Collecting (was: On Generations of People and Computers)

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_crl.com>
Date: Sun Apr 20 20:03:52 1997

On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Alexios Chouchoulas wrote:

> > It's cool that there are so many people interested in classic computers.
>
> I heard/read somewhere (can't remember my source, so shoot me) that
> collecting computers is becoming some sort of mainstream hobby. Must have
> been `Triumph of the Nerds'. An image of a complete luser utterly destroying

This totally sucks in one respect because I've been into this since
before it became a "hobby", and it's always been relatively easy to get
sweet old computers for rock bottom prices because people were happy to
dump them off. Now that your typical dork who saw that show is going to
want to start collecting also, the prices for this junk is going to start
running up. It's going to became a fad, and soon it will become in vogue
for every geeky computer professional to "own a classic". Then the
yuppies will come in and try to snatch up all the really classic stuff
and use them as centerpieces in their living room.

Visitor: Gee, Tom, whatcha got there?
Tom: Its a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11. I paid $10,000 for it
at an antique auction. I'm preserving a piece of computing history you know!
Visitor: Wow!
Tom: Want to see my Commodore collection?

At least I hope this doesn't become the case, because I do this because I
truly love the machines I collect and am truly fascinated by them and am
truly sincere about preserving them and keeping them alive. I think we
can all say that. But once it starts becoming mainstream then it becomes
a way for cheezy people at swap meets to command outrageous prices for
old computer junk. I already see it happening on AuctionWeb.

> a PDP-8 in the process of `restoration' comes to mind. Hopefully most such
> people can be convinced that these computers are useless since they don't
> run Winblows 95, so they'll leave them alone. :-)

One could only hope.

Visitor: So, how much RAM does this baby have?
Tom: Well, the guy I bought it from said 32"K", but I think he meant 32
"Megs".
Visitor: Yeah, how can you run Windows on 32K? He must've been wrong!
Tom: Yeah, totally. Now I wish I could figure out where to insert the CD
ROM. This big 8 inch slot doesn't seem to accept it very well.


On another note, I'm a total boob!

The "IBM PC/XT" I bought from a swap meet for $7 is not. The only thing
"IBM" about it is the full height floppy 5.25" drive. Other than that
its just a lame Taiwanese compatible. It even has DOS 5.0 on the hard
drive! Nothing classic about that. I was expecting 3.3 at the LATEST.
I did get an IBM XT keyboard with it that is IBM, but it doesn't work(!)
Oh well, live and learn. At least it works, but it wasn't even worth the
$7 I paid for it. Bleah.

Sam
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Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Received on Sun Apr 20 1997 - 20:03:52 BST