What Classic Computer are All About - A Lovers View

From: Tony Duell <ard_at_p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
Date: Fri Jul 11 18:43:25 1997

In message <Pine.SOL.3.95.970710232706.10063D-100000_at_typhoon> classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu writes:
> > of the old machines. I collect, but I admit is has to make some sense to
> > me as in useful or have some specific linkage to my place in this
> > history.
>
> But this is a collectors list 8-) We all collect from that which we know.

Not necessarily. I've bought things at radio rallies (hamfests) because 'it
looked interesting'. Only later did I discover what I really had. If I'd
always waited to find out what a particular item really was, then I'd probably
have missed all the interesting stuff, and have a totally trivial collection.

However, it does help to have some idea as to what things are. And to know what
they look like from all angles :-)

> You must have been - what - 8 years old 8-) Great story! I think we all
> have one of those - where everybody kinda stares at you - wondering -
> What the Hell is THAT? What are you doing with that - THING?

Yep, got a load of them. Taking a trolley piled high with computer parts across
Cambridge on a weekday afternoon is good for that :-). Or the time I carried
a DEC Rainbow on a train - VR201 in one hand (using the built-in handle),
CPU under the other arm, and keyboard in my pocket. Dismantling the CPU
mid-journey (it needs no tools) added to the amusement. Then there was the time
I carried an IBM PC/AT box on a train. It got the comment 'That's one hell of
a laptop' :-). Or the time I was carrying a Creed 7E (baudot printing terminal)
and was asked if I had a pen. My reply was 'no, but I have a teleprinter' :-)


Still, what's wrong with being slightly mad?

>
> BC
>
>

-tony
Received on Fri Jul 11 1997 - 18:43:25 BST

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