Classic Computer Rescue Squad

From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_wco.com>
Date: Fri Nov 7 20:23:51 1997

On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Carl R. Friend wrote:

> On Thu, 6 Nov 1997 14:03:12 -0800 (PST), we heard Mr. Ismail utter:
>
> > The Nova will never be featured in the newspapers because it is not a
> > socially significant computer.
>
> Two words, one of which is not printable, but the lead-in is
> "Bull".

Ok, first of all I'm pretty amazed at the 3rd grade level of mentality
being demonstrated by the whiners complaining about my "foul" language. I
didn't know "family values" were required here. At any rate I'm sorry
that I do not choose to limit my vocabulary to only those words which the
Puritanical populace finds palatable.

> The Nova was one of the early minicomputers which came to be used
> by schools in the early '70s. The other one, and slightly earlier in
> origin, was the PDP-8. The pdp11 post-dates these by some time.

I'm not arguing against the Nova being a significant computer. And again,
I'd like someone to point out where I did. But before you bother going
back to read old messages, I'll save you the time by telling you that you
will not find a sentence where I stated "The Nova is not significant".
Perhaps I should have been more specific and stated that from a
mass-consumer marketing standpoint, the Nova is not significant. It did
not impact society the way the Altair or Apple did, and newspapers
simply do not run articles on just any old subject. Its the same reason
why nobody will ever want to know what's in your sock drawer, unless your
socks were found to cure cancer or were used to kill someone.

At any rate, why is there concern that the Nova will never be wanted until
some newspaper runs an article on it? The argument is pointless. So
there's no market for it. Boo hoo. Either keep them in storage or scrap
them. Nobody required Tim to take on 5000 lbs worth of stuff and nobody
is requiring me to take it off his hands. If Tim was realistic he'd
realize the practical implications involved in hauling a ton of equipment
ANYWHERE on the continent, let alone across national borders. I thought
it was pretty much agreed that there were no requirements for being a
collector of old computers, and we all had our own reasons for doing it.
Received on Fri Nov 07 1997 - 20:23:51 GMT