words which the
Puritanical populace finds palatable.
The Nova will never be featured in the newspapers
because it is not a
socially significant computer.
Two words, one of which is not printable, but the lead-in is
"Bull". The Nova was one of the early minicomputers which
came to be used
by schools in the early '70s. The other one, and slightly earlier in
origin, was the PDP-8. The pdp11 post-dates these by some time.
I'm not arguing against the Nova being a significant computer. And again,
I'd like someone to point out where I did. But before you bother going
back to read old messages, I'll save you the time by telling you that you
will not find a sentence where I stated "The Nova is not significant".
Perhaps I should have been more specific and stated that from a
mass-consumer marketing standpoint, the Nova is not significant. It did
not impact society the way the Altair or Apple did, and newspapers
simply do not run articles on just any old subject. Its the same reason
why nobody will ever want to know what's in your sock drawer, unless your
socks were found to cure cancer or were used to kill someone.
At any rate, why is there concern that the Nova will never be wanted until
some newspaper runs an article on it? The argument is pointless. So
there's no market for it. Boo hoo. Either keep them in storage or scrap
them. Nobody required Tim to take on 5000 lbs worth of stuff and nobody
is requiring me to take it off his hands. If Tim was realistic he'd
realize the practical implications involved in hauling a ton of equipment
ANYWHERE on the continent, let alone across national borders. I thought
it was pretty much agreed that there were no requirements for being a
collector of old computers, and we all had our own reasons for doing it.
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4 comments
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participants (5)
-
carl.friend＠stoneweb.com -
danjo＠xnet.com -
dastar＠wco.com -
dseagrav＠bsdserver.tek-star.net -
william＠ans.net