I agree, a large percentage of the hands-on exhibits at the history museum
were out of order. I suppose you can't hope for too much with the Government
running things, and not charging admission, which I respect. A connection to
a 360 or 370 would be interesting, tn3270's are a dime a dozen these days. I
think the Boston Computer Museum had a Vax available as a BBS for a while..
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Cheponis" <mac(a)Wireless.Com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: Museum Computers (was Re: Washington D.C. Trip
Perhaps these so-called "museums" need to
visit SF's Exploratorium?
There,
everything is meant to be "hands-on". This
doesn't mean that things don't
break from time to time, but the percentage of operational exhibits there
is greater than any other public museum I've seen.
Mind you, I'm not saying people should put an Eniac cabinet out where
people can slobber over it, but I think it would be cool to be able to
remote-control these older machines (I dunno, like a 360/50 or something)
via modern interfaces - safely away from the original equipment, but
yet behind glass - so you can see the original machine running.
So yeah, Chuck, I agree!
-Mike
On Thu, 31 May 2001, Chuck McManis wrote:
> Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 09:04:39 -0700
> From: Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)mcmanis.com>
> Reply-To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
> Subject: Museum Computers (was Re: Washington D.C. Trip
>
>
> >The problem with working machines with millions of people tocuhing them
over
> >the years
> >is that the machines tend to break. Even the modern display terminals
> >used for
> >presentation are
> >in constant need of repair due to fingers smashing and otherwise folks
that
> >don't respect the equipment out of common
courtesy. Computers don't
hold up
well to abuse. Its a shame but the way that it is.
Eric
This is one of the problems I think would be fun to attack if I had a
suitable patron. Building I/O devices that could stand up to the kind of
abuse that museums get.