Lots of Apple 1 computers @ VCF West

[Tomasz Rola]

On Mon, Jul 08, 2019 at 09:19:09AM -0700, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> On 7/8/19 8:25 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Spoken like a non-collector. :-)
> 
> I suppose that's the root of it.  I'm basically a pragmatist.  I give
> away old hardware that no longer has any use to me.  When I am
> eventually forced to downsize, (or my widow is) most of the stuff will
> go either to the recyclers or to the landfill.  I am not my possessions.
> 
> I recall the Homebrew CC at SLAC auditorium where the Apple I was rolled
> out for a special price.  Since I already had a MITS box, I wasn't very
> enthusiastic about laying out cash for a single-board microcomputer--a
> feeling shared by several other people I knew.   At any rate, if I'd
> have sprung for one, it'd be gone by now, as its utility has long passed.

Yeah. I was a proud owner of Amiga 2000C... or B. A big box with place
for cards, and a memory extension inside (i.e. one slot filled), and
two click-click-click-ing floppy drives. And a standalone mech
keyboard. And green monocolor monitor. When I went to buy a 486, I had
to sell it in second hand shop to raise money. It went for 600 Polish
zloty (about 1/5 of 486 price), which (I estimate) was about 200-300
buckies at the time. Now they tell me (bastards!) that said keyboard
alone can go for 1000+ euros. And never mind the big box, mem extender
and the rest.

But like you say. Amiga had less _practical_ value at that time than a
lousy PC, which came with a hard drive (finally, I could install Linux
and run LaTeX on it) and VGA (Doom!! UFO: Enemy Unknown!!!!), color
monitor, not blinking at 640x400... Much better for anything I wanted
to do with a computer then and now.

So be it. I rarely do such things as remembering past decisions which
later proved to be wrong, and bitching and whipping myself in guilt -
especially if at the particular time it was the best decision I could
have made.

Now if any of you guys ever see an Amiga 2000 with small green happy
dragon stickered to the keyboard, say "hello, little ami" from me.

> While I can appreciate painted artworks for the genius behind them, I'm
> fully aware that they're just blobs of paint on a bit of canvas or wood
> and that an accurate replica could be fashioned without too much trouble
> using modern technology.
> 
> What matters to me is [b]documentation[/b], however it's preserved.  I'm
> often faced with a bit of old data and I need to know the details upon
> which it was fabricated.   That has value to me.  Al K has been
> invaluable in this respect.

I stick around here mostly for learning. I am almost an informational
omnivore (limiting to subjects of interest at the time), so I get
everything. Stories about smoking caps. Or how a mainframe warmed
water in open swimming pool. Or even how John Titor swindled Apple I
board supposed to be owned by Guy D from under his nose and now sits
on many such boards, retired and sipping pinacolada. Reading archives
of this list and planning whose basement to rummage in a night after
funeral. C'mon folks. Let's make cruel jokes at him. He cannot do a
shit about it, or else he will ruin his future :-).

> As far as owning a watch that was worn by Charles Lindbergh, okay, if it
> keeps good time; otherwise, not so much.

You have not weared a watch if you did not try ones from Salvadore
Dali. The lousy watchmaker's works not only cannot keep up the time,
they even cannot keep up the shape.

-- 
Regards,
Tomasz Rola

--
** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature.      **
** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home    **
** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened...      **
**                                                                 **
** Tomasz Rola          mailto:tomasz_rola at bigfoot.com             **