Doug Yowza wrote: Slim margin, mend your ways? I think Bob is doing us all a great service since without people like him, we would have no idea what our machines might bring on the open market. "Slim margin" sounds like it is coming from some of the kids who seem to think that making a profit on a sale is obscene. Doug, I think we need to help you out of your idealistic state. And always being willing to help, I, and I only do this to help you out, am willing to sell you, not one, not two, but THREE, yes THREE original Altair computers. Just the computers? Nope, I'll even throw in the original docs. But wait, that is not all, if you act now, I will also throw in another well known S-100 computer (and this only because I know you), a working Compu-Pro 8/16 box. But wait again. We all know that the computers as described are almost useless and therefore I am willing to throw in not one, not two, but FOUR genuine Soroc terminals. And because I know Sam feels much the same way you do, I'll even include him in on this deal and let you two bid, er, decide who will get to take advantage this generous offer. Just think, you could be one of the few people who have more than one Altair computer. Now we all know that an offer like this cannot last for long, but again, only because I know you and Sam, I will extend this offer for one whole week. What is the price you ask? Well, I have always wanted to travel the world and see what kinds of computers are available in the lesser known parts of the world ... like Europe. And of course, spending money will be required. But just remember the old saying, if you have to ask how much it costs, you probably can't afford it!

Marvin wrote: Ok, Marvin, how much WOULD this impressive generosity of yours cost then? To counter your offer, and to demonstrate what a nice guy *I* am, I'll give you my Lisa (not Lisa 2, Lisa) for just the drive up here! (But don't be surprised if I have some chores for you to do before you're allowed to gleefully cart it back home, but really, no strings attached...just like your gracious offer.) Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always being hassled by the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 12/07/98]

Hans Franke wrote: I hadn't thought about including others in on that offer, but if it is okay with Doug and Sam, it is okay with me. Okay, I'll add one, and only one, small orange box to the lot to possibly make it actually worth the price I am asking :). Depends on who you are dealing with :).

Doug Yowza wrote: As I told Sam, we sure are a generous group! I saw the collection at Moffet Field and in all seriousness, it sure was impressive. I heard somewhere that permanent facilities have been established. Do you know if this is true, and if so, when it will open to the public? That collection is a *must see* for anyone interested in the history of computing!

On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, James Willing wrote: NASA sold (permanently loaned?) several acres of land in Mountain View to The Computer Museum History Center, so they will be gearing up to finally build a permanent museum that will open sometime in the middle of the next decade. It should be a pretty awesome facility once its all complete. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always being hassled by the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 12/07/98]

On Thu, 17 Dec 1998, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote: Interesting. My first paying programming contract was to do hot-air balloon structural analysis on an Apple ][. A balloon maker in Rancho Sante Fe (just north of San Diego) had to get FAA certification for new designs, so they paid some college kid to write a program that proved their designs were safe (luckily, I was studying continuum mechanics at the time). I was able to generate some pretty pictures and some numbers that looked right to me, and the FAA bought it, but there was no way I was going up in one of those things! -- Doug

Yes, this is pretty much off topic, but as I said before, airships were the immediate cause of my getting involved with computers back in the late 70s when I was fresh out of the USAF and sick and tired of heavier-than-air equipment. Hans Franke wrote: Remember, Hans, there were more than a few drawbacks to living where you are in the 1930s -- and other than DELAG employees, access to the big airships was pretty much limited to the idle rich, tickets were expensive. With technologies developed since the 1930s, the big ships could be practical again. Aside from the use of helium rather than hydrogen (whatever the immediate cause, static electricity or sabotage or whatever, the Hindenberg burned because the US government forbade the sale of helium to Germany), there have been lots of things developed since 1937 to make airships that would be better by far than they were, many of them spinoffs of the heavier-than-air industry. Stronger, lighter materials both for structure and envelopes. Electronics and instrumentation (considering how many ships were destroyed by storms, such as two of the four ships the US Navy had, just radar is a big help, but things like computerized trim control and GPS come to mind). Lots of new art on aerodynamic design even at low speed, lots of that from the automotive industry. I could build a ship four times the strength and less than half the tare weight of the Hindenberg from the Hindenberg's blueprints today, but that wouldn't take into account new structural concepts that would improve things far more. That reminds me, I've got to resubscribe to the LTA mailing lists and see what's been going on lately. -- Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram@cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/> WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms can be hazardous to your health -- and get away with it.